Many times during the month of July I was asked my thoughts on the new(ish) fitness competition that many of you are seeing on ESPN (the CrossFit Games).
Not sure why anyone would value my opinion on the subject, much less seek it, but since you asked ...
It's impressive.
It's inspirational.
It's insane.
But, mostly it's just silly.
Competing to see who the very best exerciser in the world is, seems to miss the entire point of exercising in the first place, doesn't it?
I don't know about you, but I only have about FOUR reasons I engage in exercise in the first place. Here is that list in order of importance:
1 - To maintain my health
2 - To look and feel better
3 - To help me be a better dad
4 - To help me GSD (Get Sh** Done).
Maybe I could be talked into exercising for a couple other reasons, but that would be a short list. Along with my list of reasons why I WOULD exercise, I also have a list of reasons of why I would NOT exercise. Here is that list:
1 - To DOMINATE everyone in the room.
2 - To receive a trophy
3 - To display my perceived badassity
4 - To perpetuate even more exercise
5 - To become known as a great exerciser
I don't serve my fitness. IT SERVES ME. To reverse this breaks health.
The pianist who becomes obsessed with tuning and polishing his piano will never make beautiful music.
BTW - I'm not sure what the big deal is. There have always been exercise competitions. Frankly, I can't see much difference between the newest iteration of these and ones of the past.