What WOD Are You Doing Today?

In the past few years, I have started a love affair with exercise. It started with running, and now my new passion is CrossFit®.

For those of you unfamiliar with CrossFit®, it is a strength and conditioning program consisting of a mix of aerobic exercise, calisthenics and Olympic weightlifting. Hour-long classes at local gyms, or “boxes” as we call them, typically include a warm-up, skill development, a high-intensity workout of the day (WOD) and group stretching.

CrossFit® is not a specialized program wherein you do the same activity each day. Instead, it helps optimize physical competence in each of the 10 recognized fitness domains: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. In most boxes, you have no idea what the WOD is until you walk in 15 minutes before class starts.

It reminds me of a day at the bank. Before coming to Wipfli, I worked at a bank for 19 years, and more than half of those years were spent in compliance. I never knew from one day to the next what my “WOD” was going to consist of.

You need the same skills to navigate each day at your institution as you need for CrossFit®. Cardiovascular and respiratory endurance is needed to tackle all those regulations. As a compliance officer, you need stamina, strength and power, along with flexibility, coordination and agility, to navigate each day. The demand for balance and accuracy is a given. You need to be ready for anything and everything that comes your way.

Then there are those days when everything goes right. Your workout goes as planned, and you see you are even going to finish before the time cap. But no trainer worth his weight is going to cut class short. This is when you are surprised with a “cash out.” This tricky little turn of phrase has nothing to do with getting a refund.

A cash-out is a surprise bonus workout. Call it a mini-WOD, which you must complete before you can go home. Have you ever sat at your desk and thought about slipping out early, and suddenly there is a “fire” that you must extinguish? This is your cash-out.

Compliance is ever changing, and you never know what will happen on any given day. We spent countless hours learning and training on the new 2018 HMDA only to get much-needed relief, albeit at least seven months late.

If you need help with your skill development or pointers on completing the WOD, the trainers at Wipfli are here to help. From ComplianceHelp to seminars to personalized, one-on-one training performed at your bank, we offer a variety of ways to help you complete — and crush — your goals.