A year ago, my wife talked me into trying a CrossFit Foundations class. She had recently completed her first (and ironically last) marathon and sustained an injury that prevented further distance running. She had searched for an exercise option that would allow her to participate freely and limit injury while improving cardiac endurance and building strength. I was skeptical, but was willing to try it just to appease her. I told her I would go through the foundations class and see how it went. Initially, I was not that excited about it but agreed to give it a six-month trial. Having also sustained an injury that prevented running, I had become an avid cyclist and decided to use the CrossFit as a way to become better at bicycling. I wanted to improve my posture, minimize back pain on the bike, and try to maintain some of the cardiac fitness level through the winter months. Well, a year later, I have been back on the bike three times but participate in CrossFit activities five to six times a week.

I am not wanting to suggest that CrossFit is for everyone. There are a multitude of options for staying fit. In fact, when I discuss physical activity with patients, fast walking is the activity I most commonly recommend. I rarely encourage adults to start running unless they use a run-walk-run technique to start (I.e. Jeff Galloway program). When discussing fitness with teenagers I usually highly encourage them into incorporating any type of activity in school that will carry over into adulthood. The major options of school sports that can be continued throughout a lifetime include swimming, tennis, golf, and cross-country/track (running). Developing habits early is important to keep an active lifestyle and help in the cross-cultural fight against obesity and inactivity (but that’s another issue altogether). The point is, you have to find something that fits your lifestyle, limits exposure to injury, and can be maintained over time.

It’s difficult for me to describe what CrossFit is. My initial superficial impression was that it was weightlifting, designed to add muscle without much cardio activity. I quickly found out that I was SO wrong. Using high-intensity training and several body-weight exercises, it attempts to improve overall muscle tone and strength. This includes the tone and strength of the body’s most important muscle- the heart. Earlier this year, as part of a medical work-up, I had to wear a heart monitor for thirty days. With the monitor connected, I continued to participate in CrossFit classes and found that while my resting heart rate stayed in the 40-50 range, for the daily hour of CrossFit my heart rate soared into the 170-180 range and stayed above 150 for about an hour.  This provided me with the evidence I needed that short-term, high intensity training can push the heart rate into training and “fat-burn” zones.

One of my favorite aspects of CrossFit is the programming that comes with it. Having a coach set up an exercise routine that cycles though muscle groups and activities makes it so easy to avoid focusing on one set of muscles or another. Left to my own, I tend to avoid different sets of exercises, always resorting to movements that do not push me as I need to be pushed. With CrossFit, I don’t have to think or plan out what I am going to do. I show up, TRY not to complain, and just do it!  There are occasionally activities that I can not do (some due to physical limitations, others due to age and lack of flexibility), but our coach always has alternative exercises or regimens that are scaled back to allow me to participate at the maximum level my body can take.

Over the past year, I have noted remarkable improvements in strength, endurance, flexibility, and most importantly, attitude. While I have not lost much weight, I have lost pant sizes. The lack of weight loss is more related to my nutrition that activity (abs are, after all, made in the kitchen). I did not take pictures before starting, but have seen changes that did not happen in my young adulthood. Yes, I ache and hurt constantly. But it is a good hurt. It is the hurt of using muscle groups that need work and the ache of strengthening required to become more fit. Because of the intense focus on technique, the incremental improvements can be slowed somewhat. This limits the potential for injury while insuring optimal sustainable gains in strength, balance, and endurance.

Having participated for almost a year, I have watched improvements in several benchmarks, seen changes in the fit of my clothes, and developed a family-type comraderie with people of all ages that I might not have otherwise. Being the fifth oldest member of our “box” (the CrossFit term for gym), I have to fight the urge to try to compete with others. I am learning to compete with myself only, while working alongside people less than half my age who are encouraging me, pushing me, and helping me become stronger. I will never be “the fittest”, however, I will always be fitter. As my coach told me recently, “You’ve got the rest of your life to get there. You don’t have a deadline.”

The CrossFit family cares for each other. They are supportive, challenging, and fun. They cheer each other on. Frequently the one who finishes last gets the loudest cheers and support. We also want to share what we have with others. In a society that needs to strive for better nutrition and fitness levels, CrossFit is filling a large gap. There is an adage we have recently picked up. It asks, “How do you know if someone does CrossFit Talk to them for five minutes and they will tell you.”  Not because those of us who do CrossFit are better than anyone else. We are just excited about what we are doing, the results we are seeing, and the fun we are having. I have not only sipped the CrossFit Kool-Aid, I have gulped it down and crave more.