It’s true.  The Zen Capitalist is a CrossFitter.

I’m all about efficiency within reason.  These days, why send an invite the old-fashioned way through snail mail when you can easily send an evite? Why check your emails every 10-15 minutes when you can check it every few hours? Finally, why the heck would you spend an hour and a half at the gym when you can get the same workout, if not better, in half the time.

Having an active lifestyle, the gym is a second home to me.  However spending one and a half hours of my day there simply isn’t feasible.  I admit, a lot of it was my very own fault.  My routine looked something like this:

1. Scope the room for cute girls in full makeup
2. Wait for an open bench
3. Perform bicep curls
4. Look at myself in the mirror
5. Secretly compare my build to other guys around me
6. Wait 3 minutes and rinse & repeat
7. Once the full set was done, I would linger around the water fountain and perform #1, #4, and #5 again before I would go at it with a different exercise

Far from efficient, right?  I had to do something about it, and do it quick.  That’s when I ran into a buddy of mine at my “Globo Gym” doing something completely unorthodox.  He walked in, said “Hi”, and proceeded with his funky lookin’ workout.  I just completed my first set when he said, “See you later” and walked out of the gym.  I was perplexed, he finished his workout in less than 10 minutes and here I was having imaginary body building contests with unsuspecting patrons in the mirror!  I wanted what he was smoking!

This is the workout he did:

I caught up with my friend and he told me all about his new CrossFit workout regimen that he adopted.  He showed me a few movements and encouraged me to attend a free workout session at a local CrossFit affiliate gym.  I attended the free session and learned the exercises in a classroom oriented presentation.  After instruction, we began the workout and I thoroughly got my ass handed to me.  It wasn’t because the workout was hard, it was because I WANTED to push myself.  It was me vs me.  My goal was to outdo myself each and every time the workout came around. We focused on scalable functional movements; basically things that we do in normal life.

That’s when I decided to make the switch.  I went from traditional split workout routines to CrossFit.  That moment for me was just as monumental as the time I switched from PC to Mac for my computer or from Human Paladin to Troll Shaman in WoW as a character of choice.  I became an official CrossFit fanboy.

Saving time is just one of many reasons as to why I CrossFit to this day (I’ll share some other reasons in a later post).  Oh, and being in the best shape of my life because of it is definitely nothing to scoff about.

Update – 11.8.09

I wrote this article 3 weeks ago but it will be posted tomorrow on 11.9.09.  I came across an article today by Baker at Man vs Debt called “Would You Rather Be Fat or In Debt?“.  I choose being Fat.  I say this because it’s much easier to lose weight then to dig yourself out of a financial hole.   Look at all those contestants on “The Biggest Loser”.  Give them 6 months and BAM!!!  You transform into a HOT SEXY THANG!

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How does working out fit into your schedule?  Is it as routine as brushing your teeth or is it something you do when you get around to it?  Are you a CrossFitter?  Have you heard of it?  Have you met FRAN?

Video Credit: CrossFit North (Top)

Video Credit: CrossFit One World (Middle)

Photo Credit: A Friend’s Photo

Related posts:

1. Seven Reasons Why I CrossFit