How CrossFit made me a better executive

Often when we think of ourselves, we think of our brains and identify wholly with all the chatter going on in there. The fact is our brains are attached to much larger bodies and those bodies are designed (in fact NEED) to move daily.

We all know that physical fitness is important to our overall health and wellness. I won’t bother making the case for it again. But, far too many CEOs push off fitness and other health and wellness activities in order to make more time for work. I think that is a big mistake.

I have always been into fitness at some level. But in 2018 I signed up for CrossFit. It is not an understatement to say that being a CrossFit athlete has transformed my life and has impacted every aspect of it, including my performance and results at work.

What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is “constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity across broad time and modal domains”. CrossFit aims to develop fitness across the ten components of physical fitness: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy.

Why it impacted my entire life

Even though I thought I was going to die from the initial workouts, they were fun. Every day was different. And the community of people was amazing. I was hooked.

The beauty of CrossFit is that every day you push through limits that you either used to have or only thought you have. I workout before my work day. Starting my work day having just broken through some limit I thought I had is a game changer in terms of mindset. You start to believe that you have no limits anywhere!

Also, the more you get into it, the more you start working on all aspects of health. You eat better, get more sleep, etc.

What I have found is that the combination of a holistic, healthy lifestyle and the significant boost in mental energy and clarity that comes from this has led to significant performance gains at work.

Move your body to move your mind

Perhaps you think you don’t have the time or energy to workout. I would argue that you can’t afford not to workout. It will give you more energy. And the heightened energy and mental focus (and overall happiness) will give you more time.

It doesn’t have to be CrossFit. Just find something that you love that challenges you and do it most days.

Photo by Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash