Sacrifice

Most people don’t understand the meaning of the word sacrifice. They think of it as something they have to give up, something that is taken away from them, something that they lose.

It’s why they don’t want to eat right, exercise in a meaningful way, or take proper care of the other people in their lives.

So they consume fast food, sit around on their couches, and take their small children to “R” rated movies. It’s easier and it meets their needs.

They simply don’t want to give anything up.

But the term “sacrifice” actually means “the surrender of something for the sake of something else.” It’s not deprivation for deprivation’s sake. Sacrifice means giving up this in order to get that. It means letting go of one thing in order to have something else in your life.

So, the next time you are struggling to make the right choice at mealtime, in the gym, or on a Saturday night when the bar is calling, remember that you have to give up your old ways in order to get your new life.

And that, no matter how big and noble you think your effort is — no matter how huge your sacrifice — that somewhere there are folks making far bigger sacrifices than you and they’re not complaining about it. They’re not even talking about it. They’re simply pulling on their boots and uniform and going to work for us all. They’re called the U.S. military. And they deserve our thanks. They live the word sacrifice.

So, in the delicate phrasing of a veteran I know, “Shut your piehole and do work.”

On the 2009 CrossFit Games

The CrossFit Games are this weekend. You know that already. There’s a pit in your stomach and you’re not even competing in them. How the hell can that be? How can you be so wrapped up in an event that your stomach is churning for something you will watch starting on Friday? What is this thing we call CrossFit and what has it done to us? How do we even describe what is going on here?

We all know how to talk the CrossFit language to other CrossFitters. We are skilled in the CrossFit vernacular for people who share our world. But when faced with newcomers, most of us struggle so much in attempting to explain it. Describing CrossFit is like trying to say why you love your kids so much. Words have been written for thousands of years but no one yet has come up with the right ones to say what we feel.

It will be totally inadequate, but allow me a few words to try to describe what CrossFit is:

It’s a way of working out. It’s a sport. It’s a community. It’s a way to live your life.

It’s Heart. Soul. Love. Victory. And Loss.

It’s getting up early to do some horrible workout with others, or alone. And going to bed late some nights because you’re waiting for Lauren to post the next day’s WOD and you just have to know what it is before you shut your eyes.

It’s sprinting 400 meters again and again, even though you hate running, but you sure want to do it faster and better.

It’s learning Olympic lifts and obsessing over your clean technique, even though you’re a 15-year-old kid, or a 58-year-old grandfather, or a 25-year-old bad mofo stud.

It’s getting back on the pull-up bar, even though every muscle and bone in your body hurts and you’re shaking and you can feel lunch rising in your throat and your heart is pounding out of your chest. You can’t quit now. You can’t quit ever. You must see things through to the end, no matter how painful that might be.

It’s realizing the power of the barbell is mightier than the lure of the couch and the television. One will make you stronger, but the other will weaken your body and your brain. I do not exaggerate when I say the barbell may literally save your life. And your soul.

It’s a community that comes together to peform and witness feats of strength and stamina. A crowd that recognizes heart more than standings, and that victory must be earned or it is worthless. Cheaters will not be tolerated. Character and honor still matter here.

It’s a place that is growing faster than anyone could ever dream, propelled by heart, soul, hard work, and dedication. This CrossFit world is ours. And it’s about to become the world of so many others too. In the future, we will look back on these years with fondness, with nostalgia for the times when we were still small.

So, on Friday when the Affiliate Cup Competition starts, and on Saturday, when the individual competition starts, let us all revel in these days and these ways. Let us lift until our muscles give out, pull up until our hands are raw, and cheer until our dry, raspy throats can manage no more words. These Games – these people – deserve no less.

Heart and community. We’re about to witness huge displays of both. How lucky we are to be here.

This year’s Games are going to be fabulous for many reasons. I have goose bumps just writing about them. Hold on, CrossFit World, this is going to be a hell of a ride . .  .

(By Lisbeth Darsh, www.crossfitwatertown.com.)

Someone Needs What You Know

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. Dante wrote that as the inscription for the gates of Hell in The Divine Comedy but, as America gets fatter and our health care costs rise higher, maybe that’s what it should say over the Statue of Liberty. Because what the majority of Americans are doing for fitness is obviously not working. The machine dominance, isolation moves, and cardio hell prescribed by the Fitness Mafia of America is, quite simply, profit-driven garbage that fails to take people where they want to go.

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Are You the Man (or Woman) in the Arena?

I may be foolish but I’m not timid.

The odds of me winning the CrossFit Albany East Coast Challenge are really, really small . . . but I’m going. I’m realistic about my chances as a fortyish female in very good (but not killer Kelly Moore-ish) shape. I’ll probably finish far away from the winners, just like I do in most triathlons and a good portion of the running and mountain bike races I enter. Where I finish never has anything to do with why I signed up in the first place. I am only peripherally competing against other people: mostly, I am competing against myself. It’s no different than having at the WOD: the others make me go faster just by the fact of them being there, and it’s nice to beat them, but the goal is to beat myself. Matt Williams, the baseball player, put it this way: “It’s not between me and the pitcher. It’s between me and the ball.”

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CrossFit Is Dangerous, But So Is Your Toothbrush

You’ve probably heard someone say it by now: “CrossFit? Isn’t that dangerous?”

And they’re right. CrossFit is dangerous . . . if you don’t know how to do it. You could get hurt.

But, then again, you could hurt yourself while driving a car. And firing a weapon. Or cooking. In fact, if I didn’t know how to handle my toothbrush and stuck it in my eye and brushed my cornea, I’d bet I’d be in a world of pain. (Note to self: be very careful after having a few beers.) It’s like that old Ani DiFranco line: “Every tool is a weapon, if you hold it right.”

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