“That’s what you get for taking a few months off,” Simon said while standing in the door frame of his pick up. My first foray into blogging brought me to Indy CrossFit in late 2007 and I worked out there two to three times a week throughout most of 2008. His comment typifies the kind of gleeful punishment CrossFitters take and dish out. It’s what makes them a small, dedicated community. And it’s why pound for pound, I (along with a lot of fire and police departments, military units, and elite athletes) think that CrossFit is the best general fitness program available. Like most things in life, it’s not complicated. But it’s not easy, either. It asks no quarter and offers none in return. A CrossFit gym is a place where self-esteem is built the old fashioned way, through hard-earned accomplishment, where encouragement comes in the form of white board messages like, “You can’t outwork a shitty diet.” Most people don’t have the courage to start CrossFit or the guts to stick with it. It’s brutal and unforgiving but it works. If you want to read the first entry in my one-week intro to CrossFit (part of Indy.com’s May fitness issue), go here.