What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this

–Epictetus

If you’re not an athlete or sportsperson, competing week in week out and just living your life, do you really need such a program as Crossfit? Yes!

The overall health benefits and quality of life you enjoy when fit cannot be denied. 80-year-old athletes are stronger than non-athletes in their prime at 25 years old. If you think that strength isn’t important consider that strength loss is what puts people in nursing homes. Athletes have greater bone density, stronger immune systems, less coronary heart disease, reduced cancer risk, fewer strokes, and less depression than non-athletes.

As an “Average Joe”, someone who works Monday to Friday in an office, takes the kids to the zoo or goes on the beer Saturday, and recovers by watching the game on Sunday, your life is probably more taxing in a lot of ways that elite athletes aren’t.

The stresses of daily living take a toll on you more than an athlete. Top sports performers have their days, weeks and seasons planned out for them. And if they have an injury or illness, there are physiotherapists, doctors and every other professional lined up for them. You don’t have that, so it’s vital that you stay healthy. (For our definition of health and fitness, please take a look at this free issue of the Crossfit Journal)

An athlete knows when his next match/competition is, how many training sessions up until that, and exactly what is required of them on the day. Unlike elite sportspeople, you don’t know a) what “game day” will look like, and b) when it will come. Game day is any physical demand placed on you. Think of an emergency situation that you’ll find yourself in, and what physical tasks you’ll be asked to do:

• You might need to run away from an assailant or to get help for the scene of an accident– you don’t know how far you’ll need to run.
• You might get trapped somewhere and need to climb out.
• You might need to jump out of the way of a car or any other hazardous object.
• You might have to carry someone if they’re injured/sick/drunk.
• You might need to climb a tree to get down your family cat.

Can’t you see the benefits of partaking in an excise program that’s diverse, general, inclusive and varied would help you out in an emergency situation?

Okay, so maybe these situations don’t happen everyday (or every weekend, in the case of carrying home a drunk friend!) but look at the physical demands that you’re placed under on a daily basis:

• Shopping: This activity shouldn’t drain you. If you can deadlift 100Kg with ease, wouldn’t lifted those “heavy” shopping bags be a breeze?
• DIY: Taking care of the garden or digging a patio foundation would be much easier if you were in shape? You can get the job done in less time, and enjoy the barbeque. (Sorry, Crossfit can’t help with the rain!)
• If you’re late for a meeting or trying to catch a bus, do you want that run to leave you completely out of breath? Actually, if you’re in shape and exercising will makes you sleep more soundly and easier to wake up. Running for the bus could be for fun! (maybe)
• Playing with your kids: At the end of a workday you’d have the energy to play chasing, push them on the swing, throw a Frisbee with them, and help them practice whatever sport they’re doing. Kids usually try/play a couple of sports throughout their childhood, if not throughout one year! After you’re done, you can give them a jockey back or carry them to the car if they’ve fallen asleep.

Along with the physical benefits, the mental resilience and fortitude you develop with Crossfit can help you in your “normal” life. In a chaotic situation people might rely on you for guidance. Knowing you’ve pushed yourself past what you thought you were capable of in training will help you keep calm as you’re used to stress. In more mundane tasks, you’ll gain confidence from goal setting and overcoming physical challenges which will help you solve that problem, ace that interview, or pass that exam.

Everyone’s busy, particularly if you’ve a job and/or kids to look after. You don’t have the luxury of long rest periods where you can switch off. Because of Crossfit’s short, intense exercise routines, you don’t waste time. Crossfit is designed to be the most efficient and effective it can be, and because of our open source fitness model, is always striving to develop training methods that deliver across all physical demands.

If you work in manual labour or any physically demanding job, you may think you don’t need an exercise program because you get plenty in work. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. Most jobs are fairly repetitive. Either one of two things happen when you engage in manual labour over a long enough time frame. Either you adapt to the workload; in which case you are deriving no health benefits from your work (remember in order to get fitter you have to challenge the body beyond what it’s used to). Or, if the workload is very high, you never get a change to recover and your body begins to break down under the stress. A Crossfit program, properly introduced, can help you develop the strength and stamina to make your job easier.

Crossfit aims to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains, and live tests you across broad time and modal domains. As such, our program is perfectly designed to make you thrive in life, rather than just make it through the day.