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J O U R N A L

ARTICLES

CrossFitters, Be Nice

Michael HoughtonWe’re good but oten arrogant, says one aliate. His advice:Cut the attitude and appreciate what you can learn rom other athletes and workouts.

I just ran a hal marathon. I did no special training or it, outside o the WOD. Going in, I had previously donethe Endurance WOD or a month or so, but I have done no specic run training or several months goinginto this event. I gured, with my huge ego, that i I was in enough shape to crank out workouts as Rx’d, I ‘dnish this hal marathon easily.How wrong I was.

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Be Nice ...

(continued)The rst hal o the race, I elt really good. I had previouslyrun the 15k that came up on the main page, and thoughtthat i I could do 9 miles, I could certainly do 13.1.Thinking back, it sort o reminds me o my attitude whenI was looking at one o my rst CrossFit workouts. It wasCindy. I thought, “hmmm, 5 pull ups, 10 pushups, 15squats or 20 minutes? No problem!” Ater that workout,I realized that I should never underestimate a workoutagain. It literally whipped my ass. Since then, my avoriteCrossFit sweatshirt was the one with the prescriptionon the back that says “Whoopass, Unlimited Rells.” Idistinctly remember Tony Budding wearing it at my Cert,in act.Anyway, at the hal marathon I was in the ront hal othe pack or probably two-thirds o the race. As I hit mile9, my body started screaming at me. It kept saying tostop. Just walk a little. My mind kept saying “Just keeprunning.” My hips were in extreme pain, and my kneeswere crying or just a little rest. For quite some time,people were passing me. This did not bother me; I justkept my pace and tried to nish. Towards the 11- and12-mile markers, I had old dudes with bad knees passingme, kids passing me, and old ladies passing me. Therewas not one kind o person who passed me that my minddidn’t scream, “YOU SHOULD BE BEATING THEM!!!”As I went on toward the nish, a lot o the people whowere passing me would say, “come on, you’re almostthere!” It gave me hope that I could nish. As I wenton towards the nish, my buddy yelled my name reallyloud, cheering me on. The whole crowd took his cue andyelled or me as well. Even the pacers on the bikes werecheering me on, riding alongside me until I nished.As I crossed the nish line, my body gave out. I had runthe entire race without walking once. I may have shufed,I may have jogged extremely slowly. But I did not walk.I got nothing but high ves and congratulations allaround rom everyone ater the race. Then I got in mycar, and broke down and cried.Why? For one thing, my body was screaming in pain. I’m6-oot-5 and 275 pounds. That’s a lot o weight to carrythat ar. For another thing, I was emotionally spent.For a time, while I was running the hal-marathon, Iwas thinking o the various T-shirts I’ve seen worn byCrossFitters. “Your Workout is our Warm-Up.” “I’m nota pussy anymore.” “Your gym sucks.” “I train harder than

It would be against everythingCoach Glassman stands or i CrossFitters were to make un o and belittle anything we don’tunderstand.

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(continued)you.” Countless other T-shirts that I have either heard oor been tempted to buy ran through my mind.What was the common theme? We’re better than youand we know it.Granted, not all CrossFit T-shirts are arrogant and mean.But many are. As I kept running, I wondered why thoseshirts are out there. Certainly, many people just use themas a joke or as motivation, but or others they do refecta real attitude. I you look at the message boards, you’llnd that this attitude tends to permeate through them.Again, it’s “we’re better than you.”I a CrossFitter sees someone doing something question-able in a gym, he’ll post it and mock it. One CrossFitterwrote about how amused he was by “a guy around 45years old or so wearing the old fuy head/wrist/anklebands, protruding belly, 20-year-old-college t-shirt, andshort shorts (you know the look)” setting up a squat rackwith a bench under it and “then proceeds to do the toptwo inches o a bench press.” Instead o laughing at him,why didn’t he try to help him and explain the concept oull range o motion?Sometimes, the critical CrossFitter won’t understandwhat another exerciser is doing, but would rather makeun o it later in a post than bother to ask questions at thetime. “Today I must have stepped in to some alternatereality, or the circus was playing in the gym and no onetold me,” wrote one guy. He went on to say he couldn’tconcentrate on his cleans because a gym-goer 10 eetaway rom him was doing “hal-assed good morningswith a 6-pound medicine ball on top o his head” andanother was “sitting at bench, bent orward slightly,and was bobbing his head up and down while wearing aweird strap contraption that resembled some medievaltorture device. Linked to that was a chain rom whichhung two 10-pound plates. You draw your own conclu-sions.” Turns out, as another poster inormed him, thatthis is a common old-school neck-strengthening device,and it’s airly eective.We CrossFitters take so much pride in being t thatsometimes we lose perspective and orget that there arepeople out there who are better than us at what they do.I’m not saying that Coach or many others eel this way.I’m just saying that the longer CrossFit is around, and thebigger it gets, the more elitist people’s attitudes seem toget. I have oten ound mysel saying things like, “Well,that’s a waste o time” when I see people out running.Really, though, who am I to judge? At least they are outthere doing something. As in-shape as I thought I was orthe hal-marathon, people absolutely smoked me in thatrace. They shouldn’t have—according to my big ego.

My neighbor does Wii Fit. Is itright or me to trash on her? Shewill never be more ft than me.That’s okay. She has lost around 30pounds. She’s doing something.