The Inspiration!

Well, its about 12:30am on Saturday morning. . .the evening hour is very cool, the ground still moist as the dew drops cling to pavement and grass alike, and in roughly 6 hrs and 30 mins, Natick, Massachusetts will be one loud friggin place, you might be wondering why . . .




On Friday afternoon, roughly around 5pm, one of the members of our gym was so pumped to be doing

"Jackie"

1000m Row
50 Thrusters (45 lbs)
30 pull-ups

For Time

He was also working on his muscle-ups, but was so anxious to do Jackie, I thought he was going to lose sight of his goal on the muscle-up.  Let's take a quick step back for a moment.

I am quite sure I know why CrossFit is so addictive.  You can set your goals and achieve them.  The results are measurable.  Sure, people get stronger doing all sorts of different activities in a gym, but nothing quite has the feeling of accomplishing multiple items in one day.  In one workout you can run faster or farther, in the same workout you can move weight faster, lift more weight than the day before, while not even practicing that movement, and above all else, you can do more things with your body weight than you could ever imagine.

You see, accomplishments like setting a PR can make a sad person happy, make the person who struggles day in and day out feel like they have accomplished something.  The feeling of accomplishment is second to none, especially when the goal is set in the environment in which you are. 

For example, (movie time!) let's take Rocky.  Every boxer's dream is to have a shot at the champ.  I am not saying that Rocky didn't work hard at the beginning, but once he learned what he was going to be doing, once the reality set in, the hard work started.  This happened in every single Rocky film. 

Well, let me give you a head's up if you haven't started CrossFit, if you thought about CrossFit, or if you have started CrossFit - and if so, then you know exactly what I am going to say;

There are certain goals every athlete(I believe) that does CrossFit wants to achieve:
pull-ups (the more reps the better)
muscle-ups (pull-up into a ring dip on the olympic rings-the more reps the better )
Handstand
Handstand Push-up (the more reps the better)
L-Sit
L-Sit pull-up
L-Sit into Handstand
Planche push-up
muscle-up into ring handstand push-up
Double-unders
sub 2 min Fran
the ability to perform King (or Queen) Kong
Lift Heavy Weight
Run really fast, really far

oh and because of all of this, live a healthy lifestyle, but wait one more thing. . .

lastly - EVERY OTHER GOAL THEY SET FOR THEMSELVES!

So, back to this evening, back to the young man gripping the black rings, the chalk dust falling softly through the air around him.  The box is full of the noise of class, coaches teaching, people listening, and a few athletes who want get that first muscle-up.  Weeks and weeks of failed attempts resting heavily on his shoulders, but the excitement of the workout to come clearly showing through his eyes.  All of a sudden, the onset of determination, the fire that lay still dormant exploding in a conflagration. 

A moment of silence as the false grip tightened on the rings, two kipping swings and the athlete soars upwards as if to get to the ceiling, he quickly turns his body over, the right ring locks into place and the left ring begins to falter as the tightness that should be at the bottom of the ring dip is beginning to slip his grasp. . .he pulls the ring in, a tentative smile begins to form as he pushes himself, knowing that he locked the movement in, he starts to come upright, his smile getting bigger as he reaches the top of the movement.  Once at the top, you would have thought he was Rocky - just finished running the stairs, got to the top and raised his hands, although this particular athlete just had a big shit eating grin on his face and couldn't raise his hands or he would have fell. 

*Sidenote - Congrats on the PR "Jackie" times for all the CrossFit Relentless and 033 Athletes!

That is the inspiration I speak of, that is the moment that you train for.  When you work out, you train for the accomplishments, you train for your goals.  So whether tomorrow is just another work out, the Beast of the East Challenge (http://www.crossfitnewengland.com/), or some other event that you may be participating in, know this:

You have trained, you put in the time, you put in the effort, work for the accomplishment that a personal record brings, work for the accomplishment of beating a prior you, it's what makes everything worthwhile.

"First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do."
Epictetus

-Coach Tony