The Gift Of Fitness

For most of my adult life, fitness had one purpose: to compete. Every interval, every lift and every extra bit of work was about getting better at CrossFit®. I spent years building an engine, getting strong and eventually got to test all of that at the highest level of the sport.

But since stepping away from competitive CrossFit, I’ve realized something. For all those years I was building this crazy level of fitness, I didn’t actually use it that much outside of the gym. I trained so I could train harder. I got fitter so I could compete at being fit. Now, for the first time in my adult life, fitness isn’t the end goal, and it’s made me realize how much of a gift being fit actually is.

Being fit gives you the ability to say yes. Want to go hiking? Yep. Water skiing? Yep. Boxing? Absolutely. Jiu jitsu? I’m in. A full day on the tools? No worries. If my kids want to wrestle, run around, swim, ride bikes or spend the whole day outside? Let’s go.

I think that’s what I’ve been missing about fitness for a long time. I don’t care about specializing in being the fittest person in the room anymore. I just want to be ready for anything. Strong enough to lift something when it needs lifting, fit enough to hike for hours, capable of doing a physical day on the tools, athletic enough to jump into something completely new and still have enough left to run around with my kids.

I don’t need to be the best at all of it. I just never want my fitness to be the reason I have to say no. All those years of training weren’t just about the CrossFit Games. I built something I get to keep: a body that lets me experience more of life.

Maybe that’s what fitness was supposed to be all along. Not something that takes you away from life, but something that prepares you for it. Train hard, get strong, build an engine and look after your body. But then use it. Try new things, go places, play with your kids, get outside your comfort zone and be fit enough to say yes.

That might be the greatest gift fitness gives us.