If someone told me five years ago that someday I would love fitness so much that it would drive me to lift weights competitively against strangers, I'd call that person crazy and ask them if the drugs they are taking have been prescribed to them by a licensed, fully trained, medical professional. Yet today, myself and many others are preparing for the second stage of a world wide fitness competition in hopes of being crowned one of the fittest people on the planet. CrossFit has become so ingrained in my life that I rarely think about how odd it is to be concerned with shoulder position during an overhead squat; but that is a weird thought, I'm supposed to be thinking about who I'd select as a dancing partner if I am ever on "Dancing with the Stars" not if my diet is inhibiting my ability to externally rotate my arms.
CrossFit is weird. If you don't agree with me, try explaining the concept of metabolic training to a non-crossfitter. When you think you've thoroughly explained the concept the non-crossfitter will ask, "So, what do you do for cardio?" At this point I am overcome with frustration and then I'll just say, "I hit the elliptical twice a week because I derive most of my fitness aboard the endless exercise machines to nowhere." CrossFit is not a readily accepted truth, at least not yet, it is a group of individuals participating in energetic ridiculousness. Yet I say, we humans need ridiculousness such as this to prevent monotony from overcoming our lives; otherwise we'll develop opinions as to which of our cats is the most ambitious.
A man dying of cancer named Fritz Zorn wrote in his autobiography that "everything is ridiculous when you are on the outside." It was a statement meant to reflect the passivity with which he lived his life. How he closed himself off to experiences in order to maintain a "normal" existence. To a number of people CrossFit, and fitness freaks in general, may appear weird but I say it is those that don't aspire to challenge themselves that are weird. CrossFit is a daily excuse to make myself uncomfortable and to discover at the end of that discomfort, a little bit about who I am and where I go when I lose control. Maybe some people have other ways of challenging themselves, please do not construe this passage as a claim that CrossFit is the be all end all of fitness or of life. CrossFit is one of the many ridiculous things that a person can do during a day, but I hold it to be a truth that to appreciate one's self you have to be a little ridiculous. Sorry to get all "Dead Poet's Society" up in here."
-T Hinz
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Workout:
Front Squat 3-3-3-3-3-3-3
