How CrossFit Made Her a Better Shooter: Anna-Elizabeth Fleischer

How CrossFit Made Her a Better Shooter: Anna-Elizabeth Fleischer
Written by Lindsey Johnson

I had the pleasure of interviewing the Invictus member with five names – Anna-Elizabeth Marie Rubio Fleischer – or, as I call her, “Anna EMRF”. She is one of our badass ladies that also happens to be a Marine.

I noticed she was away from us for a few weeks and contacted her because I missed seeing her in my class. She informed me that she had been to be a part of a five week shooting competition at Camp Pendleton.

Anna let me know that her workouts at Invictus had been key in helping her stay strong and maintain a healthy mindset during the competition. They also kept her in pretty good shape during those five long weeks.

I sat down with Anna to find out a little more about what this competition was all about.

Lindsey: So Anna, tell me what your typical day to day was like for those five weeks of competition.

Anna: It was a five week competition, with competition style shooting. We used M16’s, A4’s and Beretta M9 pistols. Competition style shooting is different than annual rifle and pistol qualifications.

The M16 weighs 8.79# unloaded and the pistol weighs 2.1# unloaded. The pistol section was one-handed shooting. The 2.1# may not sound like a lot but if you’re holding your arm out in a shooting position for any length of time you realize that’s a lot of pressure and weight. It get’s pretty tiring.

Lindsey: What was a “normal” day like?

Anna: The day started at 0400, that’s 4:00 am for those of us who don’t speak military time. That’s what time everything started so I was up at 2:45 am because the competition was up at Pendleton. We finished about 7:30 pm so I was home by 8:30pm.

Our pack had all the water and food for the day and, with all the gear, the pack was about 45#.  Depending on the course, we had to “pull the pits” which meant we had to pull the targets down about every minute for our teammates. The targets were about 30# each but because of the way you have to pull it down, it’s as if you’re pulling 50# each time. As soon as you’re done you switch with your teammates, but you’re doing this for about four hours and then you shoot for four hours so it’s eight hours of work.  You always want to shoot first, because pulling pits is really tiring!

Once you’re done with that, you walk over to the pistol range. We would walk about seven miles a day total.

About 4:00pm we started the pistol portion and we’d finish about 6:00 or 6:30 pm so that would be another two hours in addition to the rifle. Then we would hike back, clean our weapons, and wait until we got the word that we could leave. That was a day in a nutshell. The days were pretty much the same for five weeks.

Lindsey: I’m exhausted listening to it. You said you had to bring everything you needed for the day, so that included food and water. What did you do regarding your nutrition?

Anna: Because of all the walking, shooting and heavy lifting mentioned above our nutrition was very important. The first rule was no caffeine because it makes you jittery.

Lindsey: Who doesn’t need caffeine with a 2:45am wake up call?! What would you eat?

Anna: I would have two hard boiled eggs, a full 32 ounces of water, and a banana on my drive up. Then I’d have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and another one as a snack because it was light, it would fit in my pack and it wouldn’t spoil. I’d carry three 32oz bottles of water and finish them throughout the day. Sometimes I’d chew gum or bring beef jerky for snacks. Everyone did something different and I’m small so I didn’t want to add too much weight to my pack. Some of the bigger guys carried little coolers, but those guys were over 200 lbs. I didn’t want to carry that extra weight. This is what just worked for me.

Lindsey: You mentioned before that coming to Invictus and going through our workouts did a great job preparing you for this competition without even realizing it before. How so?

Anna: CrossFit changed things for me. I feel like I knew how to move the weight without doing further damage to my body and I was using less energy because I was doing the movements properly and more efficiently. For example when we were “pulling pits”  I was using my midline, rather than pulling with just my shoulders.

Lindsey: Sounds like using your midline really made a difference. Did you feel prepared in any other ways?

Anna: My forearms have gotten a lot stronger from CrossFit, so I was able to hold the shooting positions for longer and I was able to maintain control of the weapon which helps your aim. I found I was able to control my breathing which was super helpful as well.

My time at Invictus taught me how to deal with being uncomfortable. Having more muscle in my shoulders than the other girls made things easier. I was able to hold the buttstock (of the gun) against my shoulder without it slipping away.

The things we practice at Invictus like holding the handstands, L-sits, and planks prepared me for holding my body in certain positions, especially with the pistol shooting.

I had never been good at pistol shooting and then someone showed me to lock my shoulder in place. Thats what we do at Invictus every day. I’m used to that position where we find external rotation, the military was just telling me to do that in a different way.

Lindsey: Did you find your time at Invictus helped you mentally as well?

Anna: Yes, there were a few times where I had to talk myself through the moment or the day. There were times when I thought to myself, “I’ve done this longer in CrossFit”, or “I can do one more “rep””, or I’d count down the task in a similar manner to how we do it in the gym.

Anna works very hard at the gym and we’re so proud to have been a small part of her success. Thanks, Anna, for taking the time to tell us how we’ve been able to help you and for sharing a small part of your “outside the gym life” with us!