CrossFit confuses those who haven’t done it. Here’s why. People have been bombarded with mixed messages about fitness, from being told to be less, to the latest miracle diet. None of these messages about fitness have produced particularly good results in people, but they are prevalent and ingrained in our culture. These messagas about fitness have been commoditized into a purchasable product which we perceive as embodying solutions to our lifestyles and diets. When, simply, it’s not about a product when it comes to your health. It’s about finding what works for you. CrossFit isn’t the end all solution for fitness; everyone has to do what they love, but it does offer some unique solutions to an industry plagued by failed results. We CrossFit because it’s the anti-message that shuns bad trends, gets us results, and supports us with a community.
To many, CrossFit has become the anti-message. It’s not a product, it’s not a normal brand. It shuns mirrors; it shuns machines, it shuns the fancy, it shuns muscle isolation; trends that have bastardized the fitness industry. It promotes the idea that fitness is about achieving goals and being accountable to our progress. You time and record your workouts in CrossFit. That’s how you force people to be accountable. Make them keep a record and track progress. If you have that attitude towards anything in life it’s inevitable that you improve. You have to want to keep a record and you have to want to see results, but it’s that simple.
I’d say over 95% of people heard about CrossFit from their friend who loves it. That is simply amazing for any trend. People share with each other what they truly enjoy and that has made CrossFit a great community of people to be around. When I look around the in gym, I see children, grandparents, mothers and college students, all who come into the gym to achieve the same thing: to do the best they can for those few minutes. It doesn’t matter they are all doing different weights, scaling around old football injuries or working out in a cast. It doesn’t matter that they had a bad day at work or just broke up with their girlfriend. They are there, together, to accomplish something and shut out all those other messages in their lives.
We CrossFit because it changes us for the better.
Agree with all of the above. I started Crossfitting in 2005. I found Crossfit by Googling ‘pull ups’. Those who know me will not find this surprising. The first link that came up was the Mainsite. I clicked through and looked in horror at what this Coach guy was ‘prescribing’. I had no equipment, no skills other than strength – or what I thought was strength back then – and definitely no clue about how to do half of the things that showed up in the WODs.
But I had one taste, one little whiff of what it was to spend 7 minutes doing something that felt as close to my days on the mat wrestling as I could imagine. It brought it all back, and I was hooked. I slowly, very slowly, developed the basic movements on my own – there were no gyms here that allowed, let alone encouraged, grunting, slamming of weights, and running in the building. I did a lot at home, with rudimentary equipment and the objects around me. Split a pile of wood for time. Dig a trench for time. Do pull ups every time I walked past the bar in my living room.
I did this for years, eventually building a pretty decent garage gym in Colorado. Then I signed up for the first Mid-Atlantic Regional competition in 2009, and decided to join a Crossfit gym in Boulder to fill in the gaps. That’s when I found out just how many gaps I had! So many skills were lacking, areas of strength were weak, and I had never worked out with people before!
I won’t relate it all here, but my experience with Crossfit since then has been phenomenal. I was here when these pack of college kids started Crossfit Charlottesville, after following them on the Mainsite message board. I have been there to see my wife do so many things that she said to me were impossible. Including Crossfitting until less than 12 hours before going in to labor – and smoking that event as well! And now we are back in Virginia where it all started and it is great to have all of you to share it with!
Happy New Year Ya’ll! Let’s make all of 2012 a PR!
Walden
PS: Crossfit is awesome, but don’t neglect those ‘Beach Muscles’ come springtime! Just look at Kyle’s bi’s – you know he does concentration curls in the rack in front of the mirror!
shhhhhh don’t tell anyone that!
Well said Walden ! It’s been an amazing adventure so far!
Absolutely all true. No matter how stressful my life, job or other can be…for that hour I cannot think about anything except getting through it. Knowing that I can do it and pushing past old expectations of where to quit. Feeling new-found strength and capabilities is like being born anew. I see this as a forever for myself. I need that re-affirmation that comes from finishing the WOD that morning and then going on into the “regular” world. It is the single best thing that has ever happened for me in my lifetime, bar none.