A New Voice

While I try to redirect my energy and focus back into my own personal fitness goals after a short lived rut of bad diet (see, we all slip up!), I decided to call upon my colleagues for inspiration. I wanted to find someone who could guest post on here about something I am unfamiliar with. Luckily, I immediately knew who to turn to. Becca Regan is friend from college who I have always admired for her rock hard bod and determination to keep it. This is the girl you could count on to dance and party with, but still see up and running and sweating the night off the next morning. She is fierce and I was lucky enough to have her agree to set some time aside of her post-undergrad life to write me up something about her views on the new phenomenon that is Crossfit... and this is what I received.

Crossfit-My gift to ME at age 23

Some accuse it of being a cult. I can certainly understand an outsiders perspective- hearing about ‘WOD’s and ‘PR’s and gym drama and who got their muscle up this week. Maybe its your co worker, sibling, old friend, or that annoying girl on the bus wearing her Reebok bling-ed out lifting shoes, visually assaulting you with her love for Crossfit.  Its obnoxious, yet maybe you noticed for the first time today her chiseled shoulders. Was her stomach always that flat? She’s standing taller, isn’t she? And ill tell you why- she’s working hard. And Crossfit is working for her.

That isn’t me, by the way. I was the secretly (or not so secretly) envious cynical observer. A recent college grad that moved back home, with a tight budget from a job- not the job of my dreams- I decided no harm could come from a free 2 week prep training test trial at Crossfit Wicked (other than a rude slap to my ego, right? …wrong.) It has been six months since I stepped foot into a Crossfit ‘box’ for the first time. Here’s what I’ve learned and love about Crossfit:

• Meeting new people that like to DO things.

I came home from a summer job of hiking, surfing, camping, climbing, every day, to a suburban world that slowly but surely was highlighted the brutal truth- my old friends from home are turning into townies. College was a buffet of new people every day, and coming home, I suddenly realized was an essential high for me. At Crossfit, you’re subconsciously eavesdropping, and oops! Now we’re planning rock climb gym dates, or bowling teams for Friday night, or skiing trips. Sunday-Friday afternoon, I have a lot of people full of contagious good attitudes and positive peer pressure to encourage me to challenge myself to be better, be stronger (Friday night, the peer pressure takes a new direction, but there’s always a small applaud for self discipline if you opt for soda water instead of tequila).

• It’s not for body builders.

I see more body shape and personality variety at Crossfit than any local YMCA or Gold’s gym. Maybe its just me, but it seems there is some rite of passage to take up too much space, take really long rests in between sets, and grunt like horny hogs around lifting equipment at open gyms like that. I wouldn’t have weight training stapled into my fitness routine if I were surrounded by that malarkey.  

At Crossfit, there are moms and dads, newlyweds, students, electricians, chiropractors, awkward new nurses (that’s me), librarians; athletes of all shapes and sizes, modifying weights or repetition schemes to best suit you. There’s a true sense of camaraderie as you feel awkward together, get strong together, pant through insane cardio, and complain about how sore you are from that workout you all did yesterday-together.

• I’m saving money.

I know that sounds impossible, when Crossfit is over a hundred dollars a month at almost any box you check out. But I plan on spending that money. And I whenever I go to a class, I stick around after, socializing or practicing pull ups, or hanging out with someone’s baby while they work out; suddenly its been 2+ hours since I was home. I don’t need as much retail or ETOH therapy to cure my excess free time. And I’m working 500% harder than I would in a room of strangers and elliptical machines. I get free impromptu dietary consults, private sessions, physical therapy, from a truly knowledgeable community.

• I’m trying new moves and new food.  

True story: I never did a handstand in my life before Crossfit.  I’ve done yoga arm balances galore, but the whole ‘put your body in a position so that when you fall you feel like you’ll break your neck’ was never my thing. But I’m learning (Usually still against a wall, but making progress).

Because a lot of people theme most of their diet around Paleo style (no dairy, no grains, whatever nomad caveman could spear down or stumble upon growing in a field), I find recipes and free samples from Crossfit folk, and for the first time, actually regularly eat vegetables- and enjoy it!

Coconut water is the ultimate hangover cure- But maybe you already knew that.

Do you like bacon? Then Crossfit wants you…

There is an obsession with bacon, so extreme that I don’t even quite understand it. But I respect it. I’ve now sampled bacon-wrapped dates, bacon wrapped turkey, bacon donuts, bacon sweet potato fries, bacon chocolate…you name it, its been done, and forced upon me to sample (no, I wouldn’t say they are all great ideas…but I wouldn’t say that to any bacon fanatic’s face either).

• I am achieving the ‘me’ I had once watched float on the indefinite horizon of ‘tomorrows’.

I’m not the bikini-model rock hard body that I’d like to be (yet), but I’ve found myself in a healthy relationship with my mind and body, perhaps for the first time ever.  I wake up and smile at the mirror- at my newfound butt, and even at the flabby parts as a scheme how to improve. When I went rock-climbing for the first time in a year, I was finishing inverted cave climbs that I could hardly start before! Old running injuries are no longer incapacitating my workout routine, but trumped by the strength I’ve developed around my hips and core. This new found mental and physical power is thanks to my team of Crossfitters, a FAMILY that has incredible faith in my abilities. The support is loving, empowering, and addictive. And draws me back for more everyday.