The Barber and the Barbell

Gabriel Stockton floated around from job to job. He was overweight and, after a bout with drugs, ended up in a mental hospital for a week.

“When you’re doing drugs … there’s like this fantasy that’s going on,” he explains.

“The stuff that’s coming out of your mouth, the stuff that you’re seeing … it’s unreal,” he adds.

Eventually, Stockton cleaned up and found CrossFit Ogden.

“I saw like a revival,” he says. “I could be part of something that’s going to be refreshed.”

Today, Stockton works at Ray’s Barbershop in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“If you treat someone really good in the chair and give ’em a good quality haircut, then they might go out and have a better experience. Good stuff.”

And he’s gone from a Size 40 waist to a 28.

“Losing the weight was awesome,” Stockton says.

He continues: “I feel like an athlete now as opposed to this fat guy that was like having a heart attack carrying the kid around out of the car into the house.”

Video by Jordan Gravatt.

11min 13sec

Additional reading: Adrift—Then Came CrossFit by Andréa Maria Cecil, published August 3, 2011.