It was four years ago and I was working as a personal trainer, working one-on-one with clients, that I believed I had my dream job. When it came to expertise on the subject of fitness, I sincerely believed I was something special. I was self-coached and I trained hard, and trained my clients hard. That’s the way I saw it, until I watched my first Crossfit.com video. Crossfit.com exposed me to a thinking on fitness that I’d never imagined. After my first experience doing it, like a growing number of others, I was sold on this new and  aggressive approach to exercise and health.

I fell in love with CrossFit for several reasons. I had never had such a simple workout totally destroy me. Being the masochist that I am that was all I needed. I watched and read every video and journal article that I dug up, and devoured every lecture clip of Glassman talking about the dysfunction of the industry at large, and how Crossfit was rewriting the books.  The empirical approach to training, fitness and performance, grounded in science and measurement was music to my ears. I will admit Glassman’s blunt (if not crass) delivery and strong belief helped pull me in. Especially when Coach talked about being as fit as possible for as long as possible. Longevity. If any of you remember the old school power graph that Glassman always scrawled on the whiteboard as opposed to the polished three-dimensional one we have now. The goal of CrossFit was to create the most effective and intense workouts possible. Glassman talked about maintaining a high level of functional capacity for as long as possible; to delay for as long humanly possible any stay at the nursing home “being fed green jello and watching Oprah day.” To be the 90-year-old out for a walk with his girlfriend and able to beat the hell out of some punk trying to hold you up at the ATM.  That is where that three-dimensional graph of health comes in: The purpose of CrossFit is LONG TERM, meaning the rest of your life.  

Four years ago when I first got into this the first CrossFit Games had just happened a few months prior. There were a few videos of the events but the “sport” of CrossFit as it is now was non-existent. Obviously the sport aspect of competing with your friends at the box everyday was there. In the past four years the “sport of CrossFit” as grown to a size and reach that no one could of ever predicted. To massive venues and huge cash winnings for competitors. In events around the world now new generation of elite CrossFitters are pushing themselves beyond the body’s limits. In this process we are starting to find the limits of this training program that we have in our hands. Different types of injuries are starting to become common among the elite members, and also those newer to the community.

It seems the focus of CrossFit at large, both members, affiliates and some members of CrossFit HQ, is changing to sport and competition. Granted in this “Reebok-Era” of CrossFit it is easy to see why. People are performing feats of strength and stamina that are incredible. My issue is this: CrossFit was never intended to be a serious sport. It was meant to be the best fitness program in the world. Making you as fit as possible for the rest of your entire life was the goal. The goal of fitness, coupled with the powerful community established by our gyms, is what has made this thing grow to the size it is at now.

I personally feel that the huge focus being put on the sport of CrossFit is not good for the community at large. I know some will find this as blasphemy but here me out. I feel the emphasis should remain on long term health and fitness not on the games. We know that specializing in any sport subjects participants to limits that are not healthy or maintainable in the long term. Runners, weightlifters, football players, boxers, gymnasts... anyone that is a part of these sports long enough will end up getting hurt from any mix up of injuries that are common within the discipline. With the growth of CrossFit around the country and the image of sport becoming larger and larger we are starting to see certain injuries become more common among CrossFitters. Kelly Starret created Mobilitywod.com as a place for people to learn how to take care and rebuild their bodies since that sort of info was non-existent on the main site. Now more people are stretching, foam rolling and in general taking care of their beaten bodies a little better. There are some moves that we are learning that have more potential for injury than others. Being able to learn from ourselves and admit when we have been doing things a bit off is going to be what makes CrossFit gyms go the distance. We can’t just get in Internet arguments all day about how awesome we are and how invincible we are. CrossFit is still new, where no one has been doing this all that long, especially doing so at the competitive level. Just like any sport in the world, it must have it common injuries and we need to learn how to train to avoid them and not get them in the first place.

The goal of CrossFit—optimal health throughout our lives—can’t be reached fully if we are harming ourselves constantly while training for the next sectional or local competition. Now I am not saying competition and the sport is bad. What I am saying is that we need to train smart, we need coaches that know how to progress athletes, both new and advanced, properly. Knowing when to check the ego and say maybe I should call it a day on that move for a week or so instead of trying to push through to finish today's WOD....  even if I am going to have to sit out the rest of the week because of it.

I know that my passion and drive for opening up Elysium was to help members that were normal everyday people and help them better themselves and increase their enjoyment of life. If every once in a while that means I get someone that could potentially be a Games competitor, I’m cool with that. I would rather watch some go from a partial range of motion air squat to  65lb squat snatch. I would rather help someone lose 40lbs or get their first pull-up. Creating relationships with clients that will last a lifetime is the true heart of CrossFit Affiliates... or at least that is what I thought. If you listened to this article from Glassman that was just released (sounds pretty similar to the archived lecture clips from the old days) you would think he thought the same.

In my mind if you are doing CrossFit for pure competition and sport.... you are doing it wrong. It is my opinion you have missed the entire point of what has fueled Crossfit’s explosive growth. This thing was viral before Reebok got involved. CrossFit Affiliates don’t need to push competition to grow, we need to continue to strive for virtuosity in our movements, we need to focus on quality of training. We need to know how to program most effectively. We need to foster a place for people to gather and better themselves for the long run. That is how we will continue to grow and dominate the fitness scene. Or at least this is what I dream of.

Remember that all this stuff we do... IT’S JUST EXERCISE.  

Coach P