Monday 12.19.11

Smarter than the average bear

I firmly believe people who CrossFit are smart people. I'm not just saying that because I run a CrossFit gym and I CrossFit. I say this because I believe smart people NEED CrossFit as a fitness program. Smart people need more from a workout than just "putting in the time" on the treadmill, in the pool, or on the bike. Smart people get bored by workouts that offer up nothing more than a few beads of sweat, burned calories, or distance covered. Boredom is the number one reason people fall off the fitness wagon. Smart people know they need continuous challenges to maintain their motivation.

CrossFit is nothing but challenges. Developed as a general physical preparedness (GPP) program for military, police, fire, and emergency personnel who continually enter situations with unexpected variables, CrossFit trains the body in 10 general fitness skills: 1) cardiovascular/respiratory endurance; 2) stamina; 3) strength; 4) flexibility; 5) power; 6) speed; 7) coordination; 8) agility; 9) balance; 10) accuracy. These fitness skills prepare the body to handle any contingency, whether it be a drug raid, emergency response site, or chasing down a 2-year-old that's about to get into some serious danger.

Further, as a fitness program CrossFit specializes in NOT specializing. Become too good at any one fitness skill, and you lose proficiency and efficiency at another. I believe smart people become bored when they feel they mastered a skill or subject area. Therefore, people who CrossFit need to be learning - continually and iteratively. In CrossFit, each WOD offers up achievements and areas for improvement. We learn new weaknesses and new strengths with each new combination of movements during a WOD. Today I rocked some doubleunders, but I completely hacked my squat cleans because of slow elbows. Yesterday, I learned the kipping pullup, but my sprints were super slow.

Not only do smart people need the mental component of learning new skills as part of their physical training for fitness, I believe smart people need the satisfaction of pushing themselves through difficult workouts. At WCFM the saying is, "Hard, but doable." This means no WOD is engineered to be a cake-walk. First, we know smart people would get bored with WOD composed of movements they mastered in short shrift and can complete quickly. Second, smart people enjoy the mental stamina required to work through a most difficult patch in a WOD. For example, the mental pep talk required during that second-to-last round of "Barbara" where the sit-ups are nearly unbearable and even the squats don't feel like dessert anymore. Or that 50th rep of Curtis Ps, knowing you have 50 more to go before it is over...Knowing how to get through a hard, but doable CrossFit WOD allows smart people to to hone the mental toughness needed in all areas of everyday life.

WOD
"Ready to get smart?"
Skill: Doubleunders
20 min AMRAP of:
5 Curtis Ps
10 pullups