People often ask me about CrossFit once they find out that I’m an Olympic Weightlifter, they seem to want to know what I think of it. It is almost like they half expect me to shoot down the whole idea of CrossFit outright, but that is not my opinion. My opinion on the general training method of “CrossFit” is that its a good methodology for the average person to get fit in a fun and interactive way. The catch is, that there is a difference between the “methodology” of CrossFit and the “actual typical application” of CrossFit in todays society.
Let me explain this further to try and clear this up a bit. First, opinions are like certain body parts...everybody has one and they can all be different, that being said here is my take on it considering I came through the “CrossFit” door into Weightlifting. When CrossFit started, it was a hodge-podge of training modalities taken from various disciplines and sports. The idea was novel in that contrary to popular belief you didn't really get fit by spending hours on the stair-master reading your magazines or watching T.V. Not only that, you didn’t get fit on any one of the thousands of “strength machines” on the gym floor like the dreaded curl machine or pec-deck.
Here was this new “hands on” approach that offered a road to true fitness that struck at our athletic core. It got us out of the sterile surroundings of the gym and got us back to the idea of “training for/playing a sport” to achieve fitness. The “High Intensity Interval Training” (albeit not a new concept) was for the first time reaching regular people instead of just the athletic top echelon and it was catching fire! The idea that “coaches” would take you through a grueling, fast and hard hitting work out instead of some college kid in a polo shirt handing out fitness advice like he hands out towels, was a completely new concept.
I tell people when they ask about CrossFit this: “It’s a great training method for gaining general fitness as long as your smart about it and don’t get caught up in the wave of bad information and/or bad coaching that is out there.” I go on to say that “the CrossFit gyms are connected in name only, so your experience will differ with each CrossFit Box you visit.” I say this not to discourage people, but to inform them of the benefits AND pitfalls that this training modality has to offer. I started in CrossFit towards the end of the “Golden Age” of it’s inception, meaning the basic founding tenements were still the modus operandi for the majority of the community.
In my time being a “CrossFitter”, I saw the change sweep over the community like a slow rolling wave of a tsunami washing through the village. First came the new shiny equipment companies and the belief that if you didn’t have a gym full of their products that you couldn’t possibly be a serious CrossFit gym. Then, as if on cue, came the apparel companies saying the same thing. The supplement companies and other peripheral companies flooded in too,all helping to “water down” the original CrossFit that helped to change so many lives. As I look back now I can only imagine how primal and visceral the original version of American Football must’ve been before it’s commercialization.
Luckily for me I had already stepped through the Weightlifting door before the “generic” version of CrossFit had taken its current hold. I focused on my sport of choice and used the basics of CrossFit to help build my own garage gym which my entire family uses as well as friends. It brings me great joy to know that with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work you can create something at home that will rival any $150.00 per month CrossFit gym AND be available at anytime without any constraints. I have no “class times” or weird scheduling rules in my gym, just come to work hard and work hard often. I do not charge anybody anything to work out at my gym, after all it’s my home and here you are MY guest.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that owing any “commercial gym” is a business and needs to make money, but my point is that the core of CrossFit started out by “bucking the system” as it was against the “globo Gym” mentality. Now it seems they have assimilated into another version of the monster they fought so hard against. The greatest asset of CrossFit is hands down it’s community, and originally it was built by regular people coming together in garages and parks and school yards, basically any where that they could go to work hard together and help each other get stronger. These nomadic people brought whatever equipment they could find and made the rest or improvised. They followed the “main site” WOD (Work out Of the Day), and held each other accountable throughout each work out and in doing so they became a family.
The community today is drastically different than what this was built on and for who it was originally built for. Today the typical CrossFitter needs to have a full wardrobe of CrossFit approved apparel, such as board shorts over compression pants for the guys and the shortest & tightest lu lu lemon yoga shorts for the girls. Shirts are optional for both sexes and it’s a must to have the latest minimalist shoe as well as to be on some form of a paleo diet/carb restriction. Their focus is no longer about changing lives and helping your community through fitness, it has now changed into how “bad ass” you can be and how many kipping pull ups you can do in a row for time. The worm has definitely turned and unfortunately it is leaving the original base of people that make up it’s community behind.
As this phenomena called CrossFit grows more and more commercialized it runs the risk of watering itself down to the point of no return. I predict that todays version will price itself out as well as isolate itself from the majority of todays people in the near future. All too often you are made to feel as if you need to be a division 1 or 2 athlete BEFORE you come into a CrossFit class, and if your goal is not some form of complete sport dominance, then don’t even bother coming in. The first day I stepped into a CrossFit gym I couldn’t do a single pull up or even 5 push ups without needing oxygen. Had the culture of today been in place then, I would have never gone back. I wouldn’t have regained my health and I wouldn’t have found a sport that I truly love. There are a lot of people like me out there, and unfortunately, if CrossFit continues on its current course we will all be displaced and the community which built this thing called CrossFit will more than likely be disbanded.
Make no mistake of my motive here, it is not to stoke the “anti-CrossFit” fire, but to act as a warning to everyone out there that has an appreciation for what CrossFit, true CrossFit has done for them. A landslide starts with a single pebble, and quickly gets out of control. The community of this training modality has always been at the heart of it, so it will take that community to return it to something that is good for everybody as well as applicable to everyone. It starts with you, every day and in every “box”, you must stand up for what you believe in and be heard. Slowly, if enough of you speak up you will see the change that you want. You will see the commercialism and the elitist attitude take a back seat to helping people and getting communities healthier bringing everyone closer together which is what brought so many people together in the first place.
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