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
woodworking joints worksheet, 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. 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. 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.