Ladies and Gentlemen of the CrossFit World of 2018
Do the Open.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future,
The Open would be it.
The long-term benefits of the open have been proved by scientists.
whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…
I will dispense this advice now…
Enjoy the power and beauty of your ROM.
oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your ROM until it has faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself
and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous your overhead squat once looked.
You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about “how you may look”, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to figure out the rep scheme on the whiteboard by saying fck-it, and putting on extra knee sleeves.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind.
the kind that blindsides you at 5:15 am class on some idle Tuesday…
when your wod-buddy slept in and left you high and dry to partner with the really fit girl, half your age, who will ensure you receive ZERO rest.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Lift.
Don’t allow others to workout without a cheer section, unless they don’t like that…then you’re probably in planet fitness.
Don’t put up a score that is 40% bro-reps.
Floss.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the missed muscle ups.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old before photos, throw away your old jeans that don’t fit your squat-butt anymore.
Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what triple extension even means…the most interesting people I know still didn’t know what an AMRAP was after 18 months of doing CrossFit.
Some of the most interesting masters I know still don’t. Or at least they keep forgetting.
Get plenty of Zone Blocks.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll PR, maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll have a friend finally join you, maybe you won’t.
Maybe you’ll break the top 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken at your boxes after-the-open party…
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either
your choices are half-chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body.
use it every way you can…
don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it.
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Participate…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own garage or driveway in the rain.
Watch the standards videos, even if you don’t follow them.
Do read Games Athlete interviews in magazines, they will remind you that you that we have more in common than we know.
Get to know your coaches, you never know when they’ll run out of coffee and slip into the great unknown.
Be nice to your fellow athletes.
They are the people who are brave enough to spot you,
and the people most likely to listen to your CrossFit ramblings and not roll their eyes.
Understand that toes-to-bar come and go, but for the precious few of you who can do them, you should hold on for dear life.
Work hard to bridge the gaps between you and the bar in snatches.
Because the older you get, the more help you will need to keep that bar anywhere near a good catch position
Try to keep up with another athlete, but stop before it makes you puke.
Take a long breather from the workout, but jump back in before it makes you soft.
Do burpees.
Accept certain inalienable truths.
Champions will rise.
Dave Castro will be Dave Castro
You too will become seasoned, and when you do you’ll fantasize about when you were new.
Workouts were reasonable.
Dave Castro was pretty much the exact same.
and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders
Do expect anyone to support you.
Maybe you ate a lot of carbs last night…
Maybe you have a serious aerobic engine…
but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair.
By the time you get 1/2 through the workout, it won’t matter.
Be careful whose fitness you buy.
Be wary of those who supply pizza on Mondays.
Fitness is a form of connection.
Dispensing it is a way of connecting us to our fitness, to ourselves, and each other.
The hard parts of it that, demand more from us, make us sweat, and allow us to find more, encourages us to be more.
All of this advice is simply advice based on my own meanderings…
But trust me on the Open.
Credit: Original Lyrics by Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)
