One of the best qualities we can develop is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulty or misfortune. That quality is known as resilience. Physically we want to be tough and strong and fit so that adversity has as little effect as possible. Like bugs on a windshield we would prefer to be unphased by the problems life throws our way. However, we must recognize that life will throw bigger and worse things at us. Part of our constitution is concerned with how much something will set us back. The other part of our constitution is concerned with how quickly we can rebound. These two qualities are intertwined. In CrossFit we think of this as something that goes hand in hand with our Fitness.
Fitness is defined as your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Fitness can be considered a state of super wellness. Your fitness creates a hedge against sickness. If your fitness markers like your mile time, your deadlift, and your max set of pull-ups are near fit values that’s good and it should help drive your health markers like blood pressure, body fat percentage, and resting heart rate toward super normal values as well.
As I write this we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. Fit people are not immune from Covid 19. We are hearing about people dying from every demographic. Fitness is not a “get out of jail free” card, but it is the best insurance we have that we can come through this relatively unscathed.
Ideally we would like our body to respond like the virus is a bug on our windshield. However, if it does hit us harder we want our bodies to have the resiliency to fight it and bounce back quickly. When it comes to working on our fitness, it is just like the proverb. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
So start taking care of yourself right now. Eat healthy. Exercise. Sleep. Meditate. Smile. Love.