Crossfit or Bust!

"Competition is a sin." -- John D. Rockefeller

If that's true, Terence and I are in big, big trouble!

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but my husband and I tend to get caught up in "winning" against the other one. All the marriage books talk about this kind of behavior like it's marital poison, and maybe it is. Despite that, Terence and I have a very strong marriage and love to spend time together, and I thank my Father in Heaven every day He blessed me with such a man in my life. Maybe if we weren't competitive, we would make the people around us sick with our mushiness. (See, Terence and I trying to compete all the time is actually doing everyone a favor!)

Well, lately I thought I'd try an experiment. Terence has been trying to get motivated to get back into shape, and especially watching me lose 40 lbs and finish two triathlons brought on the daily comments of "I really need to get to the gym!" and "I'm going to stop eating so much junk food." I kind of expected that with all the triathlon stuff he might decide he wanted to beat me in one and get training. (He was supposed to do the duathlon in November, but he backed out just before it was time to register. I think he chickened out because he knew I was going to smoke him in the race.) Anyway, during that time he discovered something called "Crossfit." Now you may know what it is-- I didn't. It's an elite athlete training program where they make you do all kinds of different exercises that are mind-blowing. Every day they post a workout of the day which includes some kind of mammoth task. (Today's workout, for example, asked for a bunch of reps where you hang on rings and lift your legs into the air until you are completely upside down. Just like you're a gymnast.)

Well, Terence did OK for a little while, but then he started to lose a little steam. OK, a lot of steam. My experiment was to join him in doing the Crossfit program, hoping to spark that marital competition and get him moving. Surely he can't let me "win" when it comes to a program that includes lifting insane amounts of weight!! So far, so good. He hasn't worked out every day, but he's excited again so that 1- he can be the teacher, showing me how to do the moves, and 2- he can definitely win this game, because there is no way I can throw a bar holding 200 lbs up over my head.

The only problem will be surviving this insane workout schedule. Just the "test" to see if you are in shape enough to start at the beginner level left my legs so sore I could only hobble around for five days. But hey, if it motivates my husband to get to bed earlier and work out again like he used to, it will be worth it. Right???

(If you're curious to see just how insane this Crossfit program is, here's the link: www.crossfit.com/ At the very least, if you watch any of the demo videos, you'll wonder how the women can be so superhumanly strong.)