Once again, I have found the waking hours of my weekend (and many of the hours when I’m supposed to be sleeping) split between the gym and VGH.  Over the past 15 months I have grown far too familiar with the latter.  It is horrifying to me to witness the state of disease in the patient population, to be surrounded by the screams, the groans, the pleading, the crying of the people suffering there and seeking help.

The ER is filled with people who have lived a life of easy choices.  People who have told themselves “I deserve a treat,” or “One more drink won’t hurt,” or “You gotta enjoy life,” or “There’s nothing I can do about it, it’s just genetics,” or “It’s too hard,” or “It’s too late to do anything about it.”

Not everyone ends up in hospital due to chronic lifestyle diseases.  Other factors that kill us or make us sick include accidents, poisons, microbial disease or genetic factors.  But you know that most (70%) of deaths in our country are attributable to chronic disease.  Diseases that can be prevented by simple lifestyle interventions, namely exercise and nutrition.

And even in the other 30% of cases, a level of fitness reduces your likelihood of mortality.  In my mother’s case, for example, chronic disease is responsible for her mental confusion which led to another fall.  It was a short fall that would not have hurt you or I but the doctor says that because her bones are so thin and brittle, her fall resulted in a severe double fracture requiring surgery.

Bone wasting is not inevitable.  Impact exercises like running and jumping combined with heavy lifting are very effective in helping older adults maintain healthy bone density.  Coupled with good nutrition, injuries like this could be prevented.  And exercise and nutrition are both also effective at staving off the mental decline that led to the fall in the first place.

Unfortunately, in her lifetime, my mother only briefly flirted with proper nutrition and exercise for a couple of years at Empower.  In her 72 years prior to that she tended to avoid exercise and was frequently significantly overweight.  She returned to those more familiar lifestyle habits after her brief and very successful stint at CrossFit.  The decline since she left training has been tragically sharp with a dramatic negative impact on her ability to enjoy living independently.

We have had a front row seat to her brief reversal of the ravages of age and sedentarism as well as the fall into illness that followed quickly upon her departure from exercise.  The ER is filled with folks who have made similar choices.

Of course, I’m sure our ER docs and nurses sometimes see healthy, fit individuals in distress as well but in my limited but growing experience to date, none of the hundreds of ER patients I have seen over the past 15 months could be described as fit.  I have no way of knowing what brought them to the hospital but I can tell you that they have not been doing the things required to help keep them out of it.

My mom believes I am wasting my intellect and talent teaching people how to lift barbells and sweat and that I should consider growing up and getting a real job.  But I am on a mission to spare other people the suffering that does not need to be an inevitable part of the ageing process.  It’s hard, yes.  It requires work, true.  But it is totally worth it.  Looking around the ER at the consequences of making easy choices and avoiding hard things, confirms emphatically to me that the hard choices are your only choice.

It isn’t easy but it isn’t complex either.  Lift heavy things.  Run.  Jump.  Eat at least 30 grams of protein three times a day.  It’s not a perfect prescription but it is a strong starting place.  Make those hard changes now and life will become easier.  And more enjoyable. 

As Confucius says: “A healthy person wants one thousand things, a sick person wants only one.” 

Unfortunately, health, once lost, is very hard to regain.  My mission - the mission that gets me up for work at 4 a.m., the mission that sees me work 14 hour days, the mission that my family and I have sacrificed so much to deliver - is to spare you and your loved ones the fate of those people suffering for their poor lifestyle choices.  But I can only point you in the right direction, it is up to you to do the work.  Please Let me help you!  Believe me, it is worth it!

https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/chronic-disease-COVID

Monday
We will complete today’s workout in two heats with one partner counting for the other.  Choose a snatch load that will allow you to complete 3 consecutive reps every minute on the minute.  You should be able to maintain a pace of 1 round per minute.

Warm Up
10 Full Body Rocks
10Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts
10 Shoulder Pass Throughs
10 6-Point Burpee

Tech
Power Snatch
Bar Over Burpee

WOD
Ingrid
10 Rounds
3 Power Snatch
3 Bar Over Burpees

Disclaimer: For those who confuse action and consequence with morality and judgement, let me be clear, I do not believe anyone, whatever their personal lifestyle choices, deserves to suffer.  The words deserve and responsible are not related.  You are responsible for your own safety.  That does mean you deserve to be hit by a car if you rush out into the road without paying attention.  In fact, the driver may be found at fault.  It does not however change the outcome.  If you rush into the road without looking both ways, your chances of getting hit increase.  Even if you are a good person.  You might even be a hero, rushing out to save a puppy.  The consequences do not change based on your intent or your moral character.  You may be the nicest person in the world.  You might have the best intentions.  You might be my very own beloved mother.  This does not exempt you from the law of action and consequence.  This is a tough concept for most people to grasp: Just because it is not your fault does not mean you are not responsible.