This post (found here) sums up exactly what what this "Crossfit" thing is all about. In each one of you, you have an ability to do something unique and special - something that you couldn't or did not do yesterday. Sometimes this newfangled ability brings about a completely new way of living your life - the way you walk, the way you sleep, how you eat, what you do with your kids, greater confidence in life... I could go on. CrossFit can give you that new approach to your life. It's special and we want you to be a part of it.It's the "something different" you are looking for.
CrossFit appeals to us for a myriad of reasons; efficacy, fun, excitement, competition, etc. There's many reasons we have for why, specifically, CF is for us. However, there are a few central ideas that make the allure so strong. The community, efficacy, and fun factors spring immediately to mind. Also the MAS (mutually assured suffering, which is a fun way to express the group dynamic that pushes us to the brink) and the fact that it makes us look pretty good, so other people want to touch our bums. There's something else though, something intangible that's difficult to put into words. Most of us experience it on a daily basis to varying degrees at CFNE, but may not realize exactly what it is or perhaps haven't even thought about it until now.
What precisely "it is"...is hard to nail down....much like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, many concepts in CrossFit are impossible to understand and measure at the same time. Also, like the Matrix no one can be "told" what "it is".....you have to see it for yourself. It's something that makes us special, or at least makes us feel that way. This is common among human beings. The concept of "elite" is thrown around a lot in the CF world. I think "elite" may be a misnomer though, there's definitely a better way to describe it. I got the idea after a discussion I had with one of my fellow Sectionals competitors......I call it the "Clark Kent Effect."
People by and large have boring lives. Most of us do the same things every day, i.e. get up at the same time, go to work, do the same things at work, eat the same things, pick the kids up at school etc. We long for novelty, and for things that make us feel special or part of something special....we know this. So enter CrossFit. You show up at CFNE, and in NO TIME you're climbing up and down a 15' rope like a spider monkey, doing insane pull ups like a Russian gymnast on speed, running like a cheetah with Nitrous Oxide, and picking heavy stuff up off the ground like a mad gorilla. These are certainly not mundane, pedestrian tasks. Without putting much thought into it - even if it's your first night at fight club - you already know it's something special. What brings us to that level? What elevates us to the point of traipsing through "normal" society with a proud barrel chest and a smirk that Chuck Norris couldn't roundhouse kick off your face?
You have become a superhero with a secret identity....a la the "Clark Kent effect." As you walk through your daily activities, digging holes, or filing TPS reports, making sales calls, shuttling the kids around, or cooking dinner....no one is the wiser. Of course people realize that you're fitter, look great, and have more energy. They have NO idea what you're capable of ...but you do. That little secret, one that's only revealed under the cover of darkness, or in the wee hours of the morning is your own. This little nugget of power drives each of us to some degree or another. Knowing that you possess superpowers that the average person does not; that in a fraction of an instant if called upon to undertake some monumental task, you could perform. That perceptible status has an appeal for us. Its even more justified than being a real superhero though, because you weren't born with special powers, or turned into some freak by radioactive spiders. You earned your superpower with blood, sweat and power cleans.
We even have our own secret superhero lair....CFNE. It's like our own personal Fortress of Solitude. It's our place of peace and zen, where we go on a daily basis to hone our skills and become the most powerful superhero's on earth. Much like the actual fortress of solitude, ours is a place where outsiders are weary of treading, and greatly misunderstand what happens within its walls. Of course, only until they become brave enough to walk (and be welcomed) through the doors, and begin their own journey towards superherodom.
As crossfitters, we revel in doing that which terrifies the rank and file. Things that most people wouldn't do if you paid them. CrossFit doesn't make us special, it enables special people - those of us with a certain force of will - to impose it on the universe. Every one of us, like a true superhero, changes or affects the lives of others every day in the gym and in our daily lives. I know personally that the people I train with in the night class every night at 6pm inspire, and drive me to excel with every burpee, double-under, pull-up, and dead lift.
Keep it up, you earned that smirk. Each of us has a big red "S" on our chest beneath our shirts and wears a cape of Luon hidden inside our clothes. Crossfitters are everyday superheros (we have to be, we already bought the spandex).