Live like an athlete! (even if you’ve never been one!)

“Forging Elite Fitness” is the unofficial slogan of CrossFit.

Why ‘elite’? Not because we’re rich, or snobby, but simply because we’re willing to go off the fitness grid. We were flipping tires when people still considered elliptical trainers a hard workout. We teach front squats instead of step classes. We say ‘elite’ because the scope of fitness, to most people, isn’t fitness at all.

‘Normal’ fitness in North America means walking and cutting calories. It’s full of falsehood: fake food, Spanx fashion, and role models who simply aren’t fit.

We model our training after elite athletes. To lift ourselves from the swamp, we look to the mountain peaks. We advocate an athletic lifestyle: going to bed early, eating food to fuel performance, practicing real exercise, taking care of ourselves.

We are not lip-synching our fitness.

Sometimes women arrive to CFR with imperfect hair. Sometimes the men don’t match their shorts to their socks. There’s usually some chalk marks on the wall. In our gym, a ripped t-shirt doesn’t mean fashion; it means work.

Before every class, anxious faces await the start of the warmup. Twenty minutes later, they’re gorgeous: moving gracefully, smiling, congratulating others. Celebrating. No one checks their hair after a high-five.

Modeling our lifestyle after those most fit will make us healthier. We believe in the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness continuum, and that pushing ourselves further to the right will give us a little more margin for error.

 

 

The athletic model is scalable. A 500 pound squat makes me feel like an athlete; a 65lb deadlift may make you feel like one. Rowing may be your pursuit, or snatching, or pullups. At CrossFit Renaissance, we give you the template to live like an athlete. We started by encouraging you to go Grain Free starting Monday January 5th (Here’s the Facebook Group) in addition to completing some work outside the gym with the squat challenge.

Tomorrow is the start of our Fit It Forward Challenge. You’ll get your first assignment tomorrow morning and then at 8am everyday thereafter. Be strong!