Crossfit demands commitment. My goal is to work out four days a week. For me that’s a tough schedule. I’m typically worn out after the second day, and I’m a bit sore the rest of the week. So the last day is usually a tough one. Developing the discipline to do that schedule required patience.
My goal used to be lift as much weights, Rx the WOD, whatever. Now my goal is to get 100% commitment each time I’m there.
Today we did the usual warm up (which included 30 pullups, 30 squats and 30 ring dips) and then 2x 800 meter run, 30 situps, 800m run, 30 superman rocks. So: two miles, 60 situps, 60 superman rocks (a “superman rock” is like a reverse hollow rock.) My total time was 22:12. I’m guessing I ran an 8 minute mile in there, but no better than that. I think I got about 98% of the workout. I could have run a bit faster; but not much.
Which brings me around to another discussion about commitment and discipline in a different sport: theater. I write plays (and I’ve produced one of them) and I attend plays on a regular basis. I’ve reviewed a few of them. I’ve gotten to know quite a few actors. I’ve come to believe theater is as much a sport as an art. Theater take a huge commitment. It requires tremendous discipline to create the kind of in-the-moment pretense that a play is.
I once wrote that the playwright is a warrior, but it’s true of actors as well. So theater is sport. Not a blood-sport, but it does put demands on the mind, the nervous system; our bodies really don’t know the difference between emotional fear and physical fear. Both kinds trigger the flight or fight responses.
To be successful at crossfit, or theater, or anything that requires the extension of one’s abilities, requires 100% commitment. Developing that kind of committed mind requires determination.
I know the “warrior” mind thing has become a common place metaphor. There are professionals, and sometime ordinary people, who place themselves in harms way and sometimes they pay a high price. A play is a pretense reveals something about our humanness in a setting where risks are carefully mitigated. But at it’s best theater respects the dangers of life and honors the efforts of living. Theater offers an opportunity to reflect on who we are as individuals, communities, and nations. Crossfit offers that same opportunity. But to get the most out of it, you have to commit 100%.
Cheers.
