Chris Crawford, 53.
Classes: Boot camp, kickboxing, indoor cycling, walking, strength and core. Crawford is also a personal trainer.
Where: Pima Community College West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road; PCC Desert Vista campus, 5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz; Platinum Fitness, 110 S. Church Ave.
Client demographics: Mostly college-age students at Pima classes, though Crawford also has older students. Pima classes are open to the public.
Number of years in the industry: About 20.
Set in motion: “I ran every day, and one day I was getting on my mountain bike, and you know how you get that click in your hip? It didn’t hurt until three days later when I woke up, and I was deformed,” Crawford says. She injured her back and developed a form of scoliosis with a curved spine and uneven hips. She was in a wheelchair and unable to walk long distances. After 10 months of drugs and doctors, Crawford was told surgery was the only option, and running was a thing of the past. She was about 30. “As a last resort, I went to a physical therapist and did water therapy. … I started training with him, and I thought, ‘I want to do this.’ After two months of training, Crawford says her body was almost normal again. She got certified as a fitness instructor and began by teaching water aerobics.
Favorite workout: Kickboxing. Crawford still runs, but not as much. She now emphasizes core work and stretching in her classes, which she skipped before her injury. A strong core has kept her active despite a chronic diagnosis.
Activity as therapy: “I got breast cancer in 2011, and I had to go through five months of chemotherapy,” she says. “I lost all of my hair and toenails.” Crawford was told that she would need to skip classes. “I never missed a single class,” she says. “I worked the whole time. It gave me a reason to get up.” Today, Crawford says, she is “cancer-free.” “My children tease me because for every ailment they have, I say, ‘Why don’t you go exercise,’” she says. “They say, ‘You think exercise is the answer for everything,’ and I kind of do.”
