The Learning Curve

CrossFit presents a host of new challenges to athletes who think they’re “fit,” but Melissa Saccoccia explains that the program both requires and rewards patience.

CrossFit was very different than what I had expected. My first workout wasn’t the most intense hour of my life, and I didn’t almost throw up after. Now, I’m not saying it was easy. Trust me: I am quite aware of how pathetic I looked compared to other, more experienced members. But it was frustrating. I’m usually pretty good at maintaining proper form, partly because I’ve always been active and partly because I’m a physical person. So it burned me when I couldn’t get into a position that would allow me to really push myself. It burned me that I had to start at the bottom, that I had to walk while the others ran. It burned me that I couldn’t give it my all.

Sometimes it’s easy to give up on new things before giving them a proper chance. People don’t like feeling uncomfortable, out of their element, unsure, afraid, vulnerable or weak. No one likes the feeling you get when you’re standing there and everyone is watching you, waiting, because you can’t seem to grasp what they can so easily. No one likes the feeling you get when what you’re doing goes against everything you’ve ever known, how you’ve been programmed, so much so that you cannot, for the life of you, figure out how to adapt to it, how to change, how to just let it wash over you as you go with it.

I’ll let you in on what it’s taken me a lifetime to learn, and what I still struggle with daily: it’s not always about trying or forcing. Sometimes it’s about allowing.