When I decided to hire a trainer to whip my butt into some sort of shape, I chose a tiny gym near my house. I didn't want monthly fees - I just wanted to pay by the hour and walk away when I felt like it. The tiny gym near my house is a CrossFit gym - known all over the world for training excellence, and used by professional athletes, armed forces, and ordinary folk like me. I borrowed this blurb from a CrossFit website:
Why we do CrossFit!
Why do we do CrossFit? Who really relies on the results of their fitness to preserve their lives? Soldiers, Police and Fire fighters. What is being adopted throughout the Special Forces communities, Secret Service, US Marshals, FBI, ATF and many other people who rely on fitness to preserve their lives? CrossFit. When it comes to an endeavor where being weak costs you your life, they do CrossFit. Most of us do not require that level of fitness in our daily lives. Why train this hard? If you look at a continuum when on one side is residing in a nursing home and the other end the decathlete (or similar well rounded capable individual), ask this simple question: Which side do I want to be on? Time, aging, and lifestyle conspire to put us in long term care homes and alike. The harder we pull toward the elite side of the continuum, the less close we are to the nursing home. If teaching a 57 year old women to dead lift 200 plus pounds seems extreme, think of the grandmother who can't pick up her #20 grandson. Which place do you want to be in? Very few of us will get to the level of being on the CrossFit website for some outstanding physical feat. We CAN all work diligently to achieve the best effort and results our age and ability allow us to achieve. Much of what we do is based on functional exercises, executed at high intensity that are varied to the point of near randomness. Why? Our goal is to create people who are capable in ALL aspects of fitness. When the SEAL Teams and Special Forces adopt Swiss balls as a major tool to keep them alive when it counts, I will buy them. Until that time, we will do CrossFit.
I'm heading out for my 4th session with Dave - and I know I'll come away feeling a bit stronger, and a bit amazed that I did something I never dreamed I could do.
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