Twelve+ years ago I saw an ad for FirePower in the form of a postcard at my daughter’s gymnastics club. It read, “Leave your ego at the door.” As I’ve aged, that approach has taken on new meaning.
My time as a CrossFitter at FirePower has been on-and-off for all 12+ years. I’ve stopped due to injury, lack of energy or motivation, but mostly when I’ve stopped it’s been because I think I just can’t do it anymore.
Age is a bitch, no lie. Of all the obstacles I’ve run into during my years at FirePower, my mindset in confronting the effect of my age on my ability to workout is the biggest. This past week I saw the same line of thinking that has disabled me attack my husband. “Everything hurts, I can’t do what I used to!”
No shit, Sherlock.
Not surprisingly, that sentiment didn’t make him feel better. But it caught his attention as intended.
Now at age 60. my body can’t lift what it used to – not that I could ever lift heavy – and that pisses me off. I walk my burpees and do step ups instead of box jumps. My heavy weight now was my warm-up weight not so long ago. When I plank my skin sags underneath me – from my belly, my arms, and even my face – and no amount of wods will fix it. There’s no way to sugar coat that it is sometimes downright depressing to know that no matter how much work I do, my crevices, folds, and weaknesses will still be there.
The fact is that aging is a fact. I can’t stop that. But stopping my workouts because I can’t do what I used to be able to do, or because workouts don’t give me the same results as they used to, is not a viable option.
I’ve redefined my experience of strenuous, successful, ability and satisfaction. Less is more, and that equates to stronger. Because if I don’t change my mindset, if I don’t alter the way I see and treat my body and measure my fitness success, that hastens my age faster than I can do a burpee.
During a wod, one of the guys was challenging another member to go as fast as him. The response back was, “you can go faster because you’re lifting the same weight as Christine!”
My new definition of success.
Christine (aka Chrissy T)