Here at CFA our goal is to push people outside their comfort zone to pursue a great life. While there are many factors to achieving a great life we believe we can have a meaningful impact in three primart areas. Providing a supportive community of fun likeminded people, a lifelong pursuit of fitness that improves ones physical, mental, and spiritual being, and an attitude of adventure to explore this world. Today we start our “Adventure Series” to highlight members that embody that spirit of adventure, and use the tools they hone daily in the gym to explore the beauty and tranquility of this world!
Max McGregor || Iceland
What’s up CFA – here I sit contemplating where to start on this piece Wes asked me to write about my experiences earlier this month. Our fearless leader has a long term goal of encouraging all of us to utilize our fitness outside of the gym, and it looks like I might’ve unintentionally, although very happily, modeled the behavior he’s looking for from our community.
Earlier in June I spent a week touring the south coast of Iceland with a few of my best friends. We started the week in the capital city of Reykjavik, spent a couple days there, and then spent our last five days in our home base of Hella. From Hella we traveled throughout the south coast over the course of the week. It’s easy to list the things we saw – from breathtaking waterfalls, to beautiful glaciers, mountains, geysers, black sand beaches, and probably most importantly – Game of Thrones filming locations. Although cliché, the photos don’t even come close to giving the experiences justice.
To speak to the theme of Wes’s big picture fitness goals for us – being fit was certainly needed. Climbing 500 steps to the top of a waterfall or hiking 60+ vertical stories to look over the Atlantic washing onto a miles wide black sand beach is no joke. Even being in good shape those were both strenuous chores. That being said, what was even more important to me was getting out of my comfort zone and putting the grind of daily life aside. Booking a trip to a foreign place isn’t always easy, especially if you’re new to traveling, and neither is forgetting about the things that seem so important to you – your job, your pets, the people you encounter on a daily basis.
The unknown feeling forcing you to push beyond normal physical & mental comfort levels is the area that allows you to grow. I know the first time I stepped into a CrossFit gym was a terrifying experience, but now I prioritize my schedule around making it to class. I think the same sentiment can be applied to travel for those who haven’t experienced new places as well as plenty of other outlets of life. It feels good to do something different and uncomfortable, to break out of routine, and to utilize the bodies that we spend so much time building inside CFA.
