It’s not all hugs and kumbaya.
CrossFit has a wonderful community component. A fantastic, supportive environment where people cheer each other on and the last place finisher gets applause too. That’s something that’s missing in our everyday lives and so we yearn for it, and we cling to it in CrossFit.
And sometimes we almost suffocate ourselves with that air. We forget that CrossFit has an overriding edge, a toughness, a “holy-shit-I’m-not-sure-I-can-do-this” soul.
See, CrossFit is not all hugs and kumbaya. It’s not all high fives and feel-good videos.
CrossFit is hard. CrossFit is painful. CrossFit — true CrossFit — is not something that any normal, well-balanced person would run towards.
“Pain? Yeah!” “Feeling like I’m going to throw up? Awesome!” “Torture myself for 20 minutes? Whoot! I’ve been wanting to do that ALL DAY LONG.”
If you met people who said those things on the street, you’d run. Or you should. Or else you’re just as fucked-up as the pain lovers.
And maybe we are fucked-up — I’m not discounting that possibility. But what I’m pretty darn sure of is that most of us go into that pain because we want, we need, we crave the results of that pain. We crave the physical effects and the emotional stability that results from CrossFit.
But don’t mistake that it’s all hugs and high fives. This is some crazy shit we put ourselves through. Some hard pain, some dark times. But the light at the end is amazing …
(Image courtesy of Nicole Bedard Photography.)
