"The men and women competing here today have legitimate claim to the title, "Fittest Men and Women on Earth," by the same rights and logic that the Lakers, the Steelers, the Penguins and the Phillies are the best basketball team, football team, hockey team and baseball team on Earth."

-Greg Glassman, at the Inception of the 2009 CrossFit Games

As a strength and conditioning program, the goal of CrossFit is to consistently exceed the capacities of its athletes, including the world's fittest humans. No matter where you are in life, gains in fitness cannot be achieved without discomfort. Of course, that pain shouldn't be excessive, nor should it be just for its own sake (it's easy to create a painful workout that doesn't lead to much). But, there is certainly a high correlation between competency in life and tolerance of discomfort.

Obviously, any attempt to determine the World's Fittest Humans must be, by definition, extremely arduous. Was this year's Games enough, or did we make it too hard?

Is This Too Hard? video ... [wmv] [mov]