Let’s get it out of the way and potentially offend many die-hard CrossFit fanatics:
I love CrossFit training, but we need to understand some simple truths here. If you’re doing CrossFit just to compete in CrossFit or if you believe (from an outsider’s perspective) that CrossFit exists solely to “do CrossFit,” then you’re on the wrong track. Sorry about that.
I don’t want to be misunderstood; there are a very small handful of people among us who are competent and capable enough to compete at the exceptionally high level required of them and become competitive semi-professional athletes. They are incredible, but they are the exception, not the norm. There are also huge benefits for us “plebs” (i.e., the 99.98%) who do CrossFit/functional fitness competitions, but we need to understand our “why” a bit better before we go down that rabbit hole.
For most of us, CrossFit is the best tool available to prepare the average person, generally, for the widest variety of challenges that may come your way on a large scale.
Why don’t more people know about this then?
An excellent question, my intrepid band of keyboard explorers. Due to its meteoric rise in popularity as a fitness routine from the early 2000s to now, with over 10 years of CrossFit Games under our belts, we have really only been privy to the studs and studdesses who are “The Games Athletes.” While they have earned their notoriety with their immense feats of fitness, it does mean that the uninitiated public has a preconceived notion of what it is we do on a daily basis in our gyms at a grassroots level.
There are three chief stumbling blocks one comes up against when trying to explain CrossFit, the lifestyle fitness regime, to someone who has only heard of it through the internet.
Myth 1: Starting CrossFit is only for fit people who want to compete in CrossFit
Truth 1: Those top athletes who have been used to advertise all things CrossFit are at the sharp end of the spear in terms of what CrossFit training can do for you. However, they are not the reason why this movement has grown so big so fast. Games athletes inspire everyday people in the boxes because, at a base level, they ARE the people in the boxes. Sure, they have achieved incredible results, both performance-wise and aesthetically, but they are just people, like you and me. And the people doing CrossFit know that. We’re just trying to get that message out to the greater population now.
It’s gaining traction, but people need to think a little outside their own box of limitations too. Thinking that CrossFit is only for competitive athletes is like thinking that playing football is only for people trying to make it into the English Premier League, or like saying you need to be clever before you go to school. Regrettably, this type of reasoning is holding so many people back from discovering what they are truly capable of! We are working to change that. We need to work harder on this message.
Myth 2: CrossFit is the root of all injury.
Truth 2: siiiiiiigggggghhhhhhh This one really bugs me. CrossFit doesn’t hurt people. People doing dumb shit hurts people. BAD coaches with massive egos hurt people. People who don’t listen to good coaches and do too much hurt people. Accidents hurt people. People getting off the couch after 15 years of sloth-ing and trying to be heroes hurt people.
Haters of CrossFit will always have easy content to trash CrossFit, and that’s fine. They either need to do and say whatever they need to do and say to cover up their insecurities about their methodologies and lack of positive results. Or they belong to the second camp of critics where they are simply misinformed and don’t know what they are talking about.
Ultimately, if you are going to do anything significant, you will have critics. You will have even more critics when what you are doing makes people feel good enough to tell others about how good they feel. It’s almost as if this attempted social blowback about CrossFit’s allegedly high injury rate validates all the positive results that are achieved. Because without you doing a whole lot of good, people won’t try to find bad stuff to say about you behind your back (or behind a keyboard).
PS, there’s no excuse for bad coaching. But you get bad coaches in every sport. You don’t hear people saying running is unhealthy and dangerous because a whole bunch of people didn’t finish The Comrades Marathon last year due to ITB pain, shin splints, insufficient preparation, or rhabdo, do you?
Myth 3: This one’s for the people who are already doing CrossFit – You shouldn’t be doing CrossFit just to compete in CrossFit.
Truth 3: Unfortunately, this is a common mindset we see today, especially among those already practicing CrossFit. It relates heavily to Myth 1 but applies more to those who have been in the community for a while. As people get more involved in CrossFit and push themselves to see what their bodies can do, they often begin entering CrossFit competitions, which is great. However, a problem arises when they don’t achieve the results they think they’re worth based on the effort they put in or when someone with more natural talent effortlessly beats them.
I understand how disheartening this can be. It’s tough to work hard and not win. But maybe you’re approaching the whole concept of CrossFit competition incorrectly. If you started CrossFit with the idea that you’d be competing with top athletes like Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey in just a few years, you were mistaken. We won’t get into why here; that’s another conversation.
As “CrossFitters,” let’s shift our focus away from defining ourselves by attendance and results at CrossFit or functional fitness competitions. Instead, let’s revisit the original Hierarchy of Movement proposed by Glassman, which prioritized “Learning and Playing New Sports” at the top. Get out and try new things. Use your fitness outside the walls of the gym. The world is your playground!
My firm belief and newfound zest for CrossFit have been borne out of a similar realization. I want to be the most adaptable and capable human I can be. I want to train myself so hard that I have no preferred mode of activity – gymnastics, monostructural (running/cycling/etc.), or weightlifting. There should be no time domain of activity that concerns me. There should be no task or challenge that I turn away from for fear of it being too “hard”. This does not mean that extreme goals or challenges that will place me in a physical and mental crucible will not receive extra attention and respect. It does mean that if I am to be ready for anything, I must train with a variety of movements and time domains. The workouts I undertake must be approached with focus and intensity and must include functional demands.
Parting Shot
I would encourage people of all ages, shapes, and levels of ability to consider this when thinking about their health and fitness:
If faced with a challenge like a cyclone tomorrow, would I be able to save myself and my loved ones? Do I have the physical capacity to be an asset in the aftermath of such an event, or would I be a liability? Would I be physically and mentally capable of surviving and enduring such an event? Does my current lifestyle reflect the actions of someone who could face that tomorrow?
If not, maybe it’s time to do something about it. Consider getting into a CrossFit gym so you can not only survive but thrive outside of one. The happiness, confidence, security, and satisfaction you will achieve knowing your body and mind are capable of enduring great physical and mental challenges is second to none.
