The Sport of Fitness?

What is the “Sport of fitness?”

            I first started CrossFitting in 2006.  In these 7 years I have watched CrossFit go from a miniscule website that posted daily workouts for people to do on their own, to a global sensation that has blossomed into 5,000 gyms worldwide, nationally televised CrossFit Games on ESPN, and a very familiar moniker of "The Sport of Fitness."  Many people have heard of this new "sport," but very few have any comprehension of what this means.  To understand what this means lets take a trip back in time.  In the 1970’s a man named Jim Fixx wrote a book titled “The complete Book of running.”  The book emphasized health benefits associated with regular jogging.  Since then, the sport of running has grown from an obscure sport where only the "crazy" would attempt 26.2 miles, into a hobby people pursue to become more "fit."  More and more people are finding their way to the starting lines of 5 and 10 K road races, and we have all noticed every January that the treadmills at your local gym are flooded with “resolutioners” trying to jog off the holiday weight.  When people think of running they sub-consciously associate it with fitness.  Where as, 40-50 years ago, running was no where near as popular as it is today.  Think about the first nice day of spring.  You're driving down the street and all the sudden you notice 2-3 people out jogging on your neighborhood sidewalks everyday on the ride home from work.

Fixx took a very obscure sport and turned it into almost a national past time.  Today, running has almost become synonymous with fitness in people's minds.  We now view running (especially marathons) as the epitome of someone being "fit."  These days, CrossFit is having the same affect on fitness.  People are now viewing pull ups, push ups, sit ups, rowing, running, and barbell movements as the new version of fitness.  have you ever heard the other phrase "strong is the new skinny?"

CrossFit is revolutionizing fitness and taking it from a chore that should be done in order to be healthy, and turning it into a systematized method of turning your daily workout into a competition of sorts.  CrossFit is a community that has inspired countless numbers of people to actually *gasp* enjoy exercising!

Whatever it was that brought you to CrossFit Mokena will become secondary to the reason that you stay here.  Whether it was a weight loss goal, a physique goal, or just looking for something new in your exercise routine that brought you in here, the reason you will stay immersed in the CrossFit lifestyle is the fact that there is a community here that doesn't care what your “Fran” time is, or what your “Cindy” score is, how much you can bench, how fast you can run, or what your body fat percentage is; they would rather see you consistently get better in all areas of fitness (and most importantly, have a lot of fun doing it).

So, what is the “Sport of fitness?”  I took this off Reebok’s website (Reebok is the main sponsor of the annual CrossFit games): “Fitness that’s about retraining your body and rewiring your mind. This is about altering your definition of exercise. Reebok wants you to become part of a thriving community, where people are passionate about fitness. Where anyone, from world-class athletes to stay-at-home moms, can see drastic improvements and measurable results through hard work. This is a place where everyone you see, talk to, and sweat with becomes part of your fitness lifestyle.

Welcome to the community Reebok has embraced. The CrossFit community.” http://www.reebok.com/crossfit/Sport-of-fitness/Sport-of-fitness-has-arrived/what-is-sport-of-fitnes...

I think this is a pretty accurate representation of what we are trying to cultivate here at our 4,000 square foot facility here in Mokena (we call it the box).  We want to see you succeed.  We want to see you consistently working to improve your body and your mind.  We want to see you eventually compete with others in your class times.  But most importantly, we want to see fitness become more than a thing you do for 3-4 hours a week at the gym out of necessity. Rather, we wish to see you constantly strive for growth, look forward to working out, get excited about seeing your friends at the “box,” and make everyone around you think to themselves; “what the hell is he/she doing so different these days.”  When we say "sport" we are implying competition.  Not competition against each other or against the best in the sport; rather, we want to see you compete against the person you were yesterday.  Compete with yourself to get better everyday.  Don't view exercise and fitness as a chore, view it as the ultimate opportunity to work on the most important person in your life......you.

 Welcome to CrossFit Mokena, welcome to the sport of fitness.