Hey Folks!
So I was calculating it out, and I’ve been doing CrossFit for over 5 years. When I began CrossFit there were maybe a thousand affiliates worldwide – now there are over 10,000. Here are some observations from “back in the day” when I started CrossFit
- CrossFit created their own games video, “Every Second Counts”, which I purchased and watched on repeat until the 2009 Games
- The prize money for winning the 2008 games was $1500 (a modest increase from the $500 the year before, I learned).
- CrossFit designed and sold their own merchandise.
- There were legitimate information in the CrossFit forum about topics like what was the best shoe for CrossFit (Chucks, Inov-8s, Nike frees, etc.), about whether to go with Rogue or Wright Rubber for bumpers. People gave their honest opinions and experiences because to everyone it was new territory.
When I went for my cert I read Starting Strength, The Paleo Diet, Enter the Zone, Lights out, and every single article and video on the CrossFit journal. I read the training manual cover to cover numerous times… and there was no test back then (I’d do it a year later after it was implemented). To learn about olympic weightlifting you had to look up Mike Burgener, Jim Schmitz (Greg Everett was still affiliated at that point) and others. You wanted to read stuff from Mark Rippetoe, Jim Wendler, Louie Simmons and numerous others if you wanted to learn about getting strong. Coach Tucker exposed us to gymnastics and how weak you likely are even when you think you’re strong. If you wanted to run, you watched Dr. Romanov videos about the Pose Method, over and over (likely to decipher his english, but also to review the technique nuances).
Nowadays there are a thousand blogs, video blogs, articles, and a million opinions about CrossFit and every tiny nuance to it. Everything is readily available without any thinking or researching.
That is a problem.
And I believe the even bigger problem, is that when you do research, there are now a thousand voices screaming in your face. EVERYONE is convinced they are 100% right, and everyone else is an idiot.
The ONLY way to do a muscle up, is to work your strict chin ups and your strict ring dips and develop the strength to do it strict without kipping at ALL. No wait… the only way to do it, is with an enormous kip, keep your body hollow/arched, or no maybe you flex your hip really hard? YEAH that’s the ONLY way to do it! Everyone else is stupid and they’re doing it wrong.
How ridiculous is that? And it seems to apply to everything in CrossFit these days. Getting super strong is the best way to do it. Yeah but not just powerlifting, you have to oly lift. Yeah but then you’ll suck at gymnastics, and THATs where the real strength is. And don’t sacrifice so much endurance and stamina that your Helen time suffers!
The opinions never end.
One of the things I never anticipated when I opened my affiliate was having to vet the information my members were consuming. With so many loud, blaring opinions out there, it can be difficult keeping people on track. By on track I mean remembering what’s important – And in my gym, having fun, feeling great, and acquiring fitness that you plan to use in your day to day life is what’s important. I love hearing people tell me how much easier it is to ski now, how well their pregnancy and delivery went, AND that they have been lifting more weights and moving more quickly than ever before. Helping people achieve these goals is easy, so long as they aren’t distracted by loud, shiny promises from internet “experts” that don’t actually know them, their goals, or their limitations.
It’s gotten to the point where it just isn’t possible (or worth it, a lot of the time) to proof-read everything the “experts” are writing on the internet about CrossFit, Paleo, Mobility or some other aspect of your health. For the most part nowadays it’s all recycled info that repeats every 3-6 months. It’s usually the content for “click-bait” links (i.e. “One thing missing to take you to elite-level… You won’t believe it!”, or, “She reveals the best way get fit AND be happy, genius!”). These people aren’t necessarily wrong, but their view can be incomplete, and most importantly, they don’t know you. We do. Collectively your coaches have expertise in a WIDE variety of areas, we all know you, AND, we communicate with each other to develop our plans. I’ll save you time (and potentially money) right now – Having a team of people that know you and your goals can’t be beaten. We aren’t the be all, end all of knowledge, but we’re infinitely better than Joe Coach on the interwebs who will promise you double your back squat in 2 weeks, regardless of your current PR. I’ve personally done over 10,000 hours of structured learning (bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees), and I’m just one of your coaches. The point being, this is what we do – so use us for the knowledge we have. We should be able to distill down all those hours of study into an answer for you. After that, research all you want. You’ll probably notice we’ve stolen all sorts of bits and pieces from all over. One main nugget though – it is VERY unlikely that we haven’t come across the “one thing you aren’t doing that will help you DOMINATE THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE WITH YOUR AWESOMENESS”. If we find that one out, we’ll be telling everyone… for a fee, of course 😉 …Onwards!
This is why we’re implementing the “coach for life” concept at our gym. Those who’ve gone through fundamentals likely built a pretty good relationship with their coach. That coach may not run every class you go to (likely they won’t), but they’re there for you – for questions, goals and support (And we want to hear from you!). We want to know what you want to achieve and what you want help with so we can make a program just for you. The progress you’ll see from a personalized program is so much greater than from some random info from some random coach online. So contact us. Let us help you. And for those who were around before we implemented Fundamentals, contact me (Adam) and we’ll get you set up with a coach or some homework/plans to help drive your progress!
Stay Strong Folks – See you in the gym!
Adam