CrossFit Athletic Group

I would like to propose a question for all you reading this: what is blood pressure?

...

... no, not the numbers that come out like a fraction. What actually is blood pressure?

...

... no, you can't just type it into Google and repeat what you read like it's common knowledge. What actually is blood pressure? Can you point to your blood pressure? Can you demonstrate blood pressure?

What about tryglicerides? What about cholesterol? Can you show off your blood-glucose levels?

In 2009 Coach Glassman came to a crashing realization during one of his Level-1 seminars that the most useful and most predictive measurement of health was not blood pressure, tryglicerides, cholesterol, or body fat percentage, but rather things that were much more simple to understand, things that could be demonstrated, things that could be pointed to and seen in plain site: your deadlift, your Helen time, your squat form, and your Cindy score, all measured across your lifespan.

Health = fitness through the years, recorded on the whiteboard and demonstrated daily.

...........

Fellas, Mrs. Gloria is truly a tough ol' broad in the most revering sense of the term. She's been in the hospital twice since Christmas and has been thrown every test imaginable to try and figure out what the hell was going wrong with her. It turns out she has high blood pressure. Very high blood pressure.

Now, very high blood pressure is a big deal, no doubt. Here's is another question I'd like to propose to you, though: Would you rather be: 81 years old with normal blood pressure but unable to stand/walk/use the bathroom by yourself, or be 81 years old with high blood pressure but be able to do all the things Mrs. Gloria can do?

Here's a short list of things Mrs. Gloria has done since turning 80:

• A somersault
• Jumped rope 24 consecutive times
• Ran a mile in 18:26
• Deadlifted 125 pounds (while singing in Spanish to herself)
• Squat with full range of motion
• Stepped up to a 15-in box
• Made a basket on a 10-foot rim

She has also most likely had high blood pressure that entire time and whatever heart thing is currently giving her the blues. So, again, which one would you rather have? Something's going to give way, eventually. Neither CrossFit nor medicine prevents death; however, one of them is focused on delaying death while the other is focused on getting the most out of living.

With Mrs. Gloria's blood pressure as high as it was (and then previously as low as it was), she needed some medicine. I would not have been comfortable coaching her without knowing she was taking some medicine. But at some point, you aren't going to be able to have both; either our biology will give out or our anatomy will give out. And it seems from a personal comfort perspective, as well as a family burden perspective, it makes sense to keep our minds zoned in on what we can control: what did you eat and what was your workout?