jerz57’s BodyBlog

Some interesting thoughts on fitness came up today in a short, but intense conversation with a friend.   I ran into one of my regular workout partners while running some errands.  The conversation quickly led into working out and reaching our goals.  She stated that she is not reaching any of her goals despite working out hard and eating as clean as possible for our environment.  The program a group of us has be doing for the last month is very intense and short in duration.  It is called Crossfit, you can check it out on www.crossfit.com.  Most all the group has seen some good improvements since starting Crossfit.  The thing is it is not totally visual, it is about functional fitness; “being able to clear any obstacle that comes in your way”.

Enough about Crossfit and back to my frazzled workout partner; she has not seen any real improvement since starting the program.  Something is wrong; we talked a lot about overtraining and how it could be affecting all of us.  Also, we talked about the stress she is experiencing at work, and finally we talked about sleep patterns.

Here is the conclusion we came up with.  It may not be overtraining because the Crossfit program allows for rest, but we think she is just not ready for a program that calls for a certain level fitness.  A baseline needs to be established to before certain programs are conducted; bottom-line.  Her level of stress is high, we are deployed to a combat zone and her responsibilities are very taxing.  So, she plans on taking a little “Me Time” everyday to decompress and allow her mind and body to relax so both can heal after a brutal day.  Lastly, she is only getting about 4 hours of sleep a night.  As most of us know rest is the most important aspect of fitness and 4 hours are not enough.   I think she is going to try to get at least 6 hours; we are at war so we can’t be perfect.

Finally, I think she is going to step away from Crossfit and do Body for Life.   I believe this is a great move.  The people I’ve witnessed do Body for Life have transformed their body.   If anyone is struggling with similar frustration it maybe time to look outside the gym and the diner table to see what other aspects of life could be altered to reach that superhuman level of fitness.  
J

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