ARE YOU THE ONE?

In the six years we’ve been running CrossFit classes, literally 1000’s of people have stepped through our doors and tried CrossFit. Imagine if all those people were still training at One World. If you thought a few of the sessions are a bit crowded now, think about the group sessions being twice the size. Yuck! What a mess.

The good news is that we don’t follow a commercial gym business plan. The commercial gym plan is to sign as many people up as possible. It doesn’t matter if they show up to workout or not. The membership sales guy at the commercial gym could give a rat’s ass about your fitness or health. His job is to sell gym memberships. As a matter of fact, they know that the majority of the people they sign up will show up once or twice and then call it quits. They know it will be busy around the commercial gym for a month at the beginning of each year. Eventually, all those New Year’s Resolutions are broken. Those same people may try a comeback several times throughout the year, but in the end, the commercial gym owner knows to charge them little, and people will continue to pay regardless of whether they show up or not. For most people, just saying you have a gym membership is actually good enough for them. It’s a genius plan. The commercial gym plan works because of one reason: people are ridiculously lazy. Training takes commitment. People want immediate results. When they realize you can’t look like a fitness model/bodybuilder in just a few weeks of walking around aimlessly using machines, the ideal of “working out to be better you” loses it’s luster. Suddenly, going home and chilling on the couch sounds a lot better than roaming around the gym not knowing what the hell you are doing anyway.

So what about those 1000‘s of people who have tried CrossFit at One World? Most either tried CrossFit or actually joined up. Some people don’t join because they simply can’t afford it. Some join and then circumstances that are out of their control cause them to leave. Hours change at work. People move. Family issues. I understand that. Some things can’t be avoided.

But there have been so many others. If CrossFit is so great, and CrossFit is for EVERYONE (as so many hardcore CrossFit folks will have you believe), then why aren’t all those people still training with us? For some, ego got the best of them. They either ignored the advice of the trainers and pushed themselves past what they were actually capable of doing. They ended up getting hurt. Not our fault, that one is on you. Others have joined and couldn’t come to grips with the fact that they were getting their asses kicked by others. This is usually an issue with men. Often, it’s hard for a grown man to come into the gym and have a girl working out next to him who is lifting more, running faster, and just performing more efficiently. If they are guys who played some sports “back in the day,” the girl being better issue is even worse.

In general though, the same shit happens with CrossFitters that happens with those poor souls wandering aimlessly around the commercial gym. We tend to keep people a little longer, but soon, everyone realizes three things:

1. CrossFit is really hard.
2. Being uncomfortable sucks.
3. DO I REALLY WANT TO WORK THIS HARD AT BEING UNCOMFORTABLE?

It's the choices you make after you ask yourself #3 that make or break you at One World.

It may take a little longer than your average commercial gym member, but it doesn’t take long to realize that you are not going to look like Rich Froning after 6 weeks of CrossFit. Damn! Isn’t CrossFit just like seven minute abs???? I can’t look like that after only a few weeks of short workouts a few days a week???? Ummmmmm.......no. And so, the CrossFit Circle of Life manifests itself: show up to every session on time for a few weeks...realize this is going to be harder than you thought.....start finding every reason in the book not to go to the gym.....pay your membership for one more month despite the fact that you don’t go......send an email to quit, and ask for a refund for that month you didn’t show. Seen it so many times!

Honestly, most people last 6-8 weeks. As a gym owners, Brad and I have come to realize that for every 5 people who start CrossFit, only one will stick with it. There was a time when I thought that we needed to start a beginner class. Yeah, maybe that might work, but truth be told, a beginner class is a scaled version of CrossFit. We are already pretty good about scaling workouts for everyone’s ability. It still comes down to whether you want to work hard or not.

The people who stick with One World are the folks who realize nothing comes easy. They embrace the fun side of One World, and then they plug away at increasing their fitness bit by bit. They are in it for the long term. They are not afraid to work hard and be uncomfortable. For those of you who have been doing this consistently, I applaud you!!! You are cut from granite. You should be very proud of yourselves. CrossFit is not for everyone, but it is for you.

