Who says gym rats don’t have a good vocabulary? The true definition of virtuosity is having great skill or in music or art, but the context I learned it in came from a more athletic theme. In CrossFit we understand virtuosity as “doing the common uncommonly well.” I love the idea of making the ordinary extraordinary. Make the mundane a masterpiece.
In the context of the gym imagine achieving virtuosity with something a simple as a push up. The basic points of performance are there; the range of motion, the stability, the power. But the virtuosity is in the details, where are your hands positioned, do your elbows flair out or are they stacked, what are your glutes and hamstrings doing, whats your breathing like, the rhythm of the descent and rise, a million other fine details.
Outside the gym virtuosity is all around us, most the time we don’t realize we are seeing it. Have you ever been at a coffee shop and watched someone make a latte? Like really MAKE a latte - the best one you have ever had? They effortlessly grind the perfect amount of beans, tamp it just tight enough, pull the shots, steam the milk - but not too much, and when is all said and done there is something magical sitting in front of you. You just witnessed virtuosity.
There is another element to virtuosity, something beyond technical perfection. A gymnast should be technically perfect, but not robotic. Virtuosity allows room for fluid individual style, your virtuoso performance should not be identical to someone else. So, while you strive to do the common uncommonly well in your life - don’t compare yourself to anyone else. That reminds me of another CrossFit vocabulary term - Relative Intensity. But that will be a post for another day.
Thanks for reading. I hope that you can find an area of your life that you find worthy of striving for virtuosity.
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