Lara Erlank

Lara is originally from Namibia, she grew up in South Africa, lived in Singapore as a teen,
graduated high school in San Francisco and went to college at UCLA. She was a competitive
swimmer growing up; and started running cross country when she moved to San Francisco. She
thought she wanted to study chemical engineering, but after many years battling an eating
disorder and bouncing in and out of rehab, her behaviors put her heart into A-fib, and she
decided this was the last time she was going to live in a hospital ward. She switched gears and
focused on learning more about health, became a certified personal trainer and graduated with
a degree in Psychology and Comparative Literature.

Through her network becoming a personal trainer, she discovered functional movements and
became increasingly interested in CrossFit style workouts. Finally, she had fitness goals that
forced her to focus on performance, fuel and recovery, and this new world enabled her to let
go of some of her thought patterns and overcome her eating disorder. Lara has since become a
competitive CrossFit athlete. She has competed around the world, winning multiple large local
events, she has been to regionals both on teams and as an individual, and has competed at the
CrossFit games twice. Lara has a strong passion in health and fitness from a holistic perspective.

She returned to Namibia and south Africa to complete her master’s degree in public health. She
is now also a certified nutrition coach, has multiple fitness certifications and has over 10 years
of experience in the fitness industry, with 2 years of being a studio manager at Orangetheory
Fitness and several years of health research experience. She will tell you that CrossFit literally
saved her life; and it has bread her passion for empowering others through fitness and health,
whether it be through CrossFit or any other healthy avenue that matches the passion of those
she is working with.