Neema Ejercito (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer
I was a proud CrossFitter long before it and its founder got cancelled. I got as far as competing at a local two-member team competition and the CrossFit Games at my “peak,” but I wouldn’t say that those were the highlights of my so-called career in it. When asked to describe what it was, “sport” didn’t seem to capture its essence, so I would say the generic “it’s a lifestyle,” but I have been corrected on more than one occasion that it was a cult. I had another friend declare that she would never try it because she didn’t like being yelled at by a coach. Yelling right back would be her reaction.
I suppose it does take certain personalities to like suffer sports like CrossFit. I don’t know if I would be able to define what those traits are, but throughout the different stages in my life when I have made friends, the ones I made through CrossFit are the very same who continue to grow with me. I could easily pass it off as “we physically struggled together,” but this would still be applicable to experiences outside of suffer sports.
A typical WOD, or workout of the day, would start with introductions, such as one’s name and either what one had for breakfast, who was one’s first celebrity crush or, if the group was composed of regulars, turning to the person next to you and commenting on what you admire about that person. The topics would vary, and they would presume that in each schedule, there would at least be one new person attending. There would be regulars grouped into the morning or evening crew, and within each, some sub-groups would form, like the breakfast moms or the young professionals, but when the box parties were held, the lines blurred and the parties just turned epic.
A CrossFit gym space is called a box to differentiate it, I suppose, from the typical gym where machines are bolted and unmoveable. Barbells are picked up and placed in one’s “station,” which, depending on the WOD, could include plates, a kettlebell and/or a wall ball. But prior to the setup and after the intros are the warm-ups, and the fun ones have always involved games for me. I loved duck walks and inch worms across the box, but I preferred freeze tag or competitive relays to get our hearts pumping.
The coach then explains the WOD to us, complete with demos of proper movements, scale downs for those who are beginners to the movement, those healing from an injury or those not yet confident in doing the full move, and the reminder for number of reps per movement. Some WODs have proper names because they are named in honour of a departed US Navy SEAL, for example, or benchmark ones named after female OGs, and so named in the same way storms have female names, since the founder thought that, just like storms, these would wipe people out.
Being in a suffer sport like CrossFit exposed me to other similar sports, like the Spartan Race or Tough Mudder. I feel these are more like events to train for though, and some of my fellow CrossFitters have certainly used their training to help them compete in them. As much as I would have liked to join, I was never able to do so due to work and family commitments. But there have been times that I was so into CrossFit that I could have trained to be a coach.
Looking back on those days and thinking about my answer to whether suffer sports are worth it, I would say a resounding yes. There was a time I idolized seniors who were still lifting weights, even my gym buddies at the community centre, hoping to still be “at it” till I was well into my 80s. But lately, due to perimenopause, I’ve taken to gentler ways of movement. I’m not closing the door on suffer sports, but I definitely think every person should try one once in their lifetime. I suppose, like with any activity that takes you out of your comfort zone, the worst that could happen is you find a friend.
Source:
Knighton, C. (n.d.). CrossFit® benchmark workouts, “the girls,” the best times for every ability. WODprep. https://wodprep.com/blog/crossfit-benchmark-workouts-girls-best-times/
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Before returning from her summer vacation in the Philippines with her partner and three offspring this year, Neema Ejercito did not realize she still had so much to write about. Such as the boredom she felt raising her eldest at her in-laws’ place when she and her husband hadn’t moved out yet. Or how surreal it was to watch her youngest learn to swim at the country club where she learned to do so as well. She currently wonders if she will ever write about being a mother to a bunch of plants, all of whom she adores and loves to watch grow as much as her kin.
