Last Friday, Jason Khalipa was at Reebok Crossfit Thames .

I don’t do Crossfit, I have been swimming for all my life and I am not comfortable exercising in dry environments. However, Milo is a Crossfit coach and this sport has increasingly become part of my everyday. If you have never heard of it, Crossfit is generally defined as “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement” (wooh). Making it simple, anything involving cycles of weight-lifting, gymnastics, running, skipping, hand-standing and more. What strikes me the most, though, is the palpable sense of community and the way people connect through these workouts. They push others and themselves so hard that, at the end of each session, you’ll see people crawling into their recovery position, then share a hug or give a fist-bump and always with a massive smile on their exhausted faces.

I did it a couple of times but I’ve never experienced it fully – and I can’t quite speak their language yet. However, I do know about their biggest world athletes after watching the Crossfit Games last year as I got quite passionate about their performance. It turns out I am now a big fan of a few of them, including this man, Jason Khalipa: strongly confident and very much goal-oriented but also helpful and down to earth, with such a genuine smile that fills your heart.

He came to the box -now I’m using their jargon- for the Open Workout 15.3 aka the third workout athletes must perform to qualify for this year’s Crossfit Games. He did his workout, coached two classes and supported the guys through their 15.3.
He also talked about mindset and goal setting, encouraging people to give themselves micro and macro goals and to have a solid game plan to achieve them: “These small wins will build your confidence through the event. Don’t get distracted by others, your game plan was your plan for a reason….trust yourself and stick to it”. In a two-minutes-face-to-face-squat-game he asked the guys to introduce themselves and tell three of their goals for the 15.3 to at least three other people. Goals were set, spirits were high, off to the 15.3.

Friday was a very inspiring and uplifting event. With this entry, I hope you’ll take some of the adrenaline and this small piece of advice with you for whenever you want to achieve something. But remember to enjoy the journey.

The squat-game

Are you ready?

All photos are © Cristina Bertani