Paralyzed by definition
I met a runner the other day. He saw my tight pants that I seem to wear everywhere when the temperature dips below 50° and asked where my favorite place to run was. “Not much of a runner,” I said smiling. “So, your a CrossFitter then,” he said.
I met people like this all the time now. CrossFit has a way of making you feel like your running for office. Like your a mayor of fitness to those folks trying to find “in shape”. It’s cool meeting new friends, even if they do like to run a lot.
For the sake of this article we will call him my new friend Ted. Ted was a high school cross-country athlete, a local 5k whore, and a running group leader. And sadly, Ted couldn’t run anymore. “It just hurts too much to really get out and get going. I was a 40 mile a week guy, now I’m lucky to get seven,” he said. Ted is 44 years old.
He went on to tell me that he was going to need hip surgery, and that some days, bad ones, he could hardly bend his knee. “What did you replace all that time with,” I asked. “The couch,” Ted said after really having to think about.
The coffee shop is where life is discussed over cups of perky. I was about to exit the line as I asked Ted, “if you knew I was a CrossFitter, that means you have tried it right?” “Yeah, not for me,” he said. I quickly offered to buy Ted’s morning whatever if he would hang for a minute and tell me why CrossFit wasn’t for him.
Ted had no real reason to dislike CrossFit. He wasn’t manipulated into thinking CrossFitters were elitists, or that all we do is lift heavy.
Ted had simply defined himself as a “runner”. A tribesmen who built his identity around one specific athletic activity. Ted’s friends were runners, his wife was runner, his son a runner. Ted’s planet was a big path he traveled as quick and as often as possible, all on his own two feet. A lane he may never navigate again.
We continued on about CrossFit and running for ten minutes or so. I invited Ted back for a CrossFit second chance. He politely declined and said that he would just continue running as much as he could, cutting more and more miles as necessary to deal with the pain. “It’s just something that happens when you get old, I will just deal with it until I can’t run anymore,” was one of the last things Ted said to me before he left. I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
I have met many runners just like Ted. To be fair, not just runners, but globogymers, cyclists, swimmers. Folks who don’t really have an issue with CrossFit in the least. Folks, potentially, who would love CrossFit if they sincerely tried it. But trying means dying a little. Once you have defined yourself as one thing for so long it feels like suicide to become something new.
One of the best things about CrossFit is it’s lack of identity. It’s inability to be categorized. You really think your in a cult-how? You Olympic lift, you run, you row, you pull-up muscle-up, push-up. You climb ropes throw balls at ceilings and power-lift. Tell me, what cult has such acceptance, such a wide net of belief, such ability to offer something to everyone.
I asked Ted to give up a little bit of himself in exchange for a big umbrella. But giving up who he was, was too much to bear. I asked Ted to leave his identity behind and chose a life minus a definition. A CrossFit life where you can remake yourself every day. Where friends are considered CrossFitter, but nobody really knows exactly what that means. Where runners can be more than feet hitting pavement, lifters can be more than barbells, and people can be whoever they want to be.
Strength:
Back squat
5×4@78%1RM
Push-press
5×5@73%1RM
For time:
3-Stone to shoulder 118/145
4-Sandbag toe 2 bar @8 lbs
5-Handstand push-ups
12-Swings 35/55
4 Rounds
Auxiliary:
10-V-ups
30-Second hollow rock
4 rounds-not for time
Post impression to comments.
I shared this article with some of my runner friends. The question was asked “isn’t the author saying to trade in your runner identity for a crossfit identity? As if identifying yourself as B instead of A is somehow more noble.”
My answer would be yes, and that is OK. But not sure how that argument would hold up. He also referenced cost of running compared to crossfit, and times available verses going out on your own.
I think the “cult” label given to crossfit more than likely evolved because those that are doing it can’t imagine any other way to make yourself better each day and struggle understand why those that don’t crossfit don’t want to. Which I would assume most actual cult member also feel about what ever they are doing.
I love “once you have defined yourself as one thing, it feels like suicide to try something new.” It is very true for me, more now since I have started crossfit. It may not make sense but before crossfiit I was the softball player, volleyball, track, now I define myself as only a crossfitter. Is that a bad thing? Not very sure but the motto I know and live by, just like many other crossfitters is specializing is the enemy!
“Specializing is the enemy”…. “Jack of all trades”… both quotes about how crossfitters feel about their sport. Thinking about these sayings makes me realize how the large umbrella of crossfit does allows me to excel at one thing…
Being the most productive, capable, positive human I can possibly be.
Crossfit’s lack of identity has allowed me to discover my own. How’s that for specializing?
9:05 m (Had to improvise…did 3-DB snatches at 55#, 8 toes to bar, and 55# swings)
This workout is Particularly offensive to everybody. Show up to learn and have fun. Especially if any of those movements look challenging.
6a was cool. Sometimes not stopping is an award all to itself.
11:33 m
15:24M 75# atlas stone
12:27 (m)
10:? M Stones were cool. Sandbags not so much
13:23 (m)
Extended Training-45 sec row, prowler sprint-5 rounds
13:03 m
8:18- did the 75lb stone, all else rx
8:55 (m)
Did 75lbs stone and no sandbag.
9:33(m+)
75# stone, sandbag toe to wall, 55# KB
11:58 m
Big 6:30, Dave and Miko did a great job. Fun Fun!:)
10:08 (m)
Jealous! Lots of teens in the house tonight, super cool
Thanks Dave for pushing Jas on her back squat. She definitely doesn’t get that from me
9:56 m
Fun 6:30!!
Heather Taylor…so impressed with your TTB!!
Thanks ~ I was sooooo happy! The other night I was telling Chuck how I remember being a little kid swinging around on the bars on the playground. Flinging my legs up and over the bar to hang upside down and swing like a monkey was nothing. Then I asked him what happened along the way? It’s cool that CrossFit allows us to learn how to play like kids again. =)
Super fun big 6:30 class….Trainer Dave and Miko did a great job keeping us in line!!!
)
8:40 (m)
Got that damn 118 stone to my lap 3 times….and wouldn’t you know my hip pop wasn’t fast enough…
Took about the last 3 weeks off (meaning i was hurt and had to go super light or not wod at all) and it feels good to be back both mentally and phyiscally….
Oh and quote I the night…
Chas: “Hey Debbie….what’s the cap on this WOD?”
Debbie: can’t stop laughing……
Baaaahaaaa!!!
Love it Chas!!!
6:30 was huge again, and Dave and Miko managed it…even in heats, you guys die great.
9:23