100 in 100: Tyler Moore- Day 12

Tyler Moore plays six instruments. He chases the best pastry in Boston's North End. He runs Spartan races, watches horror movies, and spends his days climbing into 140-degree attics as an HVAC technician. By his own description, he's "pretty much down to try anything."

But CrossFit? That was a different story.

"I heard about CrossFit in the past and wanted no part of it," Tyler says. He'd tried the big gyms before — walked in, felt lost, eventually stopped going. His physically demanding job, he figured, was exercise enough. Then his best friend Eddy and Eddy's brother Tim dragged him to the 24-Hour Hero workout. Tim handed Tyler a holiday gift card. Tyler had an obligation to at least show up.

He walked through the door expecting to quit.

"I did a few one-on-one sessions in the beginning that went well but I was still skeptical." The first two weeks left him so sore he remembers thinking: "If this is what it feels like to feel good, I don't want it."

Then week three happened.

"Something started to change. I actually started to feel good physically and mentally. The gym anxiety started to go away and I started to look at coming to the gym as something fun."

That shift — from "I'm definitely quitting" to "I actually want to be here" — is now backed by two and a half years of data. Five hundred sign-ins. Eighty-nine personal records. A deadlift that started at 100 pounds and now sits at 415. Tyler Moore didn't just stay. He became one of the fastest-improving athletes in Prototype's history.

The 5am Lore

When summer hit, Tyler's plan to train after work started falling apart. HVAC work in July means 140-degree attics, and after eight hours in that heat, the gym felt like the last place on earth. So he did what any reasonable person would consider completely unreasonable: he started waking up at 3:30 in the morning.

"Up to then I had only heard lore about the 5am class and it sounded very intimidating." He'd heard stories. He wasn't sure what he was walking into.

His first day, he accidentally took Nicole's spot. "She let me know it. I did not make that mistake again."

But the 5am crew made him feel welcome in a way he hadn't expected. "I realized it's just a bunch of moms who lift weights and sometimes outperform me in the metcons." He laughs about it now, but the affection is real. "Getting up at 3:30 in the morning is not easy — but knowing I'm going to 5am class is more than enough to get me out of bed."

Now his Wodify log tells the story: 158 sessions at the 5am CrossFit class, 132 more at 5am Indoor. Out of 500 total sign-ins, nearly 300 happened before most people's alarms go off. Going to 5am, Tyler says, "helps me feel like I've accomplished something before most people even wake up. I feel like I show up to work in a better mood and I can think clearly."

The Back Injury, the Dropout, and the Comeback

In the lead-up to the 2025 Prototype Lift Off, Tyler was chasing a 400-pound deadlift. His velcro belt ripped mid-lift. He felt something move. Walking hurt for days.

"I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I was able to put it in the back of my mind." That tolerance, it turned out, worked against him. He kept lifting heavy. The injury got worse. He nearly left the gym entirely.

"I realized how much joy this place brought me and I wasn't going to let myself down and give up after what I was able to accomplish thus far." He dropped out of the Lift Off to protect himself — a decision that wasn't easy. "I attended to support my Lift Off partner but was borderline holding back tears. I worked so hard for that 400-pound deadlift and wanted that lift so bad."

He spent the next year doing something that doesn't come naturally to someone who, by his own admission, "sees a barbell and gets cocky." He learned to listen to his body.

When the 2026 Lift Off arrived, Tyler stepped on the platform with his partner Ed Matatall. He deadlifted 415 pounds — 15 more than the goal he'd been chasing when he got hurt. He and Ed also threw down the event's signature floater moment: an 11-minute, 21-second Farmers Hold that produced the highest floater score of the entire competition. They finished 7th overall. He also hit a 315-pound front squat PR on the same day.

The 400-pound deadlift he'd missed in 2025? He blew past it at a February 2026 training session, three weeks before the event. "Hard things can be done if you put in the work."

What 500 Sessions Built

Tyler's performance report tells the story in numbers: a deadlift that grew 300 percent in 26 months, a hip thrust that went from 195 pounds to 510 pounds, a front squat that climbed 140 pounds in 15 months. His back squat hit 315. His power clean went from 85 to 185 pounds in 13 months. By any measure — frequency, consistency, rate of improvement — he's at the top of the Prototype dataset for an athlete in his first three years.

But Tyler doesn't really talk about it that way. He talks about the mood he's in when he gets to work. He talks about what it felt like to drop out of the Lift Off and then come back. He talks about the 5am crew who made a skeptic feel like he belonged.

"Joining Prototype has been one of the best things I've decided to do with my life. The great things that happen in the gym follow you into everyday life. I'd never thought that lifting heavy things and doing some crazy workouts would bring me so much satisfaction. I've learned so much about myself since joining."

He pauses, then adds: "I don't think anyone walking through the door for the first time has any clue how much this place will mean to them."

Five hundred sessions in, Tyler Moore is still figuring out how high the ceiling goes.