10 THINGS NEVER TO SAY TO A CROSSFITTER

As much as CrossFit is a workout routine, it’s also a lifestyle.

We care about CrossFit more than we would like to admit, and we love being in an environment where our passion for the sport can be expressed.

With that being said, there are a lot of things that can really annoy us about when it comes to CrossFit.

One of these annoyances are people who have never stepped in a CrossFit gym, watched CrossFit, or even gave the sport a chance.

These people, despite having no actually interactions with CrossFit, came across an article once, or perhaps just overheard some people talking about it, and decided they knew more about CrossFit than anyone who actually does it.

This “knowledge” of theirs comes out in various ways.

Lots of the time, it appears as loaded questions and snarky statements about the sport based on things they’ve heard or read.

Sure, usually the questions and statements aren’t outright malicious and could be better described as “misguided”, but that doesn’t make them any less annoying.

Us CrossFitters need to be aware of these questions and statements.

When those words crawl through our ear canal and nestle into our brain, we can’t help but see red.

This article is not to incite your rage, but rather to prepare you for the ignorance of the outside world now that you are a CrossFitter.

Here are 10 things people say that get our blood boiling.

“Isn’t CrossFit For Guys?”

Oh, I’m sorry, do we still live in 1954? I forgot that women need to be home all day, cooking dinner for their hubby and cleaning the house to make it’s spick and span.

Heaven forbid that one of them may actually want to do something physically challenging. Next you’re going to tell me that women should be allowed to make their own decisions and join the military. Phfftt.

No, CrossFit is not just for guys.

In fact, statistically speaking, CrossFit leans further in the other direction.

Over 60% of all CrossFitters are women. But realistically, CrossFit doesn’t see gender, it’s for everyone!

One of the great things about CrossFit is that you are realistically only competing against your past self.

Sure, there are other people in the gym, but all you really want to do is make sure you’re better than you were last WOD.

That means that men and women are on equal playing grounds. In other sports, like basketball and football where you compete against others, this can be difficult.

But in the internally-competitive sport of CrossFit, it is natural to see men and women pushing themselves side-by-side.

“Aren’t You Worried About Getting Too Big?”

Look, buddy, the last thing we are worried about is “Getting too big.”

We would already be bigger and stronger than we are now if we could be.

That is like asking someone who wants to be a professional basketball player, “Aren’t you worried about getting too tall?”

No, they aren’t afraid of getting too tall.

Being tall is a massive part of succeeding in basketball.

Getting bigger, stronger muscles is a big part of succeeding in CrossFit.

Look at Mat Fraser, do you think he was worried about “Getting too big?”

On top of that, unless you are a professional CrossFitter, odds are you’re not going to get overly bulky through CrossFit.

Spending hours in a gym slowly going through set after set of heavy squats, deadlifts, and bench press, are what will make you bulk up.

CrossFit WODs are usually made up of high-intensity circuits.

This means they are aerobic as much as they are weight-training.

This will put an emphasis on building lithe, functional muscle.

“Do You NEED To Talk About CrossFit?”

Yes. Yes, we do.

It is something we are passionate about.

If we weren’t passionate about it, odds are we would rather do something else on our Friday night other than making ourselves feel like throwing up in a gym.

We spend a lot of time in our CrossFit Box talking with fellow CrossFitters, and this makes us accustomed to people with similar interests as our own, talking about what we love.

So sorry, Karen, that we talk about CrossFit around you sometimes.

Most of our interactions with you seem to revolve around your everlasting love of wine.

Maybe we talk about CrossFit because your INCREDIBLE passion for alcoholic grape juice makes us want to talk about our passions as well.

“Everyone Gets Hurt In CrossFit”

More than anything else, this is what someone who has only read one article about CrossFit says.

The article was written by some ex-bodybuilder wannabe who hates CrossFit because it “ruins the glory of what weight lifting should be.”

The article talked about all of the negatives of CrossFit, such as how the lack of 5-minute breaks between exercises in CrossFit makes it way harder to “hit on babes” than in conventional weight lifting.

Inevitably, the biggest negative that appears in the article is “how often people get injured.”

Frankly, this isn’t true.

Sure, you can get hurt in CrossFit by doing the exercises with poor form, but any CrossFit Coach worth their salt will make sure you are only going as hard and as heavy as proper form allows.

You can also get injured while doing everything properly during a workout.

It sucks, but human bodies are frail and often succumb to injury. We also get hurt doing the laundry and taking our dogs for walks.

Until we can upload our consciousness into an advanced, injury-proof android body, this is just a part of life.

“CrossFit Isn’t A Real Sport”

We’re not even going to bother getting into the actual definition of a sport.

This statement doesn’t deserve that. Instead, here are some things that are considered ‘real’ sports:

E-Sports, where teams of players… sit… at computers… or other gaming devices… and battle virtual characters or play virtual versions of real sports.

Darts, where a person stands and throws a small pointy thing into a bullseye over and over.

Bowling, it’s bowling, need I say more?

All of these are sports as well.

They are competitive and require hours of long practice and vast amounts of skill.

But if these all count, then CrossFit, which also requires an obscene amount of practice and skill, as well as the more traditional physical exertion that is associated with sports, clearly is a “real sport”.

“What’s A ______ (Fill In CrossFit Term)?”

