CrossFit is a wild thing. It is a business, community, cult, and sport all wrapped into one that you can take in as little as you want or as much as possible!
I personally love CrossFit as an ideology in fitness where we take basics and build upon them. It’s a grassroots way to build a community and help people build habits with tried and true techniques that build upon the 10 general characteristics of fitness!
I find the business aspect awesome because it allows more coaches to help more people. The more coaches we can support with our business, the more athletes we can help in the long run. The more athletes we help, the more families learn healthier practices and everyone gets to live a little bit longer and get more out of life!
If there other two were the filling to the pie of fitness, the sport is that crust and the smell that draws even more people in! The sport of CrossFit gives all of us already in the cult a talking point and events to get excited about throughout the year (#theopen). It also does a phenomenal job of grow the community as a whole by showing the world the pinnacle of what work capacity focused athletes can achieve!
If ya can’t tell already, I’m definitely like a 8 or 9 out of 10 sucked into the cult, and today I wanna help ya get a little bit more sucked in by talking about the ways some of your fellow athletes stay in the know about the sport and why someone might say something in class like, “I’m so sad this is Noah’s last year at the Games!”
Level 1 of CrossFit Cult Knowledge: The Basics
First thing’s first is the CrossFit community actually has a fully functioning email based daily newspaper that runs completely indecently of CrossFit Inc. called The Morning Chalk Up! They do a great job of reporting on major things that are happening in the sport and affiliate communities and have plenty of free articles that come out daily that keep you up to speed on what is going on around the CrossFit space!
The next thing is gonna be where it all began: CrossFit.com
CrossFit actually grew from an online message-board that was started by founder Greg Glassan. Every day he would post a workout and people who followed the blog would post their scores and put Rx or Scaled next to their times and put what their scale was. Today the website is a little fancier, but at it’s core serves the same purpose where you can see what gyms who still follow the HQ programming are up to!
To round it off, you should give @CrossFit and @CrossFitGames a follow on your preferred social media platform as they do amazing stories about the community and keep everyone up to date on all the latest official news regarding the CrossFit Games!
Level 2 of CrossFit Cult Knowledge: The Memes!!!
Have you ever looked at a workout that involves burpees and double unders and thought “better chalk up!”? Well, you’re not alone!
While every affiliate has a different interpretation of CrossFit, we all have the same hates, quirks, and loves!
If you wanna share memes with your friends about your CrossFit experiences or let your coach know you’re not thrilled about the Echo Bike WOD but you’ll be there anyways, here are some great social media handles you should check out:
@makewodsgreatagain (not politically affiliated and the most popular page)
@chalkllamas
@memefortime
@rebeccafuselier (remember the girl who got last in the Madison event 2 years ago and everyone cheered her on? She also makes memes and posts good WOD tips!)
Level 3 of CrossFit Cult Knowledge: The Games Athletes!
Any athlete who has had a shining moment at The CrossFit Games, has been there multiple times, or is ridiculously strong, is usually revered by the community.
Athletes like Noad Ohlsen, Mal O’Brien, Guilherme Malheiros, and Haley Adams are just a few of the athletes that people who follow the sport of CrossFit love and follow to see what impressive things they are up to! I personally go check out their feeds when I need a kick in the butt to go do a workout that I wanna do. Not because I think I’ll ever be like them, rather it is just fun to have that “I saw Tom Brady win the big game and now I’m gonna go play football with my friends” type energy.
To start ya off, here are the top 5 male and female athletes from last year’s CrossFit games to go give a follow!
Top 5 Female Athletes:
1) Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr: @tiaclair1
2) Mal O’Brien: @malobrien_
3) Laura Horvath: @laurahorvaht
4) Danielle Brandon: @daniellebrandon7
5) Brooke Wells: @brookewellss
Top 5 Male Athletes:
1) Justin Medeiros: @justinmedeiros34
2) Roman Khrennikov: @roman_khrennikov
3) Ricky Garard: @rickygarard
4) Samuel Kwant: @samualkwant
5) Jeffrey Adler: @adlerjeff
Alright, you now have a trove of handles and links to check out the rest of this rainy afternoon! So go forth and improve your cult ranking and satisfy that irresistible urge to tell your friends that you do CrossFit! And if they won’t listen, your fitfam will happily sit around with ya and talk all about this wonderful little world you’ve dived into!
To talk with a coach today, click the link found HERE to schedule your No Sweat Intro