CrossFit: more than a workout, a third place

Ask 1 more question…That has been the advice given by Chuck Carswell, a CrossFit Seminar Staff Flowmaster + Seminar Excellence Manager, who has led over 500 seminars. He’s giving this advice to many. I first heard this during my internship in hopes of becoming a Seminar Staff member.

Nothing was unusual about this class, my usual Thursday classes to coach. Thursdays are often a hodgepodge of people at the mid-day classes. It was a small crew, not the usual Noon mix, we had the regular chatty catch-ups with those who arrived early and by asking 1 more question, getting a layer deeper, I got to what was really going on…which led us to going into the class hour and right over my time for the brief. What would you do as a coach? 

1)Stop the conversation going on between the athletes for the sake of saying your timeline. Just before class, one athlete needed my support and this person is now the one giving the support. 

2)Stand there and wait for them to be done sharing and then get them ready to fitness.

3)Figure out a way to tie what the athlete was sharing with today’s workout.

No one right answer, but I think if we, as coaches, are aiming to have service at the forefront and truly see the athlete as a person, there are certainly wrong answers.

I chose option 3, reading how these athletes needed to vent, needed some advice, and needed to get out of their heads and thoughts. This class time and this affiliate is their third place.

“People who have third places are invested in the quality of life in their neighborhoods and the amenities they offer. They have an opportunity to bypass mass media, and they can react and discuss their opinions. They have a place to vent their frustrations and celebrate their joys. Being a part of a third place, Oldenburg says, “enhances the sense of being alive.” (CrossFit Journal, Where Everyone Knows Your Name”)

Another reason why preparing a lesson plan is so critical—> Knowing my timeline was not on the line, I knew exactly how much time I had to spare, even with a 5 min delay in the start of the brief, and how I could easily adjust the brief to meet the needs of everyone and getting them to move onto the general warm-up.

As we went through the warm-up, I read their body language and how their range of motion and joints are moving on them  (intensity is relative to one’s physical and psychological tolerances) this led me to approach how to scale and present options based on what I saw and read from their non-verbals, as a few of them were mentally drained and others physically drained. 

The workout happened, athletes worked hard, got what they needed from that workout had some laughs, carried on with conversation between transitions, and a mental weight was lifted on their shoulders.

At the end of the workout, we still had time for a cool down, not as long as planned so that was again, adjusted on the fly, and I closed the class with a genuine thank you for showing up as all of them could have let that voice inside win. The one that validated it was ok to skip but that other voice said, “No, go and you’ll feel better if you physically take care of yourself”.

CrossFit Open 2019

That was a win. Fitness bricks were placed on the wall for each one of the athletes today. And I think even greater, a feeling of connection and validation was established. Validation that someone outside of my family and friend circle cares about me and understands the struggles and challenges of life and by not having an “I complain, you complain” sesh but an “I am struggling with x” and someone to say “I hear you, that must be hard” and “a way to look at what is going on could be x”.

This is one of the attributes of how the CrossFit community is different. This is what sets us apart from the large-scale fitness chains, from the yoga studios, and the HIIT 6-week fitness programs. CrossFit is hard. CrossFit requires people to be resilient. CrossFit is not about the bullshit.

CrossFit requires you to dig deeper. It also builds toughness and resiliency. Most people have these traits when they walk into a CrossFit affiliate but they need to be uncovered in layers of self-doubt and disbelief. How those layers are slowly shed are through workouts that get scaled with the help of a coach, the workouts that end with a fist-bump by your fellow athlete for doing hard shit, and those workouts that get you striving for a bit more, a little bit quicker transition between movements or rowing stroke for stroke by the athlete next to you, to move a bit faster. Workouts that are found in the CrossFit Open, those workouts are the ones that give you a nervous feeling in your belly, not for the workout movements but for how you know that by having a judge and having a community of people cheering you on, you won’t let yourself quit. You’ll move faster, you’ll lift heavier, or you’ll get a skill or movement for the first time ever! The excitement and encouragement from your coaches and your fellow athletes push you.

None of these little things independently are significant, it’s the sum of actions that led to a better you.  This is one of the reasons why I coach for what it brings out of people and what it brings to people. This is the main reason that I choose to sign up for The CrossFit Open each year also, for what it brings out of people and what it brings to people.