CrossFit Is Nuts...And I Love It

I drank the Kool-Aid about a month or so ago.

My friend (and blogger/vlogger extraordinaire) Sweet Cicily (www.sweetcicily.blogspot.com ) finally got me there with all of her contagious enthusiasm. I have been curious about CrossFit for quite some time....there was a CF gym on post at Ft. Leavenworth. The deal is, though, I never saw anyone going in or out that didn't look like the PERFECT specimen of humanity. Intimidating.

But I don't know anyone here and there is a privately owned CF gym not even ten minutes from my house called Redpoint  (www.redpointgym.com) and my hubs wants to try it too, so....giddyup.

If you know nothing about CrossFit, it is really not like any other workout I have ever done. Here is a video that might give you an idea what it is like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8PMJrrOp_U The warm-up some days is like some people's whole workout.

In my previous life, I have rarely done many things that pushed me outside my comfort zone unless there was some significant reason to do so. Shyness has some other side effects--I'm petrified of looking stupid, it is so hard to ask questions, and I am easily intimidated. Also as a perfectionist, I want to do everything right the very first time. Oh and as a bookish,intellectual type, I have this idea that I can think my way through anything....I can reason it out. The world can be parceled out into little neat boxes, categorized and labeled for later use. And I have stubbornly pursued that way of dealing with the world for most of my life....which would be fine if it worked....if I got ahead that way...if it made me happy. But truth is, it doesn't.

I want to be fierce. I want to approach life with more fearlessness...or at least a sense of abandon. Seems silly that CrossFit would fit that bill. CrossFit is just exercise class, right?

No....it isn't.

CrossFit ties me in knots. I don't get to know what the workout will be before I get there...I can't shy away from the unknown. They don't want to let me hide to do my workout. They force me to ask questions and let them critique me. And there is always critiquing to be had. While I learn to clean, jerk, press, overhead squat, and snatch, what I'm really doing is learning how to be a tougher person. I'm learning to push myself past what I thought I could do. I'm learning what it REALLY means to hang in there and not quit...that it takes as long as it takes. I'm learning that there will always be people who are better, stronger, tougher, but that is meaningless. I am only competing with MYSELF.