Ballet- and Pilates-inspired workouts are great if you want to build long, lean “beauty” muscles, but thanks to CrossFit, I’ve grown to appreciate the glamour of women who deadlift, pull up and muscle up — and not because the effort will shrink them into perfectly tiny packages of female beauty. No offence to pliés and jetés, but lifting heavy stuff is a rush. The workout changes every day, and you do everything from Olympic-style lifts to gymnastics to rowing, skipping and sprinting—all the while giving it everything you’ve got. One of the biggest pluses for me is that CrossFit doesn’t measure fitness using one standard—for example, cardiovascular endurance or how far you can run—but instead defines it according to a combination of factors, including cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, flexibility, agility and balance.