“Finishing Last” is an editorial series by Christina Crumbpecker, MD. Check out Christi’s Featured Athlete profile here. 

Finishing Last: Reasons Why I Can’t Go to CrossFit Today

I’m the girl who spent months stuck in Fundamentals classes. I’m the one who took week-long “breaks” from the gym.

I had every excuse in the book for not making it to CrossFit Memorial Hill for regular classes. And it’s not that I didn’t want to go or didn’t like the place; there just always seemed to be something getting in the way. So I wrote a list of that stuff and made plans for how to address it. That has helped me turn the corner and get myself in to the gym. Maybe you’ll see something familiar here.  Maybe you have something to add. Maybe you’ve never been affected by any of these reasons for not making it to CrossFit, and if so, good for you!

But I think most of us have at least one reason in common for not walking in the door today…

1. I have no time

CrossFit is more than just an hour-long class; it involves getting there, participating, mobility work and showering before you are publicly acceptable again. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s a lot of time when you work a full-time job, or have a family, or both. It cuts into free time for other hobbies, and especially for introverts, takes away from the “down time” you need to recharge. We each only have 24 hours in the day, and we all know that has to include a healthy amount of sleep.

How do you allocate the waking time?

I have a calendar that lists all of my work and social obligations. Included on this calendar are my CrossFit workouts, at least 3-4 times per week. I had initially set my goal at 5 times per week, but that just wasn’t realistic with my schedule and consistently failing to reach my goal left me discouraged and less likely to go to class at all. So, 3-4 workouts it is. When other opportunities come up during those planned workouts, I just say no. I’ve even left the office to go to CrossFit and returned to finish work later in the evening. I’ve said “no” to happy hours more times than I can count.

I’ve had to make some hard choices and sacrifices, but I have never regretted a WOD.

It’s like the financial concept of “paying yourself first”—I prioritize my time so that CrossFit is my way of paying myself first with time allocated for my health and fitness, before almost everything else. I work 60 hours per week. It’s not easy. I find a way to get there. You can, too.