Meeting Ilya Ilyin

One of the joys of living in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 2013-2016, was that I was able to meet Ilya Ilyin at my Crossfit box Ilya and his team were friends with the owners of Reactor Crossfit. That was a plus when the Kazakhstan National Weightlifting team decided to work out at Reactor in January, 2014. I was able to meet Ilya several times during their month at Reactor. Ilya even gave me some tips on how to Jerk better.

Later that year Ilya would win the World Championship in Almaty.

I have a lot of good stories from working out in Kazakhstan. I had a good trainer who used to be the national coach for the weightlifting team in Kazakhstan.