Why do I Crossfit?

Crossfit blogger Katie asked this question yesterday.

The short answer? I wanted something different and better than what I was doing.

The longer answer? I've meandered a bit in finding myself enamored with Crossfit. I've always been fairly athletic. About twenty years ago, I picked up a copy of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. The book was a treasure chest of information, and I spent quite a number of years pumping iron and getting myself into the best shape I had ever been in. I was consumed by it. I frequently worked out twice per day, 5-6 days per week. (Yes...I was over training like anything!) Life eventually got in the way, and working out started seeming more like a prison sentence than anything else. Over the ensuing years, I'd drift into and out of fitness programs, making progress and then losing my motivation.

Several years ago, I felt as if I was at a crossroads. I had hypertension and my cholesterol was borderline high. I felt like crap. I knew if I didn't make changes, I might well end up being another early death statistic. Like Wigan, I stumbled upon the BFL program. (Note the url of this blog.) The program made a ton of sense to me. It was a very scaled down version of what I used to do, but included intense cardio. The cardio was new to me, and I knew I would need it to improve my overall health. The eating plan was also agreeable to me. I'll say that it is a little bit Zone like. No, not exactly, but similar enough. I loved that the BFL workouts took about an hour on lifting days and 20-30 minutes on cardio days. This was a far cry from the insanity that I used to put myself through.

Anyway, I stuck with BFL for a year and a half, as I kept on stumbling into links to Crossfit sites. I was intrigued. I really like the metabolic conditioning you get with CF, and I realize that even with the progress I've made, I could do a lot better in that area. That wasn't going to happen on BFL alone. I decided to assemble a plan that blended BFL style workouts with Crossfit workouts. I would work compound movements only. I would take advantage of the superior metabolic conditioning in the CF workouts. No more isolation movements for me.

I have not yet given myself entirely over to Crossfit...yet. In the next month or so, I'll build a plan that replaces a couple CF workouts with strength workouts each week. I have strength goals I'd like to acheive, in addition to continuing to improve my metcon. There is an issue of a CF journal that talks about programming and how to accomplish this. When I've hit my strength goals, I'll go 100% WOD and see if I can maintain my strength. I like CF...a lot!

Oh...BTW...I am MUCH stronger now than I ever was when I worked out one and a half hours twice a day....and I'm quite a bit older now. If you ever need proof that over training hurts your performance, I am it!

so....that's MY story, Katie.