Beyond the Gym: Explore Your Fitness in the Real World

Painted in the inside of the garage door at CrossFit Angola is the “Fitness in 100 words” written by Greg Glassman, the creator of CrossFit and its methodology. Glassman is a genius in the truest sense of the word. He grew up the son of a literal rocket scientist. Everything Glassman created was thought out, backed by scientific rigor, and calculated.

The last sentence of the “Fitness in 100 words” says: Regularly learn and play new sports. This is an important aspect of fitness that I wish more people took advantage of. Instead of “regularly learn and play new sports”, I like to say “explore your fitness”.

To me, this means that we take the fitness we have developed through hard work, smart nutrition, and recovery practices and we put it to use! Go do a crossfit competition, play pickleball, sign up for a 5K, go rucking, hike a mountain, paddleboard, bike ride, play whatever sports your kids are into with them, and the list goes on.

Part of fitness is using it, which also develops a broader fitness through using our bodies in ways we don’t normally do inside of the gym. Having a really strong fitness game inside of the gym, but never doing anything with it is like having an old muscle car and only doing the speed limit….. F that noise! The point of having that power is to put it to use every now and then!

In 2026 I will be completing a 205 mile bike ride across the entire state of Michigan and hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim. Both of these are (extreme) examples of using my fitness. I am able to do these things (hopefully) because of the fitness I have built!!

It becomes very easy to stay so focused on getting better at CrossFit specifically, that we often forget the whole point is to be fit enough to go do epic things outside of the gym! If your goal is to be an elite level professional CrossFit athlete then yes, you must spend every ounce of your energy training for that specific sport. For 99.9% of us, the goal is overall fitness and exploring your fitness with new challenges will undoubtedly help increase it across the board!