Better Together

I think the public schools may have been feeding their female track athletes jumping beans when I was in high school.  For some reason the level of competition in the triple jump in particular was much higher during those years than in the years before or since.  I was among the people setting school records, but I wasn't alone - I remember Ashley, Amanda, and a few other girls, all of whom had the ability to emerge victorious from any given competition.

Now, looking back, I'm quite sure it wasn't actually jumping beans.  It had to do with the standard we kept raising for each other.  Individually and collectively, we continued to test the boundaries of what was possible, and enough of us were involved that we really raised the bar.  It's hard to imagine the impossible, but watching someone else do something you never thought they could do certainly draws your own capabilities into question.  If Ashley could jump 38', I was sure going to do everything in my power to jump 39'!

I'm so grateful that CrossFit has gained popularity as a training methodology and as a competitive sport because it seems that our social understanding of fitness is benefitting from the same competitive dynamic that enabled me to jump 39' in high school.  As a training methodology, it has enabled people who would never have had the opportunity to do an Olympic lift to become proficient, has strengthened people who couldn't do a single pullup to string 20+ together consecutively, and has taught people that health through exercise doesn't have to be arduous or miserable.  As a competitive sport, it has given new purpose to my life, and the lives of many former athletes, who partially defined themselves as successful exercisers only to graduate from high school or college and be left with no option but to become "has beens."

Together, as CrossFitters, as trainers, as people generally interested in changing the "possible," we are changing the collective understanding of aging, parenthood, and female strength.  Thanks to the masters athletes, I no longer believe that it will be hard for me to stand and sit when I am old and gray because I see them able to do much more than that, and quickly, with high intensity.  Thanks to the CrossFit moms, I no longer see my 30's as a time when I will have babies, get fat, and wish I had more time to work out.  Thanks to the CrossFit guys I no longer see my strength as something to be ashamed of as a woman, although I was told recently (by a non-CrossFitter) that I should probably not cut my hair short again so that my hair can hide all my muscles.

I am better because I've trained alongside people who were great throughout my athletic career.  I am better still because I've found a training methodology which is just impossible enough that it is successfully redefining the possible.