Ask a hundred people to define beauty
and you'll get a hundred different answers.
Most people retreat from the challenge of the question
confident that they know beauty when they see it.
Choosing to describe it
rather than define it.
But when really pressed on the question
descriptions of physical appearance begin to fall away.
If you think of our bodies as machines
we're a finely tuned machine
we put ourselves into situations where we're having to
fight or flight.
Um.
That idea, or that workout,
or that lift.
So you look around. You see a lot of people with defined muscles.
Their traps
their abdominals
their quads.
You can see the striations in their legs.
Right off the bat you see
outside
aesthetic looks.
And you look at them as beautiful traits. Right?
I think that's what first comes to mind.
I love the way that CrossFitters look
because
it's just so real.
Yeah, that's beauty in a sense.
But at the same time there's that confidence between them
where maybe they've gone through a personal struggle
or where they've found something where this is what helps them define themselves as an individual.
I think what, um
differentiates
the beauty
from the outside and the inside
is
the heart
and the perseverance
that each CrossFit athlete shows
for each one of these workouts.
For me
I look at it, it's like I've been able to
grow and learn so much
not only physically
but also emotionally.
Mentally be in a position where it's like I have got to be able to keep going.
So I think that's another aspect of beauty.
It's beautiful to be fit
but I think for the most part
the way I feel
is that anyone who
carries themselves with confidence
will be beautiful.
That term beauty is very, you know,
subjective
to your experiences and what you've been told
and what you've been led to believe.
And it's something that is no question.
Man, that's beautiful.
Whether it's a waterfall.
Whether it's a bird flying.
Whether it's someone, you know, that's just doing an air squat
with, you know, some degree of virtuosity.
And that's something that
when you watch any athlete in their
apex of their career
there's never a doubt.
There's like, well that's
awesome!
It's beautiful!
I wonder if perhaps
a woman that is thinking more about
looking like
a girl in a fashion magazine
that that's what they see as feminine.
And
looking at bulky muscles to them is
seeing some kind of masculinity.
Growing up we get a stigma of
women aren't supposed to be in the gym getting stronger.
Lifting.
It's like, oh go run.
You know. And you talk to a lot of women that
have never done anything.
"I haven't lifted weights in 20, 30 years."
The heroin chic glorified by the fashion industry
is at its root
inhuman.
It demands that life's rich resources
mobility, strength
even intelligence
be squandered in the pursuit of a pitiful aesthetic.
So hopefully over the years
what I can expect for my daughter
is there will be a blend
and a cultural shift
from just looking at the aesthetic look
to looking at, how well can this person perform?
There are people who spend their entire lives
allowing their reflection in the mirror to determine their self esteem.
Submitting to a cultural judgement established decades ago.
But in CrossFit gyms all over the world
the mirrors are conspicuous by their absence.
Fitness is gauged in reps
and speed, power, virtuosity.
And beauty
is measured in joy.
And in pride.
That's really what CrossFit is about.
Making life better.
You know, people would be like
"Ahhh, wait until you're in your thirties..."
Or "wait until you're in your forties."
"You'll know what it's really like. It's hard to, um
keep the weight off
and it just starts piling on."
And things like that.
I'm not scared of that anymore.
We get wrapped up in the Games and it's sexy and it's fun, but
gosh, to
be able to just say, "Yeah I can do that."
"Maybe not as fast, maybe not as much, but I can do that."
That puts you head and shoulders above the majority of the human population.
And
that's beautiful to me.
If you want to look good
do stuff
well.
And do what life demands of you.
And, and everything else will fall into place.
If we could get people to focus more on
their own health and wellbeing
I think everything would just become
secondary to that.
When you see them grow
male and female, as
clients that that just
just learned to move and learned to be aware of their body.
The comfort they have ... You can see it.
Their shoulders are back.
Their chin is up, and
they just, they just
they become just different people
and it's really fun to watch the progression.
Everyone comes into the gym. They want to lose weight.
They want this or that.
Next thing you know, they ... "I want my first pull-up."
"I want a bodyweight clean."
"I want a double bodyweight back squat."
It's ... what?!
That's awesome!
To recognize and accept the body's gifts and shortcomings
and impose discipline over them
is for many where beauty begins.
And then beauty is no longer fleeting
but becoming.
I have a 76-year-old member who shows up in a sports bra one day
and she's like
"Well, the other girls are doing it so I just figured it was the right thing to do."
All fired up
and throwing down on workouts.
I was like
that's the coolest thing in the world.
I'm not ashamed of
my figure.
I like being
strong.
I like being able to
lift nearly as much or more than
most of the lads that I work with.
I'm not going to lie and say that
it never happened that I wished I was someone else
or physically someone else.
But as you age, and as I matured,
I wouldn't change my body type for anything else.
Ask a hundred people to define beauty
and you get a hundred definitions.
Ask a hundred people at the Games to define beauty
and they answer with a gesture.
Because at the CrossFit Games
beauty
speaks up itself.