A Word on Intensity.

In terms of health and fitness, what is intensity to you? Is it how fast your heart is beating? Is it how much the gorilla is grunting as he lifts and drops his dumbbells? Whatever it is to you, I'm here to establish a standard among us. Exercise physiologists define intensity as power. That's right, intensity three-bar equal sign to power. This means that intensity as a value is (force times distance) over (time). Put simply, how much weight did you move, how far did you move it, and how long did it take you?

It has been suggested that intensity, in health and fitness AND in life, is the independent variable that will MAXIMIZE the rate of return on your efforts. Don't think about that too much, but I just wanted to throw it out there.

To be relevant to our workouts, intensity is why some of our "WOD's" (Workout of the day) have you "done" in 20 minutes, many times less! Our WOD's are short, intense, and to the point. In my experience with CrossFit, I have very rarely had a prescribed WOD that was above 30 minutes. And yet, when the situation arises that I have to be active for 30, 45, 55 plus minutes, I still feel great getting through whatever it was.

With that said, with our little 30 minutes to an hour and a half that we spend together 2-3 times a week, you have to give it your all! (And obviously give it your all on your independent fitness endeavors as well.)

It's a long shot and not everyone will agree with this, but you want to treat your workouts like you would your life. (Although, health and fitness should be a priority to all, in my opinion.) If you strive for less, you'll get less. If your life is more intense by definition, you'll get more out of it! Compare someone who chose to major in physics at MIT versus someone who chose to major in sociology at a local college. No offense, but the physics major is probably going to become more of a success than the other guy because he chose the "intense" route of education! (This is hypothetical, and the sociology guy could have ended up more successful, but this is just a hypothetical example.)

Now apply this to fitness. You've seen these people. The regular gym goers who are in decent shape, but they look the same as a couple months ago. You might even know their routine by now. At this point they're just going through the motions and maintaining, maybe even regressing. This is the sociology guy. Now look at us! Look at the members of our little group! We strive, each class, to do things at a high intensity, to do things we never thought we could do, sometimes things we never wanted to do. We are the MIT physics majors of the fitness world. That's something to be proud about!

What's the gist of all this? In health, fitness, and life in general, always strive to make the more "intense" decision. Sometimes you'll enjoy the intense experience, sometimes it will suck. But regardless, take my word for it that you will yield the best results with this mindset. Happy training!

Jan