While it’s always good to strive for optimal health and fitness, I’ve found that meeting fitness goals can be easier when done with a friend.
I never considered the difference that enlisting friends, or making them in the gym, could make on my experience. I always assumed that most everybody in the gym was just there to hit the weights and then get on with their lives.
This assumption was tested with my visit to Athens’s CrossFit SEO location this past Friday, a program focused on packing high repetitions (how many times one lifts a weight) into a short amount of time to create a grueling yet effective workout unlike any I had ever seen.
The cold industrial garage in which the sessions meet — known as “the box” — is a common location for most CrossFit complexes across the country and proves complimentary to the hard-nosed, no-nonsense nature of the CrossFit program.
Each participant is expected to move through the “Workout of the Day,” meeting each required rep count before moving on to the next. Though the half-hour time limit leaves little room for rest, the workout is made slightly more bearable by the fact that each person works alone at his or her own pace.
Everybody that I encountered at my CrossFit session was friendly and encouraging. I immediately felt an empowering sense of community between us as we prepared to reach a common goal.
It didn’t bode well that the first exercise of the WOD, an easy two laps around the garage, was a struggle, especially when it was to be followed by heavy lifting that included thrusting a bench press bar over my head, push-ups and more kettle bell swings than I thought humanly possible.
With 20 minutes left in the workout, I was whole-heartedly ready to give up.
But a quick look at those around me, all struggling just as breathlessly, helped me find the will to overcome my perceived limitations and see each exercise through.
When I finished my “to-do list” with 10 minutes to spare, I was thrilled to see that, despite being the only newbie, I wasn’t the last to do so. Getting to my feet, I was ready to down a gallon of water and pass out in bed for about 48 hours.
Instead, I joined the rest of my new community to cheer on, between plenty of groans and heavy panting, the last person standing as she struggled to finish her set strong.
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Jake is a junior studying journalism and a stringer for The Post. Offer him workout tips at jd202409@ohiou.edu.
