VACATION REMINDS US WHY WE HEART CF
NEW YORK FITNESS
CROSSFIT 717
MEATHEADS AND MACHINES
IN MECHANICSBURG, PA.
Thankfully CrossFit brings familiarity to unfamiliar place
MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Long gone. Like hundreds of thousands of miles away gone.
Welcome to central Pennsylvania, cloudy and hovering around 30 degrees. Frank and I arrived late Monday night after 14 hours of air travel and 6 more of layovers. Jetlagged and freezing, we drove to nearby New York Fitness, a “globo gym” that had just opened. We knew we wanted to train a lot during our vacation. Our strategy: Lift at a globo gym in the morning and do a metcon at a CrossFit in the evening.
I hadn’t been to 24Hour Fitness-type gym since canceling a 6-year-long membership when I began CrossFit in 2009. So when we walked through the globo gym doors, I was instantly awkward. That’s when the realization hit: I. MISS. CROSSFIT. UPCOUNTRY.
I panicked a little and tried to visually locate something familiar. A C2 rower? Boxes? A squat rack? Helena? The only things I recognized were a couple of barbells in the corner of room. But to get there I had to cross a barricade of meatheads — some bulky guys doing curls, another one doing a Romanian deadlift with a rounded back and a third guy doing some machine I didn’t recognize. If they weren’t looking at their biceps, the meatheads were looking at us, sizing us up.
Cool. Frank and I just walked into a freaking fun house with mirrors and crazy clowns. “Ah, now I remember what 24Hour Fitness was like,” I thought.
There’s a fine line between showing off and exercising when you’re at 24Hour Fitness. Strangers should be training themselves, but instead they watch you. Then you inevitably watch them. And it turns into a very strange staring-but-not exchange. You start to wonder what they’re training; you then question what you’re training. Distraction starts to set in.
“Stop staring at the meatheads staring at you,” I told myself.
I tiptoed toward a squat rack with a bunch of pegs. That’s when I caught sight of the mirrors. Ah, the mirrors; I could write pages about the mirrors, about how self-indulging it is to watch yourself work out. I noticed myself getting lost in my reflection multiple times. My thoughts ranged from positive self-talk like, “Good job, your torso is upright when you squat” to negative messages like, “Sick, Kehau, you need to stop eating scones. Your thighs are massive.”
Did I ever think of this at a CF box? Never. First: because I’ve never had mirrors at a box (thankfully my former coaches taught us to feel lifts instead of watching lifts; mirrors can be a hindrance); and secondly: because when I’m doing a WOD, I’m more concerned with trying to breathe than trying to look good.
“Don’t drop the weights.” “No grunting.” “Use a spotter.” Gym rules were posted along the mirrors on every wall.
As I squatted, I felt so uncomfortable that I honestly didn’t know what I was “allowed” to do. I quietly got through my three sets of five reps, making sure to not emote and not drop my weight. God forbid anyone be human. That would be crazy.
When I was done, I hid in the back of the gym’s coffee house while Frank finished his lifts. We left as quickly as we came, more defeated than when we got there. More than an hour had passed, and I thought of how good my workout would’ve been if only it were at a CF box.
Thank God for redemption at CrossFit 717. The Pennsylvania box is located near Harrisburg, and it’s a sick facility. We got there a little before the WOD and immediately people greeted us and asked where we’re visiting from. The comforts of a familiar CF environment were welcome in an unfamilar place. We quickly got moving with the class and seamlessly fit in, like it was our home away from home.
One of the owners, Dan, was there, and he made us feel really welcome. We did an interval workout of KBs, burpees, toes-to-bar, pull-ups and wall balls. People gave out high fives. And we left with an endorphin high.
The differences between the box and the globo gym were pretty evident.
• People at a CF gym are diverse in age, skill level, ethnicity and background — but we all have a common goal — CrossFit-style fitness. That foundation keeps everyone on a parallel path; it’s an unspoken camaraderie you won’t find at a globo gym. You’re not judged for doing a box jump, or toes-to-bar, or push-ups or pull-ups. We have the same workout, and we are all fighting to get through it.
• You have coaches and a community. The people in the box become mentors, friends, personal trainers, tough competitors and family members. CF creates teams and communities. Globo gyms create meat markets.
• The size of your biceps, weights, quads, hamstrings, etc. all matter in a globo gym. In CF, your performance and range of motion matter far more than your aesthetics. You can’t judge an athlete by what he or she looks like. Underestimate someone and they will easily smoke you on any given movement or WOD.
• There’s no bull-shitting. At a CF box, people aren’t going to come up to you and talk in the middle of your set. You’re at CF to have relationships, but mainly to do work. We are on task, on a programming schedule and we get everything we need in an hour. At a globo gym you can be interrupted by someone wanting to talk, and you can get distracted easily, thus creating a less-optimal workout.
• There are little to no mirrors. The mirrors are a ridiculous distraction. It causes you to rely on a reflection, an image, not the truth of the movement, how it feels naturally, what you innately know about the human body, your body. It causes you to size yourself up, to size others up, to be concerned with the “show” and not the “go.” If I could get a dollar every time a bodybuilder who looks badass gets his or her ass kicked on a metcon, or who can’t lift any weight even though he or she looks like they can, I would pay off my student loans. Two-D mirrors are not an accurate representation of a 3-D reality. Fitness is fake when it’s not functional. What’s the point of looking good if you can’t perform well?
• You can drop weights at CF. You can grunt, cry, emote at CF. You can be human at CF. You are welcome to come just as you are at CF. After all, we have the same goal of fitness. And we encourage each other to get there, one step at a time. No judgement. No shame. Just hard work, compassion and camaraderie.
We’ll be home in a little over a week and we are reminded more than ever why we love CrossFit and our community. Thank goodness that CFUM is permanent, and that this globo gym is temporary.
AFFILIATE DROP-IN TIPS
Here’s some good advice for getting in a WOD at another affiliate:
• ALWAYS offer to pay. Even if you’re Rich Freaking Froning, you should approach the coach/owner and ask what the drop-in fee is and how you can pay. Do this before you WOD not after. It’s just like walking into a grocery store and buying the milk before you consume it. There’s no difference. Value the training first and foremost. Especially when you’re in another box.
• NEVER try to show off or smoke everyone on your first WOD. That’s a sign of immaturity and insecurity. Why do you have to prove anything? You’re in someone else’s home. Have respect for regular members and be humble.
• DON’T try and get a special WOD or do your own programming. Go to a globo gym for that. Who do you think you are? Dan Bailey?
• DO encourage people and introduce yourself. Be kind and it will come back to you.
• DON’T try to coach anyone else. That’s just dumb.
• DON’T be offended if you get coached. Say thank you and use what you can with the instruction.
• DON’T talk crap about other affiliates. It’s a small world. People are always connected in ways you don’t know. And karma is a beotch.
• DON’T try to get deals. See the first rule. This is super lame. Why is your case special? You’ll get flagged by the owner and coach and secretly loathed.