And as promised, upon receiving this shirt, I immediately removed the sleeves for dramatic effect. Now, don't go stereotyping me here, this is my first sleeveless shirt. I am a fan of the tank top, but homemade is not my norm. But I digress....If you have no idea who Daryl Dixon is, you do not offend me, he is one of the best characters on A&E's "THE WALKING DEAD". Now, this isn't going to be a post rambling on and on about how great the show is......it is great, if you haven't seen it, catch up, all the episodes are on NETFLIX. What I did want to cover, is the interesting relationship between Crossfit and the Zombie Apocalypse phenomenon........don't stop reading just yet, this is going somewhere, I promise.
If you have been in Crossfit long enough, you have seen the shirts "Crossfit....Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse" or "Stop Crossfit, they would make horrible Zombies".....the sayings are growing in numbers, but why? Why is there this correlation to this terrifying, albeit highly improbable scenario?
I don't think that it is a bandwagon-esque type of thing, rather I see it as a comment on what Crossfit does for you. Think about if for a second....What does Crossfit teach?? Functional Movements....efficiently moving mass from one place to another......using our body as the machines, etc.....How is a toned physique going to get you out of a confrontation with a zombie? Its not... but if you are able to run, jump, climb, lift, and outlast one....you might have a chance!
Zombie examples aside, you will find that after coming to Crossfit for about a month or two, doing everyday activities becomes easier, squatting down to that low cabinet to get that mixing bowl, is now done with perfect form.....picking up your 2 year old when they come inside with a scraped knee is now done with a straight back...even getting down and up from the toilet is approached differently. I think that is where the Crossfit methodology can be proven ten fold. We are not here to sculpt our biceps all day, and on the flipside we are not going to run on a treadmill for 1.5 hours watching the latest mind numbing reality tv show. We are here to get overall fit...And what do I mean by that?
Well here is an example...I began Crossfit several years ago, as I have said, about the same time, I had some acquaintances that began their entrance into the world of body building.Their results are nothing short of unbelievable, bodies sculpted and toned in ways I didn't know was possible. But how does that transfer to the real world? It is an interesting question. It is a question that I had pondered for quite some time. I have been working out just as long as these guys, yet I look nowhere near as impressive! The answer is in what you want out of your definition of fit. These guys have some of highest levels of dedication to what they do, and I respect that more than anything, but that is not what I want. I want to be able to be strong, and fast, and efficient, and able to move my body. I want to be able to climb something if I have to, to squat down to pick up my child, to carry someone in need, to train good techniques that will allow me to not have back pain when I am 80....Crossfit can do great things for you, both physically, and emotionally.
We aren't isolating muscles, and that is where Crossfit differs from traditional globo gym style workouts. Compound exercises train multiple muscles, functional movements are the core movements of life, and life is much more unpredictable than sport, so if you were to be given the option to train for sport or life, which would you choose?
The point is, what you learn in Crossfit will stay with you, it's not something that you will look back on and say "Wow, I used to do that.....or Wow I used to look like that". We are preparing our bodies for the future so that one day you will be the one that says "Look what I can still do".... and that is worth more than you will ever know.
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