CrossFit Made Me Better at Life

When you're young, you don't really think about being fit.

You just do stuff.

You run, jump, climb, carry things, trip over your own feet and somehow manage to catch yourself. You spend an entire day doing something physical and don't think twice about it. Your body just seems to know what to do.

But somewhere along the way, those physical capabilities start to fade. And if you're not actively working to maintain them, they fade a whole lot faster than you'd probably like to admit.

I didn't start doing CrossFit until I was around 22 or 23. I've already written about that journey, and how I thought I was fit until I found out just how unfit I actually was.

But over the years, I developed a level of fitness that was pretty extraordinary. By my mid-30s, I was at a point where I could do pretty much anything.

Want to hike to Machu Picchu? Sure.

Go on a week-long backpacking trip? Absolutely.

Help someone move? No problem.

Run, lift, climb, carry, jump, play, compete, try something new? It was all just part of life.

I didn't have to think about whether I was physically capable of doing something. I just did it.

And that's something I think we sometimes lose sight of when we talk about fitness.

It's not just about getting better at a workout. It's not just about preparing for a competition or getting a faster time on a particular course.

It's about developing the physical capabilities that allow you to do all the other things you want to do in life.

Strength. Endurance. Coordination. Agility. Balance. Power.

These are skills that make you capable.

And the more you develop them, the more opportunities you have to actually use them.

Fast forward to 42.

I've scaled back my training considerably over the last several years. I haven't been lifting much. I haven't been making fitness the priority it once was. And, unsurprisingly, I've lost a fair amount of fitness.

It's a little humbling, actually.

But what's been really interesting is realizing just how much of it is still there.

Yesterday morning, I decided on a whim to go run an 11-kilometre trail race.

With zero training.

None.

And I did it.

Now, I'm not suggesting that running an 11K without training is some sort of brilliant fitness strategy. It's not. And I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a regular approach to exercise.

But the fact that I could do it is pretty remarkable.

And then, later that same day, I was at my parents' house when a guy came to pick up the hardtop I'd sold off my truck.

He's getting ready to load it up, looks around and says something along the lines of, "Well, I guess I'm going to need one of you guys to help me with this."

And he automatically turns to my mom's husband.

Who's in his late 70s.

I had to laugh.

Absolutely not. I'll help you move the hardtop.

And honestly, I don't know if the guy thought I wouldn't want to help, or if he just assumed I wasn't going to be able to. But the whole thing was kind of funny.

So I get myself into position, hunker down, get a sideways grip on this awkward thing, pick it up, duck underneath the roof, flip it around, carry it through the yard and down the driveway, and lift it onto the guy's truck.

No big deal.

I didn't have to think about how to position myself. I didn't have to wonder if I could lift it. I didn't have to figure out how to get my body to do what I needed it to do.

I just did it.

And I couldn't help but think about what that would look like if I'd reached 42 without ever having developed that foundation.

What if I hadn't spent years training strength, endurance, coordination, agility, speed and power?

What if I hadn't learned how to move my body through all those different physical challenges?

Would I still be able to do the things I did yesterday?

Maybe some of them.

But I can pretty confidently say that I wouldn't have had the same level of physical capability.

And that's really the point.

CrossFit made me better at life.

Not just because it made me stronger or fitter.

Because it gave me the physical tools to do things without having to think twice about whether I could.

And those tools don't just disappear the moment you stop training. They become part of you. They influence how you move, how you respond to physical challenges, how confident you are in your own abilities.

But they do need to be maintained.

Because the reality is, we don't get to keep all those physical capabilities just because we once had them.

The older we get, the more intentional we have to be about maintaining them.

And I think that's something worth considering.

You don't have to be a competitive athlete. You don't have to be chasing a leaderboard. You don't have to sign up for a HYROX or a CrossFit competition.

But wouldn't it be nice to be the person who can?

The person who can go on the hike, help a friend move, try a new sport, run a race, carry the heavy thing, get up off the floor, catch themselves when they trip, or just say yes to something without having to worry about whether their body is going to cooperate?

That's what fitness gives you.

And that's what I think makes CrossFit so valuable.

It's not just training for one event or one specific outcome.

It's training for the things you don't know you're going to need to do.

It's building a body that can handle more than just the workout in front of you.

It's building a foundation for the rest of your life.

And if you've ever wondered why we train so many different things at Anchored Athletics, why we lift heavy, run, jump, carry, climb, throw, and challenge ourselves in so many different ways, this is a big part of the reason.

Because you never know when you're going to need it.

And when that moment comes, it's pretty damn nice to be able to say:

"Yeah, I can do that."

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