Fitness is something held in high regard with many entrepreneurs and CEOs nowadays. Already we work long hours and have stress levels of 10 air traffic co-ordinators but we still seek to push our physical levels.
From running to weight lifting you now see startup founders and entrepreneurs taking part a wide array of fitness activities, yet so few seem to follow the CrossFit scene.
I’ve been weight lifting for 2 years with the last year being a process of strict diets, foods and daily schedules made me come to a complete stop a few weeks ago. My all or nothing attitude had enough and no longer wanted to deal with the military regime I had set up.
Enter CrossFit and its intense bursts of brilliantly tearful pain. I’m a fan, after only a month and I’ve got 3 reasons why you should be too:
1. Gaining Back Time
Time is a currency so few of us have to spare, full workouts such as bike rides and weight lifting sessions are usually done in 1 – 2 hour slots.
The essence of CrossFit is that in a short space of time (generally 30 minute workouts) you hit peak levels of cardio and muscle strength.
We assume that in the short space of time you can’t actually hit any sort of progress and in order to see progress time needs to be spent in the gym. This is partly true. Consider your next 1 – 2 hour session and think about the amount of times your mindset dips in and out of your rep, being worn out and maintaining focus is so few of us can manage.
Think of it as your to-do list, when you have a time frame you generally focus on completing the task in hand within the allotted time, CrossFit is the same because your workouts are always against the clock – 10 minutes to do As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) of a circuit – so like your work diary, full attention is on the task and rarely does it wonder.
2. Diets Always Fail
Dieting is a pain, busy people don’t have the time to cook meals for the week ahead and they certainly don’t have the time to source exact ingredients to then cook it all themselves. Following up the cooking and preparing with eating every 2 hours, it begins to strain relations during business meetings.
CrossFit, if done right, is a workout regime that doesn’t really need a diehard food plan – you can cheat every day at lunch if need be, but the important aspect is that you don’t need to chow down 8 meals per day or X calories to maintain the perfect body.
The workouts are so intense that most foods and unused energy gets burnt off, giving you the freedom to consume whatever you like (I’d stick to some sort of decent meal plan however).
Even with protein powder, it’s the perfect supplement for this and you don’t have to be getting up at 2am to get your mid night hit of whey.
3. Workouts Need Focus
Rich Froning, the fittest man in the world, splits his workouts into AM, PM. Both splits consist of 30 minute workouts both at a high intensity.
30 minute workouts gives you freedom to workout whenever, especially when workout splits are encouraged. Before breakfast, during lunch or whenever you like in the evening the short routines allows for that freedom.
30 minute intense blasts are always a perfect way to stop your focus and mind wondering, the competitive nature of circuits and AMRAP is enough to stop you from thinking about work. Not to mention that shortness of breath too.
So Why Crossfit?
Three of the biggest reasons people fail to commit to any workout plan is down to the categories of Dieting, Time and Focus.
Dieting is impossible when you’ve got meetings all day and junk food surrounds you
Time is limited and trying to fit in 2 hours for a “Gym Cycle” – go to the gym, workout, shower, change, get back from the gym = 2 hours – is always going to push the amount of spare time you have.
The idea of these workouts is that you can achieve a heck of a lot in a short space of time. Hitting every fitness goal in one workout is great for you but also for business.
Marius Fermi – Director of Online Communications at Tactical Sales Training where we offer B2B sales training. Fitness addict with a keen following of stock markets.
Image Credit: www.reebok.com
