Almost three years ago on a Tuesday afternoon, I got the news. My gym was being forced to close “temporarily” due to COVID. Two days later, as I was loaning out all of my equipment to members in preparation for the at-home workouts that lay ahead, someone asked me, “Aren’t you afraid that people will start building up their home gyms and decide not to come back when you reopen?”
I simply answered, “No,” and continued counting the inventory of kettlebells.
What made me so sure that home gyms and live streaming weren’t the wave of the future? And why do I delete the emails I keep getting from various companies claiming that if I don’t hop on the trend of virtual training, that I’m missing the golden ticket?
It’s pretty simple: Connection.
On a small scale, it’s the difference between a globo-gym experience or a live-streamed living room workout and a CrossFit experience. On a large scale, it’s what we’re all finding out we took for granted when we sat quarantined in our homes.
It’s More Than A Workout.
Here’s a bold statement: CrossFit will give you the most well-rounded fitness experience in the world.
Now hold on. Before you shake your fist, call me names your mama wouldn’t be proud of, question my unwillingness to keep an open mind to other forms of fitness and tell me why your fitness plan is better than CrossFit, allow me to take you on a brief journey. (If you already believe me, go on and skip ahead past the bullet points.)
Seventeen years of mediocre fitness experiences are what allow me to give you the following categories, and I bet you fall into at least one:
In college, I did at-home workout videos. I thought being able to “push play” from the comfort of my living room was so much easier than driving to the gym. You know what’s also easier? Pushing “stop” when I didn’t feel like doing any more. Or when I didn’t feel like doing the exact same workout I’d done many times before.
After college, I worked in two globo-gyms (if you’ve never heard the term, think Planet Fitness). I thought having lots of options to choose from was going to be a game-changer. Expectation: Some days I’d swim, some days I’d run on the treadmill, some days I’d lift, etc. Reality: I never once got into the pool. I had no idea what I was doing in the weight room so I spent almost every day on the elliptical or the treadmill.
Then I worked in a corporate job and became a couch potato (see before-and-after picture above for proof). I didn’t work out, I ate… well, basically everything, and had no idea how to even begin getting back on the horse.
I decided to become a Beachbody coach. Yep, I was back to the at-home workouts but this time I proclaimed, “It’s going to be different!” The ‘magic pill’ I thought I found was more variety in these workouts – they were full programs like P90X and Insanity instead of just random workouts – and there were supplements. In my mind, Shakeology was going to be the difference maker. Did you know that you have to eat healthy in addition to drinking Shakeology? You can’t just have a shake and ten cheeseburgers. What a bummer. Annnnnnnd did you know it’s just as easy to push “stop” when you’re tired of P90X as it was to push “stop” on the workout videos I did back in college? Dammit.
After deciding that working out on my own wasn’t my jam, I opened a group fitness studio in 2014. While these classes were what truly kick-started my fitness journey, I have to be honest in saying that I was teaching 10-12 classes per week (sometimes doubles and an occasional triple), so inevitably my fitness was going to be pretty good. (Note that I said fitness, not strength. That is to say, my lungs could’ve lasted through a marathon but my muscles never would’ve). But since we’re talking about overall experience here, what always got to me was the fact that people would come in and sweat together – next to each other but with very little interaction – and then leave. It was missing the CONNECTION.
Here’s The Shorter Version:
If you skipped the history lesson, here’s where you jump back in.
The year was 2017 and I opened Together We Rise CrossFit. I consider this the turning point in my fitness journey, when I discovered three amazing things:
Most people are physically capable of WAY more than they think they are.
Being surrounded by a supportive tribe of people makes it easier to realize point #1.
Simply sweating next to other humans is not the beauty of CrossFit. It’s enduring the workout together as a gym family, and THAT is the key.
I could go on and on describing the “why” behind those three points but it’s like the Indy 500: You can’t truly understand and appreciate it until you’ve experienced it.
And if ever there was a perfect moment to experience CrossFit for the first time, THIS IS IT. Why? Never before had the members of a CrossFit gym – any CrossFit gym – been forced to stay away from their community. Never before had we been told we couldn’t see our gym family each day, that we couldn’t lift, sweat and laugh together like we’ve become used to, that the best hour of our day would now be spent in isolation, using whatever makeshift equipment we could find to get through our at-home workouts.
Therefore, never before has there been the opportunity to witness the reemergence of these communities, and BE A PART of them. You’ll see the best in people, the motivation, the appreciation, the resilience, the connection.
How To Start:
Find a CrossFit gym that encourages community as part of its culture and you’ll never find a more supportive group of people, eager to see you succeed and to support you every step of the way. You’ll see new friends that show you where the equipment is, help you understand the movements in the workout and won’t stop cheering for you until the second you’re done.
One of the sayings we have on the wall at my gym is, “CrossFit is the only sport where the loudest cheers are for the last to finish.” That’s why, when I say CrossFit is the most well-rounded fitness experience in the world, I’m talking about the combination of results and connection that you truly won’t find anywhere else.
There’s no need to take my word for it, though.
Here’s what you should do today: Contact your local CrossFit box and find out why your fitness journey is a team sport. They can give you info about their current schedule and what their onboarding process looks like. You don’t have to have any experience. You can come from the couch or another gym. Background doesn’t matter. Connection matters. And there’s absolutely no reason your workout can’t be fun. TOGETHER we rise.