“... a Box?”

“... a WOD?”

“… a Murph?”

“… a Pukie the Clown?”

This question definitely isn’t malicious. It’s just annoying.

Eventually, asking what every term and euphemism in CrossFit means just makes you look like a 6-year-old who had too much sugar and decided to get to the bottom of every question that the universe has to offer.

There is a relatively new invention that could help with this. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? The internet?

Using this fantastical creation, instead of asking question after question, you could simply type “Common CrossFit terms” into the search bar and, voila, your answers appear.

We love answering questions about CrossFit.

Just not question after question about what words mean.

Ask us about why we love it or the benefits of joining in and we can go on for hours.

“Isn’t CrossFit Just A Fad?”

Technically, almost everything is just a fad.

The Romans are considered the greatest civilization of all time.

They wore a lot of togas for hundreds of years.

Unless you live in a frat house at a State University, odds are you rarely, if ever, wear a toga.

In another couple thousand years, our clothes will probably be like the toga, out of style and seen as a part of an ancient civilization.

So in that sense, sure, CrossFit is probably just a fad.

The problem with this question is the emphasis put on the word fad.

It tends to be said in a way that makes you think that the questioner was so close to saying “cult”.

As if there are conspiracy theories about CrossFit that make it a dangerous and controlling pastime.

No, CrossFit is not a cult.

There are no conspiracy theories. Just like the moon landing, CrossFit is a real, useful thing, and not something created by the government to do… well, whatever crazy conspiracy theorists think that fake moon landings do.

“Do You Just Do It For The Dates/Hookups?”

Sometimes people in CrossFit gyms hook up.

Maybe they even start dating.

Maybe, just maybe, they even get MARRIED!

There is nothing wrong with that. It is a natural byproduct of a bunch of consenting adults who share mutual passions and spend alot of time together.

Also, CrossFitters tend to be fit, and also tend to like other fit people.

But do people use CrossFit just to try and find hookups? Probably not.

CrossFit tends to be really hard, both physically and mentally, and if you are only there to pick up dates, odds are you will not last long.

There are a lot of easier ways to test the waters than going to multiple CrossFit WODs a week.

There are dating sites, apps, and even the good ol’ bar on a Friday night for you to go searching.

The CrossFit gym is not ideal for this.

If you are constantly trying to strike up a flirtatious conversation in the middle of a workout, odds are the other participants are going to pick up on it pretty quickly.

CrossFit Boxes tend to have a bit of a family mentality, so someone creeping on a girl who clearly isn’t interested is probably not going to last long.

“Are You Paleo?”

No, not everyone who does CrossFit follows the Paleo diet.

The Paleo diet is basically a caveman diet, where you eat lots of meats and vegetables while keeping grains, processed foods, and sugar to the bare minimum.

In a lot of ways, the Paleo diet is very useful for CrossFitters.

It is a protein-heavy, healthy diet that gives the average CrossFitter (or athlete in general) all of the nutrients they need to build muscle and cut fat, both of which are desired in CrossFit.

CrossFitters also tend to be conscious of what they put into their bodies.

Things like refined sugars, chemicals, and processed foods are usually not a mainstay in their diet (although cheat days definitely are a real thing!).

These are also not a part of the Paleo diet, so it is natural that many CrossFitters have a semi-Paleo diet almost by accident.

No, there are no requirements to be Paelo to be in CrossFit.

CrossFit is an incredibly open, varied community, where everyone can feel welcome.

Even if your diet consists mostly of McDonald’s and carbs, you are more than welcome to be a part!

“Why Do You Do It If You Complain So Much?”

There is a difference between complaining and complaining complaining.

Complaining is when you whine about what you’re doing, but deep down you secretly love it and complain more as an expression of your love than anything else.

Complaining complaining is where you really hate what you are doing.

This can cover a wide variety of activities, such as picking up Elephant poop, being stuck at the office in boring meetings for 8 hours straight, or being chained to a post while pirates raid your sea vessel.

All of those things suck.

Crossfit complaining tends to fall into the first category.

You complain about how hard it is.

And complain about that evil grin your CrossFit Coach has when he explains how many burpees you are doing in the WOD.

Plus complain about how sore you are the next day.

But you love CrossFit.

Complaining is a part of CrossFit, and most sports in general. It is done with a smile and a chuckle at every level of the sport.

Good luck explaining that to someone who doesn’t get it.

How To Deal With These Questions

All of these questions and statements rile us CrossFitters up. They should.

Nobody likes when the thing they love is looked down upon and not understood by people who never put in the effort to understand it.

Really, there is no great solution to them.

But, if we at WOD Recovery Rx may be so forward, we think we have come up with a good way to help deal with the aftermath.

Our new Sexy Bath Bombs are here to give your bathtub the peace and tranquility you need after dealing with these people.

Check them out at our shop: https://wodrecovery.com/shop-all/

The most important thing to remember is that we can’t let these questions and statements, whether innocently naive or maliciously, get to us.

CrossFit is about inclusion.

Maybe, just maybe, by being inviting and slogging through the annoying questions with a smile or a friendly laugh, we can make people come to love CrossFit instead of letting them continue on with their misguided views on it.

So have a big grin on your face next time someone tells you CrossFit is just a dumb fad.

Smile through the pain.

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