Week Eight:
Regularly learn and play new sports.
People participate in CrossFit for many different reasons. Some people CrossFit to be good at CrossFitting. Other use CrossFit as a cross-training workout. Some CrossFit it just to be better at life. We have people at the gym that do all of these, sometimes at the same time.
CrossFit is a great way to get better at sports like basketball, baseball, volleyball, football, etc. It’s a fabulous way to gain upper body strength for running, rowing, biking, and swimming. It’s an excellent way to gain power and endurance for obstacle course events like Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, and GoRuck.
Believe it or not, doing all of these “Non–CrossFit” things is a great way to improve at CrossFit and life. Taking all of the functional pieces we work on in the gym and tying them together in a whirlwind of running, jumping, ducking, dodging, diving, twisting, and turning is a great way to reinforce (or even reprogram) those neural pathways. It helps us move better, be more resilient, and feel the point of all the form and technique work.
And even more important, it can improve our mental health. We are all stressed, life does that. Learning and participating in a sport can help relieve that stress. The concept of “play” is a new and hot topic in some mental health circles. Even though all of the benefits have yet to be studied, play does seem important to our mental wellbeing.
Trying new sports is a great way to test your new skills. It is really what is behind the functional fitness part of CrossFit.
At the end of the day, the things we do to push our bodies should result in some amount of satisfaction and hopefully even fun. Go out and try some new things!
To end this week we are going to head on over to Memorial High School fro 10:00am – noon to play some basketball. Even if basketball isn;t your thing, or you think you aren’t good at it – come join us! The whole point is to learn new things. Use your fitness in other ways.
Again, the gym is covering the cost, but we need to have a count of how many people will be attending. Please register on-line.
https://crossfitrecursive.sites.zenplanner.com/event.cfm?eventId=418CD6AA-E601-4218-AFD0-3697D26291ED