She looked at me and asked, "Why are you acting like you aren't strong?"

half_moon

Last night at the gym, I was loading up my lifting bar for a group workout. Everyone around me had a silent confidence as they added weights to their bar and put chalk on their hands. I felt somewhat confident, too, since I’d been going to that gym for over a year and had an idea of what I was doing. My certainty, however, quickly wore off once the coach began to make her walk towards the front of the room and told us the countdown for the exercise was about to begin. Suddenly the workout looked intimidating, my bar was way too heavy--why did I put so much weight on there??-- and my mind started its race through all of the reasons why I probably shouldn’t do this.

Once I noticed that my hands were wringing together and I was nervously looking at everyone else’s weights for comparison, I pulled the coach aside and, fumbling, asked about how heavy we should be lifting for the workout. Surely we shouldn’t be lifting TOO heavy, and I should definitely shed the weight. I was looking for her to validate my fears.

Then she did one of the most inspirational things anyone has directed towards me: She scoffed, laughed, and continued walking towards the front of the classroom. She turned, looking at me over her shoulder, and asked,

“Why are you acting like you aren’t strong?”

I was kind of taken aback, at first, and I looked over to my friend a few spots away. “You can do it,” she said, “no problem.” Then, I suddenly realized that I could. If everybody else believed in me, why didn’t I? Why was I fooling myself into believing I didn’t have the muscle, the will, and the know-how? I did. And suddenly I knew it.

And every time throughout the workout, when I felt I was too tired to possibly go on, my bar was too heavy, my legs were too weak—her chiding question popped into my head. And each time, I went a little bit harder, and pushed myself a little bit more.

The CrossFit platform is focused on encouraging members to learn “functional movements” that are the “core movements of life.” Usually this is interpreted as lifting a heavy bag of dog food over your shoulder, moving furniture on your own, and basically being physically independent and strong. But it’s times like this where, really, the things I learn from my workout transcend my physical fitness. And I know that next time I am feeling tired, sad, weak, defeated, or like second-guessing myself, my coach's voice will ask me, “Why are you acting like you aren’t strong?”

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HealthierRayne

This is amazing - we have to believe in ourselves! Great lesson

sllm1

This is why I love CrossFit. Way to go!

half_moon

This struck me in particular because she pointed out that I was putting on an act like I wasn't strong, just because I was afraid. She showed me, really, how silly I was being, in denying an obvious truth: I could do it.

And yes, yay CrossFit! Haha

mom23mangos

Love it.