I’m sure reading the title of this blog stimulates some interesting thoughts, or brings to mind some funny memes you have seen online, most of which probably take the micky out of people who do CrossFit, and that is fine. I am not one of those die hard, serious CrossFitters who treats CrossFit like a religion- that everyone should do it, and that if you don’t there is something wrong with you. On the contrary, while I love CrossFit, own a CrossFit gym in Mortdale, and post about it, I know not everyone is going to choose to do it, for various reasons, and I am fine with that.
Lets not get sidetracked though, and get to the point of this post. There is one distinct comment that I hear over and over in my gym, as well as amongst other CrossFitters and CrossFit communities. Drum roll please……….
“I wish I knew about CrossFit 10 years ago”
I know what you might be thinking, “Oh here we go, just another way to ram this CrossFit propaganda down our throats”. But it is not. This is a completely honest reflection. I hear this line said at least once a week.
See, for the majority of CrossFitters, they come across CrossFit for the first time in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or even 50’s. Not that there is anything wrong with that, because like most things in life, it is “better late than never”. However, it is not long after this “enlightenment” (haha), that they see the value in the program, the benefits that it has on their fitness, and find it hard not to imagine some the possibilities if they came across it many years before. Although the present health and fitness benefits prove extremely beneficial at that time and for each individual’s current lifestyle, they somewhat feel ripped off, or almost like they missed the bus.
I too felt this exact way when I came across CrossFit at the end of my Rugby League career. I had spent many years in the gym doing body building style training, thinking it was serving me well in my sport. During this time I suffered an extensive list of injuries, mostly due to the nature of the sport I was playing, but I have NO DOUBT in my mind that what I was doing inside the gym contributed to these injuries.
Unfortunately, while I believe numbers are at an all time high with people taking an active interest in their fitness, I feel that many people are going down a path that I once walked. The uneducated, misguided path which involved paying a cheap membership at a commercial gym, watching other people train and copying their techniques, with a huge focus on aesthetics as opposed to serious progress in strength, fitness and functionality.
Even more unfortunately, the biggest losers in this situation are our adolescents. Rather than beginning their fitness journey under the watchful eye of a coach, in a controlled, supervised, and structured environment, they are training in a commercial gym with little regard given to the exercises they choose to do, but more importantly how they do them!
Unlike these big commercial gyms where you pay a minimal amount of money to gain access to large gym, with lots of machines, but even more people, and be left to your own devices, CrossFit gyms operate completely differently. Yes, membership is more expensive. But like everything in life, you get what you pay for!
Recently at CrossFit Hurstville, we reached out to some local high schools to offer CrossFit as a school sport. With two schools now using our CrossFit Gym in Mortdale for school sport, we are extremely happy to say we are making a positive impact on some of the our local teenagers lives, by spending an hour with them once per week teaching them how to move better and control their body, educating them about the importance of mobility and other elements of their training, and giving them another opportunity to interact with their peers in a fun and friendly environment, where ego is left at the door. And we are very excited to announce that in the coming months we will be introducing a brand new CrossFit Teens class to our schedule, so we can keep impacting the lives of young people in our area and expose them to the benefits of crossfit, helping them to become fitter, faster, and stronger versions of themselves, perform better in their chosen sport, and reduce their risk of injury.
