Let's face it. I'm a "No Pain No Pain" kind of guy. My wife runs 10Ks on the regular; I don't even…read morelike to DRIVE 10K. Unfortunately, seeing my growing gut and my even faster growing kid, I realized that it's about time to do things. And since my aforementioned wife had already joined the Crossfit cult, she harangued me to join Crossfit Grant Street.
Oh, don't think I didn't harbor a hefty dose of skepticism. It also didn't help that most of the people I'd already seen there during my initial assessments were wearing some old t-shirts of whatever college team they were on. Notice, I didn't say, "cheered on," I said, "were on." Was I ever on a college team? Does mathlete count? Beer pong? Not to mention, I went to college back in the pre-Internet dark ages, where faces and books were two different, unrelated things. So yeah, I may be new to the entire working out thing, but at least I'm also really, really old. As I said, skepticism.
Fortunately, the gym owners/coaches understand my particular set of...challenges and adjust accordingly. It also helps to leave your ego at the door. Like when I told my doctor I started Crossfit at my annual physical (or what my millennial co-workers call it, "Wait, you go EVERY year?!"), doc responded, "At your age...." (Those sentences never end well. ) "...I don't usually think Crossfit is a good idea. You're surrounded by a bunch of 20 year olds and you try to do what they do and end up hurting yourself."
I laughed and responded, "Uh, no. I know my limits. You forget that I've been married long enough that my ego was obliterated years ago. I've already accepted the fact that my wife can deadlift more than I can so I have no problem asking my coaches to scale it down." Doc gave her blessings after hearing that.
So I'm a few months into it. I don't go to class every day, though I could if I wanted to. I have the shirt, but I feel bad wearing it since I haven't gotten rid of my gut yet. I've gotten to know many of my fellow gymmates and they're good folks; I don't think they realize how old and broken down I am, but the coaches do and that's what counts since they're the ones scaling my workouts. I'm not part of the cult, but all those years of fighting Sunday School class has built up my resistance towards indoctrination. Still, my body is reshaping itself slowly but surely. I may never be a jock (I'm too much of a nerd at heart), but I'm adding a few more attribute points to my character sheet. I'm all right with that.