Member of the Month: Leonard Petrus
Leonard “Len-Dog” Petrus is old-school Dark Horse. I’m sure many of you have seen him putting in work on the weekends. A radiologist by day, Leonard shows up and works hard no matter what the workout of the day is. We could all take a page from his book.
Leonard has been active his whole life. Growing up in Malaysia, he played badminton, tennis and golf. Later, he did workouts at the YMCA – “…boring treadmills and weights. Later on I paid for personal training to ensure my commitment and hopefully improve. I was not very motivated doing the same bunch of exercises over and over.”
“My daughter was very much into CrossFit. She belonged to the old CrossFit Dark Horse on Van Nuys and Hortense. I would drop and pick her up and got to know quite a few nice folk. I thought that perhaps if I took CrossFit up we could workout together. Father- daughter bonding of sorts. She went away to boarding high school, got ill and could not continue. That was sad as she competed and was second at the very first Junior CrossFit Games. She was foiled by muscle ups!! At 14!”
But Leonard did not let that stop him. He kept coming back. “At first, I was intimidated by the technical stuff. There was no Fundies when I started. I did not and still cannot devote a lot of time. So getting better at the movements is still a challenge.”
His first win was stringing together 20 double-unders – a feat he has not since repeated (but will again!). His goals this year are to not get hurt and to string together his pull ups and toes to bar.
His favorite movement is thrusters, and he wants to improve “ALL the movements…okay, let us forget muscle ups.” He has definitely experienced changes since starting CrossFit 5 years ago. “I have more energy and better concentration. If only I can eat better and drink less wine, I suspect I will feel marvelous! But overall, I feel stronger compared to the old days.”
His favorite story? “I was the bloke who partnered up with Coach Vince at his very first visit to the box. Of course, since then he has NOT been my partner.”
Lastly, if you have talked with him for 5 minutes, you know he has a witty and sometimes wicked sense of humor. Being a radiologist, “ I used to say I was in film during my single days. When the ladies discovered it was X-ray film, I never saw them again.”
Their loss is our gain, Len-Dog. CFDH wouldn’t be the same without you.
2020 02 01