If you are new, you can avoid the “throw in the towel” early syndrome by following a few simple guidelines:

1. Take it easy. You have to walk before you run. If you want to come in and think that you should be doing everything at the level of everyone else right off the bat, isn’t that a slap to the face to those who have put in the work that you haven’t put in yet? Scale back. You will NEVER EVER hear a coach at One World tell you to do more than you want to do or are capable of doing. On the flip side of that:
2. Listen to your coach. I’ve seen a lot of people train over the years. If I tell you to scale something, you prove nothing other than you are a stubborn SOB if you ignore me. Turn a 12 minute workout into a 30 minute workout over and over again and I can assure you that you are doing nothing to improve your fitness. You are resting more than you are working, and you are just being miserable longer than necessary. It's a surefire recipe to quit within two months.
3. Check your ego at the door. We are just exercising. We are just trying to get a little more healthier and better at life than we were yesterday. Don’t get hung up on what everyone is doing around you. Everyone around you will support you and give you encouragement, but they don’t care about your results. No one cares who comes in first or who comes in last. Get over yourself, and you will improve yourself in leaps and bounds.

The funny thing about CrossFit is it never gets easier. That’s why it works so well for those who are ready to commit. As a matter of fact, the better you get at it, the harder is gets. In the end, you set your own goals. You can see superhuman results in a few months, or you can take a longer road to reach your goals. Either way works, but you have to be willing to put in the work. 

Millions are trying CrossFit around the world. Not all are sticking with it. Remember what I said about every five who start and only one stays? CrossFit is not for everyone, but it might just be for you. Are you the one?

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WORKOUT   6/27/2012

• 5 x 3 hang power snatch 

Then....

 

Complete 5 Rounds for time of:

• 5 Deadlifts (185/275)
• 10 Jumping C2B Pullups

This is such a sneaky workout. Jumping chest to bar pull-ups are brutal!

******************************************************

Comments

[Chris Lai]

I know I'm late to this post but I tore my other leg's achilles tendon a couple weeks back playing basketball. Just wanted to thank you and all the other trainers for making me a crossfitter for life. I may no longer be training at One World but I'm still representing and crossfitting as if I were. THANK YOU!!!!

[jason]

Great post Freddie......does Bingo(?) own a gym??...ya excatly...I used to read his stuff on the mainsite..now I spend my time trying to do everything I can for those 1 or so out of 5 who embrace what we are trying to do....I don't know him, but he always struck me as someone who likes to hear himself talk about nothing.
thanks for keeping it real!!

[Jahed]

I'm not quite ready for crossfit, that's why you see me off in the corner derping around by myself

One if these days, my body will be ready

[Sina]

At my first crossfit session Freddy told me to f the bar, so I've been fing the bar ever since, 45# bar I love you!

[freddy]

Tracy, That's a good question. Our age groups are all over the map, and pretty even across the board. Never put much thought inot it but I would say late twenties to early thirties in the majority. Equal men vs women. Do any of you One Worlders think differently?

As far as CrossFit for middle agers, I would say RECOVER RECOVER RECOVER. Take an extra day to rest every now and then. Also, don't get too concerned about what kids half your age are doing. If you can do better, great. If they are better, well, they are suppose to be. They are younger!

Be well friend!

[freddy]

Yo Bingo, I’ve known you for a long time now. Usually you are very articulate and easy for me to understand, but I gotta tell ya, I am super confused by your comment. You agree? You disagree?

I tried to make it pretty clear. People in general are lazy. They want things to be easy. CrossFit is not easy. They realize this. They quit. Pretty simple really. I’ve never had a person quit and go to another gym in the area (as far as I know), but I will say that I have a bunch of members who trained at other gyms and now train at One World.

Also, I don’t ever remember writing anything about the type of client we prefer at One World. I’ve definitely written about the type of client I don’t want, and somehow that gets translated into “I only want firebreathers” at One World. That’s ridiculous. We aren’t sending people to the CrossFit Games. I rarely ever mention competitive CrossFit in class or in posts. We don't force all our gym members to sign up for the CrossFit Games Open. We have very few people who can do all the workouts “as prescribed.” We don’t yell and scream at people. We have a good time and we celebrate the small successes we make every day, week, month, and year. We have people that make gains in leaps and bounds and people who have been training with us for years and are lifting only slightly more than when they started. That’s what they are comfortable with, so that’s what I (as a coach and co-owner) am comfortable with.

