Rippetoe - Be Alive. Be Very Alive

LINK

An article Rip wrote back when he was an SME for Crossfit HQ. I like to read it every once in a while to remember why I kill myself at the gym when I'd rather be doing something else.

quote:

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So let me say something a little meatier: you owe it to yourself and the millions of lives that generated yours to live as though you appreciated it. Over and above the fact that you’re healthier—and as a result cost everybody less money and aggravation while you’re here—there is just something wrong with getting up every day and moving through your existence with the least possible effort. Doing it this way makes you more than merely less than optimum. It makes you afraid of cows, and unable to understand that you should not be.

If your expectations are always those of someone content to live without physical challenge, then when it comes time for mental, moral, or emotional challenge, you fail to meet it because you are out of practice. Meeting and overcoming obstacles are skills that can be honed, as opposed to talents with which we are born. The best way to prepare for the inevitable shite that life occasionally hands us all is to live in a way that prepares you for it. If you can treat personal tragedy like a heavy set of twenty squats, you’ll do better than someone who has never met any challenge. Intentionally placing yourself in the position of having to complete a task when you don’t know if you can is the single best way of preparing to be in that position unintentionally. And that, my friends, is the way your training should be approached, so that you get more out of it than just “wellness.”

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