There’s a real purpose and value added to your fitness when you get to use it outside of the gym. Yes, there is plenty of purpose and rewarding experience that goes on strictly inside the gym too, but there’s something special that happens when we apply it elsewhere.
This application can take on many different faces.
Sometimes it’s accidental, perhaps even a bit terrifying and eye-opening -- an accident, a medical emergency, a chase or an escape -- an experience that leaves you saying “I might have died if it wasn’t for my fitness -- woah.” While these experiences themselves aren’t all that enjoyable, the gratitude and perspective that come in the aftermath are undeniably significant.
More often, we have opportunities to let our fitness shine in more directly enjoyable ways. Going on a long and challenging hike, a pickup game of basketball with friends, a powerlifting meet, easily loading those heavy bags of concrete in your car without any help, or a chance to sprint on the beach with your kids. These experiences leave us saying, “man, I can do some awesome stuff with my body!”
Right at the end of CrossFit’s prescription for world-class fitness is the directive to “regularly learn and play new sports.” I think this is probably the most overlooked element of developing well-rounded health and fitness. Not only does it provide additional opportunities to develop new skills, wrangle with unique physical challenges, and improve our fitness in new way, but it’s also incredibly rewarding and downright fun. You get to see all of your training effort on display, to see how it carries over, to see how you could improve it further.
Your assignment is to find a new opportunity to use your fitness. Maybe it’s learning how to surf, maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s joining a co-ed volleyball league, maybe it's a tough mudder, or maybe it’s just climbing a tree in the park. It doesn’t matter.
Your fitness is a pretty cool thing. Get out there and use it.
- Preston Sprimont
Push press - 1,1,1,1,1,1
For time:
30 wallballs (20/14)
20 ring dips
10 bar muscle-ups
20 ring dips
30 wallballs (20/14)
Posted on 02/14/2017 at 12:00 AM
