So –when you workout and live this healthy life, are you doing it for overall health and wellness or are you doing it to look good? Be honest with yourself. I came across this postthis morning entitled: Forget how you look. What can you DO?
Remember how I wrote about the themes we worked on with Tony Blauer? One of those themes was You Are Who You Are. You arent going to wake up with a super fit, elite athlete’s body. It takes work, focus and some genetics, if we are being honest. I love this part of the article where the author really looks at WHY she is doing all of this crazy CrossFit stuff —
“I think people are really interested in how we get to the way we look. They want to look like we do. Like, ‘How do you get that way? That’s amazing!’ Well, we CrossFit.”
Exercise isn’t about vanity for me anymore. It’s quite simply about what I can push myself to do.
I no longer worry about the fact that I don’t have six-pack abs. I worry about building enough core strength and stability that I can hold a heavy barbell steady overhead while squatting to full depth over and over (still a work in progress!)
I no longer worry about sculpting my weirdly shaped butt or whittling down my hips and thighs. I worry about adding pounds to my max deadlift and backsquat, which will require not only building strength but also improving form and chipping away at self-doubt and other negative thinking patterns.
I no longer worry about maintaining a 100 percent perfect Paleo diet so I can stay at a certain weight or fit into a certain size of clothing. I worry about ingesting things that will upset my sensitive stomach and thus hinder my half-marathon training or my morning WOD.
My main concern is being able to do things that I love to do, because that makes me happy. I might never be asked to model for a fitness magazine, but if the world sees a happy version of me (and trust me, I’m incapable of faking or hiding my true emotions) then I’ve achieved my goal.
When was the last time you thought about one of your goals and the WHY you are doing it? What do you want out of it? Same things should be looked at with your career, your family. What are your reasons to get up day in and day out — is it a grind, is it the joy of your life?
I have been at this fitness thing for over 4+ years now and regularly as you all know struggle with body image issues and what defines success — is it the fact that my doctor said my bloodwork results showed Excellent Status compared to the old me? Is it that I am lean looking? Is it that I can do 6 Dead Hang Pull ups? Is it that it brings me pure joy? My list can go on and on and on but the important thing is that I define what success looks like to me!
Warmup
Drills
Mobility
Skill
Box Back Squats
WOD
12×3 Box Back Squats 125#
Tabata Situps (lowest reps 12)