Matt Toburen

(Co-owner, Youth Programming Lead, Nutrition Coach)

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Hi, I’m Matt. I have a fitness and health journey that I want to share with others and I’m so excited to have found Ada Valley CrossFit to do so. I grew up playing sports like so many kids here in West Michigan and focused mostly on soccer through high school. After graduating from MSU (Go Green!) I was out of shape, overweight (topped out at 250) and felt a bit lost. After a few years starting my career, I started running and took on the Chicago Marathon with my brother Mike in 2005. I always had a deep-down feeling to do something big in life and I remember watching the Hawaii Ironman in 1992 as a 12-year old thinking, modestly, “I wish I could do that”. Why wish when you can just do?!? After a couple short sprint triathlons in my mid-20s after finishing a Marathon I quickly signed up for my first full Ironman in Madison, WI. I didn’t really know how to swim and I’d never done more than an hour sprint-tri. I went on to complete 5 Ironman races over the years and many other smaller races to fulfill my endurance “hopes” & goals. It changed my life, my approach to work and fitness, but….. once again, I let “life” get to me and fell back out of shape, topping back out at 225 in my early 30s. Along the way, I had found CrossFit briefly with my wife Heather during our engagement period in 07 - we were hooked after one workout - Filthy 50s; it was crazy hard, confusing and laughable, but we were hooked. More importantly, we saw how the CrossFit methodology rewards consistent, hard work.

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After joining a random boot camp class a couple years after my 4th Ironman at 32, and waking up the next day unable to move from soreness, I got my wake up call….again. I was sick of being out of shape, and sick of letting “my career” be my excuse for up and down health. In 2014 I started bootcamp at 8th Day in downtown GR as a bridge back into CrossFit. I couldn’t do a pull up, I was still overweight, but the fire was there. After a brief break in CrossFit to train for my 5th Ironman, and to welcome in our first daughter Madison, I competed in the 2015 Lake Placid Ironman – again, arrrrgh, 20 pounds overweight on a day that may have been the worst conditions for an Ironman ever, having the most DNFs in an IM race to date, but I finished. After the race, I couldn’t wait to get back to CrossFit – and I did. I went hard and dove in. But I was still missing something….I was still on the yoyo diet trying to out train it. At the end of 2015 I had gained all my training weight back and was back to 220. Drinking mountain by day and a few beers to relax at night I can remember Heather saying (politely) “no wonder you’re not losing weight – you’re drinking two of those beers every night”. Work was crazy busy and I was hyper-focused as always….At the end of that year my friend knew I was struggling and asked me to join his sugar challenge – he said you can do anything for 21 days but that’s also all it takes to break a habit. I did it and he was right! I went through that holiday season having ZERO desserts – no sugar, no booze, and a lot of apologies saying I’d eat the gifts or join you for a drink after the new year. Those 21 days changed my life in another way – maybe as much as my first Ironman. I was off sugar, addiction gone. I also learned my limits. For the next year, I had zero pops and probably less than five desserts all year – I’ve had 1 pop (soda?) since, a mountain dew in 2017 for my last ever. I also got more into CrossFit and really had the bug. My body had never felt so capable, or looked so good. I was still working a ton, traveling all of the time, but I had found my forever fitness Methodology. With changing jobs and adding kids to our life, I transitioned from 8th day to dropping in to gyms all over the country while traveling extensively for work – we also added a home gym to our garage to avoid the commute time and back and forth. Heather and I added “Murph dates” – we did Murph in some form (scaling is GOOD!) every month for 3 years straight – rain or shine, sickness or in health, we got er done. I went from zero pullups starting my journey to Murph with a weight vest.

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Fast forwarding to Ada Valley CrossFit – I was looking to get back into a gym and workout with people – I missed the competitive feel at times and community. While I was still dedicated to the CrossFit methodology and never went a week without at least a workout or two – something was missing. I was traveling less so my drop-ins were non-existent and I missed people and coaching. I tried out AVCF in August of 2024 and haven’t looked back since. What I found was some of the best coaching in Mariah and the team here that I’ve experienced; and that’s comparing to my drop ins across 50+ CrossFit boxes across the country and of course the great CrossFit gyms here in GR. I also found a great community that is so welcoming and caring. When Mariah and I started discussing a potential partnership, I loved her “why” for AVCF – a gym that’s available to everyone and anyone and all about moving well and community. I had to be a bigger part of it, and I can’t wait to share more of my story in the hopes it helps show others that we all have ups and downs throughout our lives, but that putting fitness, nutrition and health near the center of things always helps.