One of the central tenets of my approach to productivity is the concept of create space for your best work.
The best intentions can easily get derailed in a space that isn’t well-suited for the task.
From the inception of my Fitness First ritual, a crucial component has been getting out of my house as quickly as possible.
When I have a destination and a direction I move with more urgency and purpose.
Yet about a year ago, I found myself in an inner debate about whether I really needed to go back to a gym.
In retrospect, it seems crazy to me that I even allowed this debate to take up space in my mind.
How We Develop False Beliefs
Somehow, over the first two years of the pandemic I began to believe a story that I didn’t need a gym.
I had dumbbells and resistance bands.
There’s no shortage of apps, YouTube videos, or online programs that offer workout inspiration, exercise libraries, follow-along videos, and other guidance.
Studios offered virtual classes.
I could do it all without going to a gym.
This belief was reinforced when I went to check out local gyms.
They all felt the insipid and uninspiring.
The front spaces were crowded with rows of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes, with televisions everywhere. Strength training areas were often in dark basements that felt like caves. The fitness studios always lined with mirrors.
I’d muddle through a workout and leave feeling deflated.
And this led to my once-unthinkable beliefs expressed in that journal entry. It reinforced my resistance.
Finding the Right Space
All of this changed when I stumbled into a local CrossFit gym called ALTAFit.
In a moment of desperation to get out of my rut, I reserved a spot in a high-intensity interval class called Burn.
The gym was located off my beaten path, on a corner surrounded by storage centers and autobody mechanics. Non-descript from the outside, I wouldn’t have guessed what awaited within.
As I opened the door and stepped inside, I felt like Dorothy opening the door to her house after the house lands in Munchkinland.
Suddenly I was in a completely different world from anything I had known before.
I was greeted with high ceilings, rows of squat racks, and racks of dumbells. There was a turf in the middle of the floor. Ropes hung from the ceiling.
And there was space — lots of empty floor space.
The space had everything one needed for movement, including the space to move.
Most obvious to me was what the space didn’t have:
No rows of treadmills and ellipticals.
No televisions.
No mirrors.
Although the Burn class kicked my ass, it was what I needed.
I was hooked. I went back a few days later for another class. Within a week, I started going daily, and within two weeks I started going to the 5:45 am class.
Several months later, I finally worked up the courage to try a CrossFit class.
It’s Not (Only) About the Space
I was never into classes, but these are different.
Even after a year, the Burn and CrossFit classes are often hard for me. I am not naturally athletic. I’m often the slowest person.
When we do workouts for time, I’m consistently the last one to finish.
But I’m never in it alone.
The coaches and other athletes are there with me, coaching and cheering me on.
When workouts get tough and I feel like I want to quit, having other people around me — in the room with me — who are doing it with me keeps me going.
I’ve learned that I show up stronger and better when I’m showing up in community, when I feel supported and encouraged.
As I reflect back a year later, it is clear to me why I was resistant to going back to a “gym”.
I didn’t just want a space to workout. I wanted—needed—interaction and support.
I needed community.
Any task becomes easier when you’re sharing the load. We may each lift our own weights, but we are in it together.
That’s what I have found at ALTAFit.
That’s what keeps me coming back for the hard workouts that kick my ass every time.
That’s what pulls me out of bed in the dark, excited to go to the gym.
It’s not about the gym at all.
Anyone can fill an empty space with equipment and call it a gym.
But the most crucial factor in a space is the people who occupy it with you.
What I found here is not just a gym, but a community of support.
That’s a huge difference that takes everything I do in this space to another level.
We grow stronger together.
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