One of the reasons CrossFit works is because it makes it easy to define success and chart progress. When you start CrossFit you step on a scale, get your body fat measured, and do a baseline workout to give you a starting point for improvement.
The results of these tests are sobering and humbling. Many of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought so we walk into the gym thinking we’re in better shape than we are. Then we find out we weigh more and are slower and weaker than we believed. We tell ourselves that we’re just a few weeks from being back in the best shape of our lives. Instead, we discover we’re worse off than we imagined.
The numbers don’t lie.
This beginning snapshot, our before picture, is essential to making our experience with CrossFit fun and successful. As we begin to workout, change our diet, and get into a groove, we keep taking our measurements. Not every day, but every few weeks at least.
One of the most inspiring events to witness in a CrossFit gym is when someone gets their fat pinched and realizes the’ve lost 3% body fat in the past month. (Actually, it’s cool to hear about it. Fat pinching is a “look away” moment for sure.) Then they step on the scale and see that they’ve lost 10 pounds. Then they go do the same workout they did a month earlier—the workout that left them sitting comatose in their car for an hour before they could drive home–and they improve their time by 4 minutes. They’re getting stronger, faster, and leaner. This time, they know its not a product of their imagination.
The numbers don’t lie.
They celebrate this initial victory and then get right back to work. If they string together a series of these improvements, they’ll be hooked for life.
One of the hooks of CrossFit is measurement. We measure everything in some way. Many CrossFitters keep a workout journal so they can track their progress. If they’re not tracking their progress they’re more likely to lose interest or miss out on opportunities to celebrate wins.
Most workouts are timed so that every time we do a certain workout we can compare it to the last time we did it and see how much progress we’ve made. If a workout isn’t timed then there is usually a weight load that is measured so we can track how must more weight we lifted this time than last. Both are cause for celebration. This is the magic of the “before” and “after” pics.
The camera doesn’t lie.
Measurement also keeps us from fooling ourselves into thinking we’re getting better when we’re really not. We may tell ourselves that we’re getting in shape. We may convince ourselves that we don’t have to change our diet to lose weight the way other people do. These self-deceptions are believable for only as long as we refuse to submit to measurement.
The numbers don’t lie.
Many beginning CrossFitters are brought to a crossroads when they realize that they’re still lying to themselves about how clean their diet is or hard they’re working in the gym. At some point, they face the numbers and either quit or change their approach. Without measurement there is less accountability and fewer celebrations.
The numbers don’t lie.
Question: How would you apply this post to spiritual fitness?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
The first thing that came to mind when I read this was Celebrate Recovery. I had just started going to CR when my current journey began, and the accountability and celebratory nature of letting go of hurts, habits, and hang ups has been very encouraging. Over the past two years I watched many people find hope, healing, and health as they turn over, or turn back over, to God the things that have had them wearing their stretchy pants for years; often wearing the pants handed down for generations, or more commonly sharing those pants with their spouse and family in codependence. One of the best things about CR Friday night is the “chip ceremony” celebrating monthly/yearly milestones as people acknowledge their “sobriety” from their issue (not just their dependence on a chemical relationship, but unhealthy emotional/spiritual relationships). I’ve also found the small group accountability and step study as a great “pinching/measuring” tool.
I appreciate the direction your thoughts are going with the spiritual connection through your experiences with cross fit and my prayer for you is that God is using this to allow you to bring even more glory to Him while finding wholeness yourself. If you were in Tulsa I might just show up in your garage as I need shed an inch from my waist and my soulfishness. From my perspective it seems that there is a lot of common ground between CR and CF that you and Heather might be just the person to cultivate in the right church.
Thanks Robert.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about celebrate recovery.
I’ve really enjoyed these posts. I’m thinking I’m going to write a parody using my dedication to (or lack thereof) Wii Fit.
Honestly, though, this makes me wish there was a Cross Fit in Moses Lake.
Let me know when you post your parody. I’d love to read it.
I will. But, if I’m as committed to this parody as I am to wii fit, then it may never get done!