What is “Healthy?”


“I just want to be healthy.”
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We hear this often from new members who come to us at Brickhouse when we ask what their goals and aspirations are.
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Every prospective member sits down with a coach or staff member and we talk. We don’t workout. We don’t sweat. We just talk.
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What are your goals? What do you want to change about yourself? What aspirations do you have? Who will you become once you achieve this goal?
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We do this because if we begin an exercise or nutrition program without truly defining what we value and WHY we want to do something, it tends to be far less effective.
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When we start with a focused purpose, an emotional connection to what we want to achieve, the rest of the process flows.
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So, let’s go back to the basic answer, “I just want to be healthy,” and unpack it.
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What does “healthy” mean?
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A certain weight, a target body fat percentage, the ability to squat 300lbs, running for miles without stopping, etc…. There are so many options that one could use to define health and apply it to a goal that they want to achieve.
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One of the most moving goals for health I’ve heard came from a lady a few years back who was obese and needed to lose 100+ lbs. When I asked what her goal was, I was expecting the obvious answer. But here’s what she said:
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“I want to be able to cross my legs again.”
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It blew me away. THAT, to her, would be health. It wouldn’t be an all-encompassing achievement of health, of course, but the point is that she knew exactly what she wanted and what it would mean to her to achieve it.
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So what is health to you?
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CrossFit defines health as your level of fitness across your lifetime. With that begs the question of “what is fitness?” Again CrossFit provides an answer, albeit 3-pronged:
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1. The 10 General Physical Skills – cardio/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, power, speed, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy. According to founder Greg Glassman in the 2002 article What Is Fitness, “You are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills”

2. The Hopper. What is your ability to perform well at a large number of tasks imaginable? Think of a task being pulled randomly out of a hopper – could you perform if put on the spot?

3. The Pathways. Different time domains use different energy systems – the phosphagen, glycolytic and oxidative. Phosphagen dominates efforts lasting 10 seconds or less; glycolytic is used in moderate-power activities lasting up to several minutes; and oxidative is the aerobic pathway where our longer time domains fall. Total fitness would require work in each of these three energy pathways, not neglecting one for another.
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This 3-pronged approach to fitness ensures the broadest and most general fitness possible. There is no specializing here. CrossFit is all about improving your life with total fitness – fitness that is general and broadly inclusive.
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Let’s go back to health, now. What does it mean to you?
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You might have a bodyweight goal in mind. It might be a clothes size. It might be the ability to play with your kids or grandkids without pain or restriction.
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The point is that “health” looks differently to everyone. It’s not our job at Brickhouse to define it and mold our clients into what we define.
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It’s our job to listen; we listen to your problems and offer a solution that is designed to get you the health that you desire. We guide you as coaches from Point A to Point B and give you the tools to improve your life.
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And it all falls under the umbrella of this thing we call CrossFit.
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Email us today for a free “no-sweat” intro where we talk about your goal and what health means to you.

 

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