I desember 2016, på en flytur fra Tromsø til Oslo, hadde jeg behov for å reflektere over hvor jeg var og hvor jeg ønsket å være. Jeg tok frem mobiltelefonen og begynte å skrive. Frem til nå har notatet ligget gjemt på mobilen, men det var en hyggelig opplevelse å finne frem til det idag.
Her kommer min historie. Den er uredigert og rå, og kom rett fra hjertet et sted på luftlinjen mellom Tromsø og Oslo i 2016. Den er på engelsk, mest sannsynlig fordi det var det språket jeg kunne uttrykke meg best på akkurat på det tidpunktet.
The biggest lesson I learned in 2016 was that I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if I could make my biggest dream come true, and not any time physically doing something about that dream. I’ve gone a million rounds with myself, thinking about all the things that could go wrong and all the things that could go really well. I’ve buried the dream more than once, but somehow it has ALWAYS been with me.
In 2012 I found CrossFit. Better yet – I fell in love with CrossFit.
A bit of background: after playing team sports my whole life, I stopped around the age of 20. I started travelling and focusing on other things. I found I had a love for meeting new people and experiencing different cultures. I absolutely loved the feeling of going to a different part of the world and not knowing much about anything! Or anyone. I loved the unknown. I’ve often been told that leaving the safety of my own country was a brave thing to do. To me this wasn’t being brave. This felt like the most natural thing in the world to me.
After finishing my football days, I started going to the gym and did the routines I knew. I usually ran intervals on the treadmill, followed by sets and reps on a few machines. I used to finish off with abs. Cause you know, abs. More often than not, I went to the gym by myself, and it was an action of «I feel like I have to do it» rather than «I really want to do it». Why? Cause it was boring.
Then along came CrossFit in all its glory. It ticked every box I could ever dream of – boxes I didn’t realize existed. I didn’t believe in love at first sight until that day in March 2012. I was greeted with smiles and it felt like I was walking into a world where everyone kind of understood. You see, I wasn’t the only one who had fallen for CrossFit. From day one I felt like I was part of something much bigger than a gym.
The members and coaches at CrossFit Auckland, which was my first CrossFit home, cared about me. They cared about my well being, they wanted me to have fun, they hassled me if I missed training, and they became my best friends.
I didn’t know much about functional movement and its importance until I saw how it affected people. Not just physically, but mentally as well. My coach said, «our members become better humans, better parents, better people in their communities» – and he couldn’t be more right. I felt it too. Every single day I was looking forward to going to the gym. I was freaking excited to get there!
I’ve heard an endless amount of people say they need to get fit before they start, and variations of that statement. Mate. You don’t. I came into it thinking I had a decent level of fitness. And maybe I did… but that assumption was taken from my own definition of fitness which went something like «you’re fit if you can run for a long time». I didn’t know fitness until I met CrossFit. There are so many variables to being fit I had no idea what the hell I was on about!
Fitness is so much more than being a good runner or having big biceps. Don’t get me wrong, those things a great too, and we wouldn’t wanna be without them. But now, fitness to me is being mobile, being able to lift some weights, run some long and short distances, do some pull-ups, controlling movements, have my body do what I want it to do, and the list goes on. You know, I find it hard to put into words because the reality is – it needs to be experienced and you need to figure out what fitness and health really mean to you. My personal, humble opinion is that you won’t know until you try CrossFit.
Hell yeah, that first session was hard! And during the first few months, there were endless amounts of movements I couldn’t do as prescribed. And there still are! But the beauty of it is that the coach is there not only to motivate but to teach you safe and efficient movement, to show you different options when there are movements you can’t perform just yet, to tell you when you need to harden up, and most of all to support you through the whole process.
In the CrossFit community we always say that the last person to finish gets the loudest cheer – and that is 100% true 100% of the time.
So where am I going with this? Well, with CrossFit I found a team again. I found a ton of like-minded people who truly wanted their classmates to succeed and get a PR. People who changed both physically and mentally because of CrossFit. People who found a sense of meaning to their daily lives. And people who became my closest friends. That is why I fell in love with CrossFit. And I’m yet to find anything like it.
Back to my dream board. My dream is to open a CrossFit gym. I want as many people as possible to experience this beautiful sport and feel the effects of it just like millions of people across the globe (including me) have. I want to help people redefine what is possible in their lives. I want to help them every step of the way in reaching their goals whatever they may be. Many probably don’t even have a goal. I wanna help them with that too. I want people to be able to tie their own shoelaces when they are 90 years old and play with their grandkids without feeling pain or movement restrictions. I really just wanna assist in making people’s lives a little healthier and happier.
What has kept me from initiating this dream is a fear of failure. A fear of the unknown. The unknown that I love so much when it’s something that comes naturally. My goals this year is to get my A into G and do something! I might not get to where I wanna be by the end of the year, but I wanna start 2018 knowing that in 2017 I followed my dream, faced my fears, and helped others be healthier, happier people. Including myself. I don’t know how I will do it just yet, but I will.
Benedikte