Quantified Fitness

I’ll never forget asking my mentor at the time, Andy Petranek, about CrossFit. It was probably a random Tuesday and I asked him, “So, is CrossFit it? Like if you could get anyone fit, would you use CrossFit to do it?”

His answer surprised me. The gist was it was a “Yes, but…” answer that included some talk about not everyone wanting to train that hard, other exceptions, etc. His message, however, was mainly to quantify one’s training. That is a game changer that CrossFit provides for people. He said, “I told my elderly mom, ‘Do anything… Crunches, weird Bosu Ball things, but time it. Count reps. That’s where real accountability is and real fitness is.'”

In many ways he’s right. The video above is a teaser from the Quantified Self group that believes just that. Information is power. Data gives us insight into what’s happening in our world.

Many of you can relate to what happens when you measure your training at DEUCE. On round four of an interval, for example, there’s tangible, real life results to earn. Though each round is much more physically challenging, matching your round three effort is made much easier and is much more motivating when quantified.

How has quantifying health and fitness crept into your life? Do you use a food log? Workout journal? iPhone app? Smart scale?

 

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach