CrossFit is Too Hard to Do Alone

Just in case I haven’t made this point clearly enough.

CrossFit is hard.

Really hard. Not hard as in “impossible” or “perpetually discouraging,” but hard enough that you have to brace yourself every time you walk into the gym. CrossFit hurts. We sometimes spend the first five minutes after a workout flat on our backs in an effort to shorten the fall if we pass out.  CrossFitters are always sore somewhere. A wise gym owner always has a “pukie” bucket sitting nearby, just in case a newbie thought a large milkshake would be a good choice for a pre-workout meal.

Those who have never tried it can’t imagine why anyone would do it. Those who do it daily can’t imagine living without it.

What keeps CrossFitters coming back for such a mentally and physically challenging program? One answer is the constantly varied, never get bored principle we covered in previous posts. Another reason CrossFit is sticky is that our shared suffering creates a thick band of community.

Too Hard To Do Alone
I walk into my CrossFit class with a sense of dread. I’m anxious. I’m not sure I want to be there. I don’t really want to do the workout written on the board. As soon as I saw it online the night before I said, “Uh, oh. This is gonna be tough.” It’s multiple rounds of handstand pushups, ring-dips, and standard pushups; three of my weakest movements. I’ll have to fight for every rep and it will take me twice as long to finish as most in my class. On top of that, I’m having a “low energy” day. I ate too many chips at lunch. Most items on my to-do list refused to get done. It’s like I’ve been trying to run a across a field of almond butter all day long.

It would be so easy to opt out of the workout and go home and take a nap, or better yet go swim a few laps in a big bowl of ice cream. I show up anyway, ready to train my weaknesses and defy my sluggishness. Why? One big reason is because I know there will be a handful of other athletes training alongside me. Knowing I’m not going to suffer alone is enough to get me to show up on a day when I’d rather be almost anywhere else doing something less painful.

It turns out the workout is harder than I thought it would be and I feel slower and weaker than usual. Yet as I say goodbye to my classmates as I leave the gym I’m glad I came in and did it. I know that tomorrow I’ll feel better. The workout will be more enjoyable. But today, when I almost didn’t show up at all, it was my CrosssFit community that gave me just enough motivation to do what needed to done.

Occasionally I’ve had to train alone because of travel or a weird work schedule. I hate it. CrossFit is much less fun when done alone. My times are always slower when I train by myself. Several times I’ve violated the CrossFit code by quitting in the middle of a workout because I could push myself onward with no one else around. I’d never dream of doing such a thing when working out with other CrossFitters. For most of us, if CrossFit were something we all had to do by ourselves at home, we would try it for a week or two and then store all of our equipment in the closet with the leftovers from all the other exercise programs we’ve failed to do on our own.

CrossFit is too hard to do alone.