From SNL – “Talking to Putin “is like being cornered at a party by a guy who just started CrossFit.”” I was/am that guy.
CrossFit entered my life two years ago while working as an advisor with The Startup Factory to a health metrics company that was focused on the space. If you are working as an adviser, then you should at least understand the market. It turned out to be very enjoyable and create great results, primarily because I am cheap and somewhat lazy – two things that aren’t often discussed in regards to that mode of exercise.
Lazy or Delegating?
Having someone else figure out your exercise programming is great. No need to open a book or do any research. Don’t spend time thinking about it. If you can get connected to a good gym with good programming that will be the last programming decision you have to make. (Finding a good gym with good programming isn’t easy or automatic.)
In addition to not wanting to spend time picking programming, having everything focused into an hour is a great thing. Working out in the morning makes for a great day – especially with my work life tied to a European manufacturing entity. Manufacturing days start early. Europe starts six hours ahead of North Carolina. Making efficient use of that pre-dawn hour gives me more time to be a good husband and father.
Traveling a lot for work provides downtime in cities where it is tough to figure out what to do. Not anymore – the third way CrossFit lets me be lazy is that I just find the nearest gym and go do a drop-in. Stopping by gyms is part of the culture, it lets you push yourself and keeps you in new and challenging situations (like the time in Zurich I got lost on a run).
Cheap
My health wasn’t terrible – but it wasn’t good. My weight was too high and my diet was lousy. Several friends in similar situations had signed up with personal trainers. My average attendance cost is $15 for an action packed hour with a good group of people and the results have been great. That is a good deal.
Your Mileage May Vary
As the outstanding hosts of Barbell Shrugged are often heard to say, “there’s a difference between training and exercising,” and over time I’ve gotten more focused on training, which means I’m getting less lazy about my own programming and fitness goals. Some days, when I’m over-thinking the training component, it is nice to turn things off, head to the gym and know that I’ve got a challenging hour in front of me that produces great results.
