Deep into the depths of winter we dive, replete with hot water bottles, ghastly fleece onesies, comfort food and cross trainers.
Cross trainers?
Well, as much as you'd like to spend every free moment of this winter on the couch, wrapped to the ears in blankets, just, no. You're forgetting something crucial: summer bodies are forged in winter!
Summer. Bodies. Are forged. In winter.
Let that sink in for a bit. Then write it down and stick it someplace you'll encounter daily, to remind you of what you're working towards when you feel the overwhelming urge to spend the weekend on your back in front of the TV, scrolling through your feeds and demolishing a whole carton of twinkies.
Where to forge this best-ever summer body? What better place than your local CrossFit box. It has a bit of ye olde smithy vibe, except it’s not full of greasy machines (or the shiny variety that populate regular gyms). It’s minimalistic in that regard, since, as the popular CrossFit adage goes, “We are the machines!” You can bet your body’s going to be one of them strong, sweaty machines by winter’s end, baby. Because the moment you step inside that box, you’ll be hooked.
Your goals are going to change too. In a couple of weeks you won’t need your “summer bodies” motto anymore. If that’s what gets you there, all hail Vanity, the potent motivator. But what will keep you coming back for more is that CrossFit can change your whole life. No, really.
In brief, as Jaco van der Vyver from Crossfit Valley Road explains, Crossfit is “constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity, in a safe and friendly environment where normal individuals can train like athletes.”
It produces a peculiarly intense and invigorating experience, where the demands made upon our bodies are so extraordinary that we can, albeit briefly, say ciao to the chatter that usually crowds our restless minds. This is your body telling your mind, “Sit down, son,” and driving you right up into the present moment. Mindfulness FTW, am I right?
And in that present moment, it’s your body that works hardest. At first.
It powers, then pushes, then breathlessly stumbles through the workout until you reach the point beyond which you cannot go. And there you meet your greatest adversary. The one you will have to defeat every time you step into the box – with each burpee, each wall-climb, each box jump, each sprint:
“I can’t do any more!”
“I’ll do one more.”
“I’ll never finish this round!”
“Just did that push up I thought I couldn’t do! Okay here goes… One more! And one more… Aaaaaaand, round DONE!”
From your position in a heap of incapacitated limbs on the floor, you’ll notice with admiration your fellow comrades who have gone through the fire of that WOD with you. You’re all gods in that moment – each having battled and defeated the formidable combined forces of your own fears and doubts. It’s not admiration you’re seeking, though, for it’s not that your fellow soldiers see your courage, but that you see your own, that each of you sees your own.
And even as you walk (gingerly) across the box and (fall) out the door into the rest of your day, you’ll know you’ve discovered The Thing… The thing we all actually, truly want: to know for certain, not that we are smokin’ hot or widely admired, but that, when it comes down to it, we have the grit, the determination, the (inner) strength, to push beyond our own limits to do what needs to be done, to conquer again and again our fears and doubts.
“This is what I like about Crossfit,” says elite athlete, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet. “When you hit that wall, and you tell that wall, ‘Get out of my way’”.
And you will carry that knowledge off with you into the rest of your life and never be quite the same again. You’ll know you’re made of strong stuff. And you’ll want to test those limits over and over.
Summer body? Nah, fam, we’re talking life here. That one brief moment we each get to live. May our bodies be fit and fierce enough to do life as best we can.
Date Published: 22 June 2016
