Athletics-Fitness & Performance Training with CrossFit: Keep your competitive juices flowing with CrossFit

You have competition everyday because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out everyday and live up to that. -Michael Jordan

I'm sure I can speak for every athlete after they are done playing or even if you just have had the itch for competition all your life, you need it.....even after you've hung up the uniform.

If you've been involved in competition/competitive sports since you started walking then it's not just something you forget about ITS IN YOUR BLOOD. You've woken up everyday pushing yourself to get better for the love of your sport and for the thrill of the competition. In the example above Jordan picked up Golf. Although, he loves just playing the game, it also fills his need for competition... not only the competition against others but the competition with-in himself to get better. I could give hundreds of other examples and I'm sure you could think of plenty as well.

Athletics have been a part of my life ever since I was born. After my father finished his basketball career at Ohio State University and his short time with the Boston Celtics (drafted in the 12th round and made the team) he jumped right into softball. I thought it was great, I can remember driving around from tournament to tournament playing baseball all day.... I eventually went on to play baseball at Indiana University after deciding just to focus on one sport in college. Basketball was my first love and I had a few offers from Division 1 football schools as well but I chose the baseball route. Moreover, after I hung up the spikes I still wanted to be around or involved in athletics/competition like most people would. After finishing my graduate degree at VCU, I was hired on to the basketball coaching staff at VCU for 2 seasons.

Beth Cunningham was the head women's coach at VCU who was a 2 Time All-American guard at ND and Jeff Capel III was the mens head coach at VCU who was a star at Duke.

I hit the weight room in my free time and trained and practiced with the team daily. This was a great experience and something I'll never forget. I love the fitness and strength training of any sport. Furthermore, when I first heard about CrossFit while living in Florida after moving from Virginia I was skeptical. It was starting to become a big deal but I wasn't ready to make the plunge. I decided to keep doing my own thing at the local gym. Not until moving back to Ohio and learning more about CrossFit is when I got involved and joined Grandview CrossFit (owned by Graham Holmberg 2010 CrossFit games champion and Brandon Couden) I really enjoyed the intense workouts that also had a competition element to them. You can literally lift weights which I love and compete while you are doing it. I was sold. I still really enjoy just going to the gym to workout or going for a run don't get me wrong, but having CrossFit in the mix of things really completes my workout scheme and taps that competitive desire still in me. As I said before, this gym has a lot of great athletes and I've learned a ton from watching them. I'm still fairly new to the CrossFit world so Im looking to pick up on new things everyday. I think you need to be open to learning no matter what level you are at. Im not saying CrossFit will be for everyone but it's worth a look. Get better everyday. Compete against yourself. Always be progressing and getting better.

If you continuously compete with others you become bitter, but if you continuously compete with yourself , you become better