The
Fittest Woman in Africa doesn’t seem to have fussed with her hair or makeup
this morning. Yet here she is looking gorgeous. CrossFit girls are annoying
that way.
But
I’m not here to hang out and curse my luck at not being built like an Amazon; I’m
here to get rowing training from one. By the end of today I’ll be rowing like a
Greek warrior.
The magic words
I’m
expecting Rika Diedericks to plunge right in with advice on how weight training
and a thousand hours of practice can get me comfortable with a rowing machine.
Or at the very least get my arms and shoulders looking like hers. But no, there’s
nothing about wods or lifts at the start of the workshop, the magic formula she
opens with is a quote. Yes, really.
The
key to rowing, she tells us, is this: rhythm, harmony and balance.
Rhythm,
rhythm, rhythm, she stresses. Not just in rowing, but in CrossFit in general.
Not just in CrossFit, but in life.
Ahh,
and there it is, the moment when the lessons we learn in the box become lessons
to use in life. And those lessons do come,
as surely and frequently as CrossFit boys train without their shirts on.
The rhythm of life
Throughout
the workshop she keeps coming back to this one thing. And it’s this word that’s been rumbling around on
in my brain since the weekend. Rhythm!
I’ve
been thinking how hard it can be to find that rhythm. It’s like sitting on the
rowing machine, sometimes you move in stops and starts, sometimes you settle
into a rhythm but it’s all wrong for you and your body feels awkward and slow. You
need to find that rhythm that’s uniquely yours.
And
I’ve been thinking of the rhythm of my
life: a good morning kiss while I’m still fuzzy with sleep, school lunch tucked
in a pocket and a shy “I love you mom”, the aroma of coffee enveloping my desk,
a few stolen seconds looking skywards and falling up into the stars when I
close the blinds, snug pugs grunting goodnight.
They’re
important these small moments that give my life some sort of pattern, stop the
Technicolor fabric of my world from simply fraying and fading into the blank
nothingness of time.
Can you feel the
flow?
It’s
that rhythm in your life that helps you keep you moving forward, albeit
imperceptibly, even when you feel like the world’s dragging you backwards. Like
the beating of your heart, the pulsing of your blood, the ticking of a clock, it’s
there like a chanted mantra that “every day in every way it’s getting better
and better”.
And
when you’re exhausted and life isn’t playing nice and you can’t see exactly
where you’re going, you just keep rowing, you just keep going at your own pace knowing
that every rhythmic breath carries to a little closer to your goal.
These people, they make music
And
me? For once I feel like I’m not sinking, and right now that’s enough.
Rhythm, harmony and
balance
So
after a morning in a freezing cold box soaking up Rika’s words, I came away
with these key points: I need rhythm, I need firm abs and good posture and I
most definitely need a cheap little orange razor. The razor; for those of you
who like me suspected it must have something to do with minimising the drag on
your leg hairs; is actually for shaving your calluses with.
And
with that I have a neat bundle of instructions that works just as well for
life: I’ve got to keep moving forward at my own, regular pace; keep my body
strong and standing tall; and get rid of all the dead weight and the people or
things that bring me nothing but pain.
Ok,
so I may not have Olympic shoulders, but I am working on having an Olympic mind
set. In my own time. All in my own time.
“Harmony,
balance, rhythm. There you have it. That’s what life is all about.” – George
Pocock
No comments:
Post a Comment