You can take any CrossFit workout and make it work for anyone. That is the beauty of CrossFit. Unfortunately, you can’t take CrossFit the strength and conditioning system and make it work for everyone. It’s simple really. Not a lot of people in this world are cut out to do what we do on a regular basis. I know this because I’ve seen hundreds of people try it.

It is what it is Bingo. You have “it.” That’s why you’ve been doing CrossFit for so long. The fact that you’ve visited over 80 gyms tells me that you have “it.” Millions of people in this world don’t have “it.” If everyone had “it” but just need the right gym or the right coach to find “it,” do you honestly think they really have ‘it??” I don’t think so, and there is nothing wrong with believing that or saying it outright. It's not badmouthing CrossFit in any way shape or form. It's just pointing out a reality, which I obviously don’t have a problem doing. Cheers!

[bingo]

I'd like all of it a bit more Freddy (and I DO like the post) if I hadn't read all of your other posts about CrossFit NOT being for everyone, or even most, and especially not for older athletes, or your posts about the kind of athletes you and your coaches prefer to work with at One World. I've now stepped into more than 80 CrossFit gyms, all a little different, all a little the same. There is a certain "type" in each gym, a combination of self-selection and conscious or unconscious selection by the coaches. Did those 4 out of 5 leave and not do CF somewhere else? Why did those folks leave after 6 months? Did they all leave because they were tired of being uncomfortable? Discouraged because they don't look like Rich?

Gyms and trainers get the clientele they "deserve", both in volume and character, let alone athletic or CrossFit achievement. If you only want hard-charging firebreathers but you live in the middle of Stepford your gonna have a lonely gym. If you live to enhance the lives of elderly individuals but your gym is accessible only to college students, ditto. If you are good, like you and your trainers, and persistent, like you and your partner, you will end up with a gym filled with people who enjoy being there, training there, enjoy you.

But for someone who has stated so emphatically that CF is not for everyone, and even more so stated who CF ISN'T for, and been so up front about the kind of client who is best for One World, can you really extrapolate your thesis so broadly? Can you really lay all the blame for folks who leave One World on them? I love you, Brother, and love that you lay these things out there for everyone, but I think you're giving yourself a bit of a pass here.

Saying that everyone can't or won't do CrossFit is entirely different than saying that CROSSFIT isn't for everyone. I've seen nomadic newbies who search for a CrossFit that they can or will do, a trainer and a gym that puts together a CrossFit that IS for them, one that includes being uncomfortable (for without that it canna be CF, eh?). I guess I'm OK with 4 out of 5 folks who wander into a gym and do a few WODs and then decide that no, CF is not for them.

I wonder, though, if there isn't more to the story, and if you might want to be a bit more curious about the clients who come for 6 months and then decide to leave. No matter who the trainer or where the gym, is it really all on them?

Thanks for the post. I enjoy reading your stuff even when I don't reply; it always makes me stop and think a bit.

[tracy]

Freddy,

What's the age group percent and gender percent of the "One Worlders"? Just a wild guess will suffice.

What's your advice for middle agers doing crossfit? Lay off the high rep work outs?

Great read as always,

[Christian M]

Freddy, simply great post. First time I've been to the site (saw your post via Craig), and I had to read since it was your programming at the Arizona Winter Open that kicked my ass. I'm just 19 but after that competition I had a serious look over my training and went back to basics.

Notably in strength, my snatch went up from 175# to 208#, my C&J went up from 235# to 252# and DL went from 395 to 415#.

In other words- I'm happy to say "thank you", for kicking my ass and remnants of my ego. Keep up the great work

[Craig@Diablo]

Couldn't agree more. Well fng said.

[Lyn C]

#3 CHECK YOUR EGO AT THE DOOR!

It's always a good reminder for me every time I walk in OW. I really don't care if you run faster than me. I'm competing with myself. I am running & not sitting on the couch eating my sorrows away.

"I AM THE ONE" is a great slogan for the OW shirt Freddy.

[Chris]

Dude. Good post.

We should make something to represent an evolution of the slogans over the years.

Train not to suck at life
Fit as F*ck
I am the one

I think there was some more slogans but can't remember right now.

[Rod]

Good one Freddy, "RFM for Life!!!!!" CHEEHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Also, FILIPINO FOOD FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[freddy]

I think "I AM THE ONE" would be great on the back of a tshirt.

[Jason K.]

I've been at OW for five years now and I still don't look like that that Froning guy. Fuck it! I'm quitting.

