Day One

Well, here goes my attempt at blogging. Blogger tells me that my last post was exactly five years ago to the day. This time, however, I'll have content to publish on a regular basis!

First, a smidgen of context. This blog's most probable audience has known me plenty long enough to know that I have long been a huge fitness dork (among other types of dorks as well, but those types are less relevant here). Since college, my bread and butter has been traditional weightlifting and bodybuilding. Not to say that I've limited my horizons to repeatedly picking up and putting down heavy objects. Not in the least. I've done mid-distance running (5K-10K), rowing, swimming, "boot camp", kickboxing, yoga, pilates...nearly everything that can be done in a gym, I've probably done it. Except Zumba.

And yet, for years I've been longing for something new. I've grown tired of spending hours in the gym only to yield menial improvements in raw strength while witnessing continued deterioration of other important areas of fitness such as cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and agility. As I approach the ripe age of 30, brute strength and "club muscles" aren't terribly meaningful or useful (arguably, they never were).

In other words, I've been seeking a comprehensive fitness regimen that builds "athleticism". I live a life where I don't strive for excellence in any one physical activity or sport -- I don't run competitively, ski, snowboard, play soccer, stand-up paddleboard, golf, or save people from burning buildings with sufficient frequency that I ought to train specifically for any one of them. However, I would like to be as prepared as possible to do any one of them on any given day.

Enter CrossFit. As I understand it, CrossFit is a cult exercise phenomena that has made a "sport" out of a wide variety of cross-training activities borrowed from dozens of training regimens utilized by nearly every known sport. Commonly used movements include those that specifically target functional strength and power: olympic lifts, jumps, squats, etc. Said another way, CrossFit aims to train you and prepare you to be able to move large loads (yourself or otherwise) over long distances in short periods of time in whatever direction (e.g. up, forward).

The primary purpose of this blog is simply to record my progress and serve as an exercise journal. I never bothered keeping one before, which has probably been to my detriment, so I'm glad to address this deficiency now. The secondary aim of this blog is to record my thoughts on this new training program from the point of view of an 10-year veteran gym rat and biomedical engineering major with enough background knowledge in kinesiology, physics, and biomechanics to get himself in serious trouble. I hope this blog is informational, interesting, and perhaps even motivational.

Special thanks to Steven Gee, who has contributed more to the fitness side of my life than anyone else.