We are from time to time in both life and CrossFit presented with challenges that seem daunting or perhaps "impossible." We might be tempted to try them once or twice and then give up. As I discuss with all new students, though, CrossFit is a long term commitment. Getting strong and fit takes time and consistency. Staying strong and fit takes a lifetime of dedication - and it's a task that's well worth it, both despite and because of the challenges that crop up along the way.

Martial arts, for me, has always been the same way. Certainly there have been days when I think, I can't take getting punched in the head one more time, or I'm sick of getting tapped out by the same move in jiu-jitsu time and time again. I know, however, that there will be ups and downs and if I stick it out and vow to keep improving regardless, that the rewards will eventually make themselves apparent. In the meantime I learn, those feelings of discouragement are temporary and are only as real as I allow them to be.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that CrossFit is not just for the body - it is also for the mind. When you are presented on a regular basis with the little voice in your head telling you a workout can't be completed, or that something is too hard, or that weight is too heavy, and you IGNORE that voice and complete the workout - you've strengthened your heart muscle in a different way. That strengthening can't possibly be contained inside the gym walls. The confidence you gain from consistently overcoming the "impossible" travels with you into the outside world.

Which leads me to ask - what does it mean to be strong? Is strong having big muscles or being able to lift a certain amount of weight? Or is strong being able to overcome an obstacle? Or is it possible that strength is actually a combination of those two and is in that regard a rather amorphous quality that comes from somewhere inside each of us.

This video has been around for a little while, but I wanted to present it as evidence of perseverance and strength, both literal and mental. As those of you who've attempted it know, the overhead squat is the most difficult of the squats (back squat, front squat and overhead squat). One benchmark of athletic achievement is the ability to perform fifteen bodyweight overhead squats. In this video, Nicole Carroll of CrossFit Headquarters demonstrates STRENGTH.