[Leon- CrossFit Elysium]

Freddy, nice post. It inspired me to write a similar one for our blog which you can read here if you're interested.
http://crossfitelysium.com/as-rxd/entry/you-wont-last
Thanks

[Gerard McAuliffe]

Excellent article Freddie. When i used to take on a new group of beginners i used to try and figure out who would stay with CrossFit and who would eventually give up. I got it right a lot of the time but i also got it very wrong sometimes. I think the 'ego' is a problem for a lot of males especially if they are good at some other athletic endeavour.Nobody walks into a box for the first time and dominates no matter who they are. That is a right kick in the balls for some men. They usually give up, the middle aged lady in the corner using the pvc pip that sticks at it is flying 12 months later and looking and feeling great. They are the ones that matter most! Nowadays i don't pre-judge anyone and give them all a fair crack at the whip.

[Chris Kamper]

Not sure which post I liked better, Freddy's or Big Tony's! You guys are awesome.

[Joe Nepo]

Freddy, thank you for this post! I'm glad to be one of those people that stick around, even though I live and work in the peninsula. Thanks to OW coaches, I was able to be comfortable at being uncomfortable. I know if I want to get better, look better, I can't do a half ass job at it. My strength, endurance and stamina have improved over the time I been crossfitting. Eventually, I want to have similar features as Rich Froning but the main thing I want to maintain is the satisfaction I get from crossfitting or working out in general. It's essential to my physical and mental health. Helen, I totally agree! It's well worth the WORK.

[Alvin Blaker]

EXCELLENT post Freddy! Thanks.

[quack]

what a long pointless post. Fact is 1000 people in the gym would stink like ass and old sox. do you really want that? Some do apparently.

[Helen H.]

Authentic Freddy post as always. Slow but steady wins the race!
In the therapy office I see/hear the same kind of crap from clients all the time: "why is it so hard? isn't there another way? Do I really have to do ____ to get what I want? Why can't I just take a pill & get what I want? What do you mean I have to keep practicing my skills over and over?"
It's very simple.
Pretty much everything most worth having in life takes WORK. Whether that's a healthy strong body, solid relationship, good communication skills,good career, higher education, good salary- you name it, it never gets easy peasy. That's what makes it worth being proud of!

[Radler]

Bad ass Freddy!! The trainers at One World make This question really easy...
"DO I REALLY WANT TO WORK THIS HARD AT BEING UNCOMFORTABLE?"

Yes!!!!

And it does get so much harder as one gets better. Great motivation brother.

[Ansel]

Freddy is spot on as always. Big name gyms have lots of machines & fun classes, but the coaching aspect is sorely lacking. I always see the "personal training consultants" working with one of the "4 out of 5" who won't work hard enough to derive much benefit from their membership. The classes have zero coaching, compared to the attention I've seen on display at One World.

Picking up stuff scares the bejeezus out of me, given the number of times I've pulled back muscles doing mundane tasks. Doing deadlifts is the essence of terror for me, so I focus on the coaching instructions and crack on.

[Anna]

Good stuff! I'm stilllll waiting for it to get easier. LOL!

[Big Tony]

The few,the proud,the Oneworlders, Freddy u b a hella of a recruiter, because you speak the Truth, most of us forget that the joy is the journey to good health,there r Good habits , like exercise daily.there are bad habits, like smoking. And there are habits of mindless routine, like hours upon hours of watching tv shows tha u aren't interested in.At all time and under All circumstances ,we have the Power to transform the quality of our lives.Freddy talks about Ego in all of us , specially the men, just remember this if strength were All, Tigers would not fear a small scorpion. God Bless Oneworld

[Diana V.]

Great Post Freddy!! I know my times suck, but the way I look at it is if I can be better each day and push myself, I might just look better naked than some of my co-workers...

[Chris]

In the next 6 weeks, I BETTER look like Rich Froning or I'm leaving One World and I'm taking my jumping ability with me!!!

[Sandi]

Thank you for this FIVE STAR post. Your posts are often thoughts that we all think, but afraid to share; you articulate your points well.

I am one of the many who gives my coach 100% and never miss a day. I don't give a shit if I am not the strongest or fastest, I love what I do and the people around me who inspire and encourage me each and every time I step foot in the door. CrossFit isn't for everyone, but it is for me.