Last week I went to my local CrossFit box to try it out. I’ve been doing CrossFit-style workouts in my basement gym for a little over a year now, and I wanted to see what it as like “for real.” It was cool, and it thoroughly kicked my ass, but I don’t think it’s for me.

CrossFit workouts are usually somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes long.

The walk from my desk to my basement gym is a good thirty seconds if I take the scenic route, whereas it’s ten or fifteen minutes to the gym.

I usually warm up for a couple of minutes before I start my workout. At this gym, the warmup is almost 15 minutes.

In the basement, it’s just my equipment, so I can leave it wherever I want. But at the gym, you have to get it all out and put it back.

All in all, it takes an extra 45-50 minutes to do the same workout at the gym as opposed to doing it in the basement, and I’m not sitting on a ton of spare time.

But there was one thing I did really like.

The people!

There were fist bumps, high-fives, and a good bit of “come on, man, you got this!”

I don’t get that in the basement.

Down there, at times, it can be a little lonely.

Boring even, and boredom is the enemy of discipline. It’s hard to stay committed to something if you're totally bored with it.

Take burpees, for example, which might be the epitome of boring. They suck, and I freaking hate them. As beneficial as they are, I’ve avoided them like the plague.

That is until I started competing with some folks in my StoryAthlete group to see who could do 100 of them the fastest.

Suddenly there were fist bumps, high-fives, and “come on, man, you got this!”

It’s made it much easier to remain disciplined about doing them, and my time is getting faster - 10:28 this morning, down from 14:26 just a couple of weeks ago.

StoryAthlete launched a new thing this week- GRIT. A group of us - about 50 right now - have committed to some unknown and unknowable workout for 28 days starting on October 4th.

The commitment is real. If you don’t do it, document it, and post to the group about it then you’re out.

No excuses, no second chances.

Doesn’t matter where you are or what else you’re doing.

On vacation? Tough shit, figure it out.

Got another workout to do? Tough shit, figure it out.

Have to get up early to do it? Tough shit, figure it out.

All we know right now is the equipment we need:

1: A big hill or high school stadium

2: A sandbag

3: Resistance bands & handles

4: Pull-up bar

5: A kettlebell

Sounds fun, right?

I don’t know exactly what to expect from it, but I do know that it won’t be boring.

And given the consequences for missing even one day, the discipline will pretty much take care of itself.