Most Americans are aware of the obesity problem that this country faces. Most Americans are also aware of laziness becoming more and more common throughout generations. The billboards and the commercials about these problems are everywhere. However, how to change this is stated nowhere. My generation is that lazy generation. We are also currently in the infamous “Freshman 15” stage of our lives. However, most Americans aren’t aware of the attitude we have toward ourselves and exercising, especially college students with our new found adulthood.

People know that exercise is good for our health and exercise will extend our lives and exercise can reduce risks such as heart disease and diabetes. However, students haven’t found how to look at themselves positively enough to believe that they too can exercise and enjoy these benefits.

I found CrossFit one year ago. In the past year, my attitudes on physical activity, diet, and daily activities and outlook have changed. When one starts CrossFit, most aspects of life quickly become about CrossFit. This is not an unhealthy obsession, though. It is because we have learned to understand how our daily lives affect our fitness and health and that we are completely in control of this. Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of CrossFit, explained that he “designed our program to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.”

Everyone knows about the CrossFit phenomenon going on right now. A lot of people know what it is but don’t really know what it is. It is not a bunch of ridiculously buff people coming together to see who can pick up the heaviest bar in different positions. CrossFit takes all the aspects of a healthy body and uses fitness to make our health optimal. CrossFit is designed to work for everyone. So many times after I tell people I do CrossFit I hear, “I could never do that,” “I’m too weak for that,” and, “I don’t even know how to pick up a bar.” CrossFit’s goals to provide a safe progression into movements allows for everyone to participate. Jay Cohen is a certified CrossFit instructor and knows nothing better than the ins and outs of teaching CrossFit to athletes of different levels.

CrossFit is for everyone, from the 80-year-old grandmother of seven to the Division 1 collegiate athlete. Everything can be scaled to your current level of fitness.Can't do pull-ups? No problem, we'll work on your strength with resistance bands until you can. Are pushups out of the question? No sweat, we can use a box, or even the wall, to place your body at an angle, therefore reducing the load your arms are required to push. Every movement we perform can be altered to suit your needs and still maintain the desired stimulus of the workout.

Not to mention every movement has a fundamental warm-up to ensure that you are doing every movement correctly. It is too often that I see people in a public gym, or hear stories, about people who were injured doing weightlifting movements the wrong way. Yes. There is a wrong way. There are many wrong ways and only one right way. CrossFit instructors are trained to teach everyone the correct way and the best way for them.

College students are at the age in their life where physical activity level is at its peak. While we are privileged with a free gym to go to, we are limited with resources, support, and a comforting environment. We can’t help but feel judged when at the gym. Now is the time to “jump on the bandwagon” and see what CrossFit is here to do. I find less stress in my life immediately after leaving the box (what us CrossFitters call the gym). Just like a college campus, CrossFit is such a communal activity that there is so much support to get through even the toughest of workouts. Greg Glassman ensures that “CrossFit is empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed.” Students band together in the library during midterms and finals, and people band together during workouts at CrossFit. It is always easier to eat healthily and know how to eat healthy when you have the support of so many people to teach you and that are eating the same things you are. Cohen explains that

We are a community of people who decided that mediocre will not suffice. We give it everything we have, not matter where we are on the fitness spectrum. Everyone leaves it all on the table, and it's because of that fact we understand one another so well. Community is what drives us.We get better when our friends get better.Steel sharpens steel.

CrossFit is not a fad workout that utilizes a fad diet. CrossFit is a lifestyle and I have embraced this newfound lifestyle and have not appreciated anything more in my life. The one most influential lesson I have learned from CrossFit is that

if you want something, you have to work hard for it.