Crossfit Pride

If you workout, ask yourself this question:  "How often do I finish a workout and feel like I accomplished something?"  1 out of 4?  1 out of 10?  Do you walk out of the gym thinking, I bet not many people did THAT today?  Over the course of 20+ years of traditional workouts, I can say it didn't happen that often for me.  I'm not knocking traditional workouts.  Most research shows that 30 mins of moderate exercise per day gives you 90% of the health benefits.  Traditional workouts are great for a vast majority of people.

But Crossfit is different.  After almost EVERY workout, you have a distinct feeling of accomplishment.  True... it is a prideful feeling, but a well deserved one.  For me at first, it was merely surviving without a heart attack.  Then it became about actually finishing.  After 2 months, it is now about doing as well as I can.  I know I'm going to finish, but how long will it take me?  Can I scale up the weight?  Can I beat the next guy?

Another reason you feel that "Pride" is each day is that workouts are different everyday.  You only repeat an exact workout about every 3 months.  This is a BIG REASON for the great results you get.  Since the combinations are different each time, you really aren't quite sure how to predict your performance.  You can't bargin with yourself about the number of reps, rounds or time.  You just have to GO!  

In traditional workouts, you repeat so often, you begin to mentally restrict your progress.  You do just a the same or just a "little" more each time.  In CF, you just work as hard as your body lets you and the rapidity of results shows.  Then, when you finally repeat a workout, you have 3 months of hard training under your belt and kick your old time's ass!!

There are a finite number of exercises we use to work the entire body:

Air Squats, Front Squats, Back Squats, Deadlifts, Kipping Pull-ups, Dead-Hang Pull-ups, Sit-ups, Push-ups, Burpees, Cleans, Push Presses, Snatches, Ring Dips, Kettle Bell Swings, Sumo Deadlift High Pulls,  Wall Balls, GHDs, Box Jumps, and everybody's favorite, Thrusters!  I probably missed a few, but these are the major ones.  Many of these require nothing more than a couple of dumbells or your own body.

The other important aspect about this is technique.  CF trains you to move large amounts of weight over long distances.  To do so, you need great form.  The two keys in almost every exercise:  lumbar curve in the back, power up on your heels.  These two protect your back and your knees... two traditional injury prone areas.  After I was taught the proper way to do a squat, I lifted my college max almost immediately... even at 40 and fat :D

Finally, sit-ups.  We do full range sit-ups.  But it doesn't hurt the back because of this awesome thing:

The Abmat.  You tuck it under your butt and go to town.  Full range sit-up with NO back pain!!  Well, no back pain.  Your abs will feel the burn.

Crossfit was going great but after a few weeks, I discovered something that was even more important to me.  It told me how to live 20 years longer.