Anyone on here do frossfit.....if so this is pretty cool......
1. It's a lifestyle. People often assume that CF is just another passing trend which has, in the short term, created a bunch of tire-flipping, coconut water drinking, kettle bell-swinging crazies, who will eventually ditch their Paleo "diet" and go back to eating spaghetti. The truth is that CF
is in vogue, and that most avid participants
do tend to eat Paleo...but there's nothing short-term about it. Unlike bodybuilding, where your physique peaks for a few short weeks under a crazy diet crunch, CF is maintainable. "Paleo" is a lifestyle way of eating, not some 30 day plan that promises to shed crazy weight. When I really started to delve into the CF world, I saw more change in my body than I ever had before, and my only wish was that I had converted sooner! It's not a cult or a fad; it is a way of life.
2. It's family-oriented. So often in our world, the zillions of activities that we commit to cause
separation of family members. Dad and Mom are working long hours in different jobs and the kids are scattered with their various extracurriculars. It's not unheard of for families to go Monday through Friday with very little that is actually shared between them. One of my favorite aspects of CF is that the whole family can experience it together, stimulating shared challenges, journeys, and victories. In our culture, that's a rare experience! CF binds families closer together as they train side by side, encourage one another, and truly understand each other's pain.
3. It's performance based. When you train for aesthetics, performance might follow. When you train for performance, aesthetics
will follow. While a lot of exercisers are obsessing over the last few pounds or squeezing into skinnier jeans, most CrossFitter's are much more focused on their Snatch technique or getting a pull-up! When anything is measured, especially performance, it generally gets better. CF is specific and recordable..which largely accounts for why it works!
4. It's all-inclusive when it comes to who can play. Sure there are exceptions, but for the most part, everyone can CrossFit. There are elite CrossFitters with children and even grandchildren. Some struggle with serious physical conditions or have even lost limbs. In the same day, I can train a 5 year-old and a 75 year-old on the same skill! And it's not a prerequisite to be in great shape before starting, or to have had an athletic background.
It's about location and attitude; find the right gym and coach where workouts are scaled to your level, and maintain the proper perspective. If you really desire to improve badly enough, you won't care if you are dead last. For those who don't join because they believe their fitness level is inadequate, the only real deficiency lies in their mindset.
5. It builds human machines. Sexy human machines. To any girls out there that think that all chicks who CF are bulky bricks, and to any guys that believe the gymnastics and cardio will compromise their strength, you really ought to come to a competition and check out the eye candy. For reals.
6. It is revolutionary in it's functional approach to fitness. As Mark Rippetoe states, "CrossFit has the potential to change the popular cultural perception of what exercise actually means over the next decade, and I will watch with delight as selectorized leg machines are melted down into more useful items like re-bar and manhole covers". We are seeing a lot of athletes switching to CF - even Bob Harper has converted! What we
aren't seeing, is a lot of athletes moving on from CF to other fads. CF is sticking. It's here for good and it hasn't even fully evolved yet.
7. It changes lives. Might sound cliche, but it has literally changed me inside and out, and I am blessed to be able to watch it transform others. Sure it brings people to a whole different fitness level physically, but it also refashions them emotionally and mentally. It makes us tougher and more confident, and yet at the same time, it ironically humbles us. When you push yourself to your absolute limit…to the point where every muscle is fatigued and your only thought is the next pull-up, or the next two feet, or your next gulp of air…you forget all the other crap in life that you made into a mountain in your brain. And usually, in the big scheme of things, that "mountain" was just a little mole-hill. Training clears our heads and reminds us of how fortunate we are to be able to run, jump, and climb.
8. I'm not bored with it yet...in fact, with every year that goes by, it grips me tighter. I used to dread my mandatory "cardio" time at the gym, where I had to use music and various forms of self-bribery in an attempt to distract myself from the painful monotony. With CF, I literally can't get enough. Our parents might fear that we will abandon all and go live in a van down by the river in order to simply CF all day, and their worry isn't completely ill-founded...CF is addicting! In fact my only words of caution to newbies is to drink the kool-aid slowly because you are going to get obsessed!!
9. It yields results. Intensity is the single major aspect that most gym-goers are missing in their routines. People are innately lazy, and most will try to latch on to a new diet or exercise fad that promises fast results, that are seemingly too good to be true. And guess what? They generally are. CF doesn't attempt to hide the reality of what it is:
it's intense, it's HARD, it hurts, it requires mental fortitude, you don't look cute while doing it...and it yields results. For the most part, the only people who find that CF doesn't really "fit", are the people who don't want to be pushed that hard.
10. The community never ceases to amaze me. It's become a second family. When I'm failing, there's always someone encouraging me to keep my head up. Go to any CF event and you will see excellent sportsmanship on display. After a competition, it's strangely refreshing to receive notes or words of congratulations from other coaches and fellow competitors. And few other sports have the top finishers cheering on and cuing up the last athletes in the heat! And surely no other event has stands filled with actual current participants of that sport! It makes the community that much more tight-knit. Nowhere else do I see the camaraderie, support, and fun that thrives in the CF box.
06-21-2012, 02:18 PM
Crossfit
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