One of the longest words in the English language is “Antidisestablishmentarianism.” It was coined to create a name for 17th-century members of the Anglican Church who wanted to remain the official church of England. Their motto could have been, “Don’t change just for the sake of change.” CrossFit rose to prominence as a protest against the fitness industry. Greg’s “Fitness in 100 Words” could have been nailed to the doors of Gold’s Gym like Martin Luther nailed his “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” to the door of a church. Early gyms put their spotlight firmly on counterculture: brick walls, skulls and crossbones, ripped palms on Instagram, “we don’t need to make money at this.” But as CrossFit grew, it started to become The Establishment. In 2011–early days for many of us–SealFit published, “Is CrossFit Just Not Cutting It For You Anymore?” This signaled the exit of the Early Adopters, who were moving to even more extreme training plans. The banner image to the article was a group of soldiers–presumably SEALs–doing overhead squats, an exercise they’d never have considered before CrossFit. The article quoted Mark Twight’s semi-famous line, “There’s a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.” Twight had just left CrossFit after a dispute over the intellectual property contained in the L1 handbook. He was separating himself from the CrossFit brand. But that didn’t mean he stopped doing burpees and cleans. And the “semi-famous line” was famous because CrossFitters made it so. In 2018, there’s a trend, amid CrossFitters, to be “un-CrossFit” or “CrossFit, combined with X” or “The next evolution of CrossFit.” Several companies seek to profit from the CrossFit name–and our hard work, affiliates–by advertising themselves as “better than CrossFit.” If you want to know who’s profiting from our brand without adding anything in return, simply ask them to define their service in one sentence ...
Read More →
