A Place Of Work Not Pleasure

A few weeks back I was chatting to Andrew Stemler, or rather listening attentively as you do, when he summed up Crossfit as just being plain horrible.  I am always loving the way he can describe things so concisely.  I was discussing this further later in the week and I was trying to understand why you could not just use this to describe why Crossfit is so effective.  Yeah it its a strength and conditioning program, yeah it improves work capacity, yeah it's functional movements, constantly varied etc...Or it's just plain horrible really.  Can you imagine if we actually did this?  How many would just go pale and walk away. But a few would smile, nod and say "Goooood" 


 It comes back to something I used to say a lot when people asked what my "secret" to getting and staying fit is.  I always replied "I use FHW" Some peoples faces would light up. They were thinking a short cut, some magic supplement taken like a milk shake or pills in the morning.  "FHW?" "Fucking Hard Work" I would reply.  Again some would look disappointed others would see the truth there and then.  Crossfit is loaded with FHW.  Great big dollops of it.  But FHW is rewarding. It builds strong versatile athletes with mental fortitude. Mental fortitude should be number eleven on the Crossfit list of competencies. 


 I started to look around at other Crossfit sites and compare these to some high street gyms, often referred to as globogyms.  Our sites had pictures of people doing dead lifts, ring work, hand stands and over head squats. The others had lounges, cafes, small leisure pools and machines lots of machines.  One machine described as a Treadclimber the banner stated Looks like your running days are over then…  How sad.  A machine that means you never have to run.  This must be a terrible symptom of the customers laziness and the service providers cynical desire to pander to it. 


 At Crossfit London UK we have no problem in intervening and pointing out you are not pushing yourself hard enough knowing that being cruel is actually being kind.  At the risk of doing a John Lennon, Crossfit is like an old testament God. Both terrifying and benevolent.  So I have learnt that a Crossfit Box is a place of work not pleasure, well not until the end of class anyway.