Sasquatch CrossFit

    It’s 5:45am and I feel like death. My legs are sore from the hiking I did over the weekend, I didn’t get enough sleep and I know I have a twelve hour work day ahead of me. By the time I get in the office and open my computer, I have six voicemail messages, one-hundred and six unread e-mails and a to-do list the size of my desk. It’s going to be a long day. Regardless, when 2pm hits the clock, I know I have two choices: I can collapse on the comfy couch in my office until it’s time for me to coach at 5:30pm, or I can suck it up, drink a little pre-workout, and go show the gym floor I am stronger than anything my day decides to throw at me. Some days it’s harder than others, but every day I pick the latter.

    Potential clients come up to me every day and ask, “Isn’t CrossFit hard?! You guys do pull-ups and push-ups and deadlifts! I don’t think I can do any of those things. Is this going to be too hard for me?” My answer has always been, and will always be, “No!” CrossFit is easy. Doing pull-ups and deadlifts, thrusters and double unders, these are all things we get better at over time. One day you will wake up and 225 lbs on the bar won’t feel quite so heavy. But showing up? Pulling yourself together to walk into the gym after a long day, or a long week? That’s hard.

    Consistency has always been what separates the one’s that do from the one’s that don’t in the fitness world. For whatever reason, there is a rampant misconception that in order to improve physical fitness you need push yourself to the brink of death every time you are in the gym. While pushing limits and increasing intensity are great tools in our fitness arsenal, they come far later (and to a lesser degree) than just showing up. For everyone from the first time gym-goer, to the CrossFit Games Champion, showing up is the first and most important step in making progress. It sounds obvious, but I have a dozen clients I can think of right now that are dissatisfied with their progress, but show up only twice a week to work out for one hour. Our habits define us. The people that make fitness a priority are the one’s that make the most progress and retain it over the longest period of time.

    So what action can you take to be more consistent in your pursuit of fitness? Schedule your classes like a meeting (an important one!), to work on you. If you already show up to class regularly, schedule in some recovery time every week to make sure you are ready for the next phase in your training. Make it a priority and I promise you the results will shock you.

    What is one simple action you can take to improve your consistency? Leave your response on the comments below.