Here at BTWB, one of the coolest things we’ve noticed about CrossFit is its grassroots nature and openness. And there’s one way for CrossFitters can take advantage of those aspects. It’s by visiting other boxes. And one of the best times to do it is when you’re on vacation.
I did this with CrossFit Central Maui (blog). On vacation, I was able to contact Lee Poston and Kaye Whitney, the owners. They kindly gave me a time and place, and I just showed up. It was that simple. The hardest part was the wod. But the payout was that, as a CrossFitter, I learned a lot from the experience.
The first and most obvious thing I got out of this experience was a personal test on seeing how well I can do in a different environment. The weather was hot and humid those days. I’m from Southern California so I’m not accustomed to the humidity. I hadn’t breathed so hard with an aching side since I first started CrossFitting. And I learned that I might have given up under that pressure if it weren’t for the cheering from the other athletes. So besides learning about my physical limits, I saw the welcoming and encouraging character of CrossFitters.
The other, not as obvious thing, was in experiencing how they run their classes. But I hear you ask, “But aren’t you just CrossFitting?” But in reality, we see that each gym runs their program slightly differently even though we’re all still fundamentally CrossFitting. By visiting, I can note the differences and experiment with what I’ve learned when I get back to my home box. One of CrossFit’s tenets is always to do what works, provable by hard facts; we shouldn’t get complacent. You will find things that will work better, or worse; either way you’ll have more information to become better athletes.
So as people cross-box visit, we’ll see the spreading ideas that work. This will only help CrossFit get better both as a community and as a program, and we’ll see it happen at the grassroot levels.
Here’s a pic of my visit with Lee, Kaye and some of their athletes.
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