Recently I had a freelance writing assignment centered around CrossFit, so I ventured around to different gyms in my area to interview owners and members and get a better grasp of what it’s all about.
Though I’ve never tried it, I have a couple of friends who are avid CrossFitters and I’ve watched the CrossFit Games on TV before, so I had a general idea of what the fitness regimen entails. However, doing research for the article really gave me a much more detailed look at what it’s all about and why people are crazy about the so called “sport of fitness.”
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I learned that conventional CrossFit wisdom says to forget about the aesthetics, to focus more on what you can do versus what you want your body to look like. Essentially, it values athleticism over superficial concepts of beauty. The idea is that when you work on becoming stronger, faster, and overall more fit by doing CrossFit, the toned bod is a result of that work, but shouldn’t be the main motivation for people.
One of the owners I spoke with was stressing this idea to me during our discussion, and he was saying things like:
“Are you able to have a functional life? Will you be able to pick up your grandkids when you’re 80?”
“A lot of people, women especially, have body image issues… and it’s like, fuck that. We’re goal driven here, it’s not about if you look perfect in a bikini.”
This gym owner’s name is Wes Piatt, and he’s pretty awesome at CrossFit. He made it to the Games last year and competed with the other top CrossFit athletes in the world. His story of making it there is pretty neat, and you can check out a video about it here. But I digress.
Wes Piatt
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When I left his gym, I was feeling inspired by this mentality, but later on after a hard workout, I got to thinking about how I really felt about this concept. Would I exercise this hard and this much if it weren’t for the aesthetics?
The short answer: no. Not to sound totally superficial, but part of the reason why I workout is because I want to look good. Other motivations for me are my overall health and wellness, enjoying how I feel afterwards, and challenging myself, but no, I definitely don’t forget about the bikini bod when I’m sweating my butt off working out.
On one hand, I like the overall message of this mentality. I agree that our society is obsessed with having the perfect body and many go to extreme, unhealthy measures trying to get there, when many of us would be much happier with just accepting our body types and flaws and working on our overall health through fitness. But on the other hand, people want to look their best, right? Is it wrong to make this an emphasis in a fitness regime?
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Naturally, I became all analytical about this topic, and a few days later, I met another CrossFit owner who mirrored my thoughts more. Kind of going against the grain in CrossFit, he recognized that people want to look good and that this may be the main motivator in making exercise a routine thing in a lot of lives. What really resonated with me was him saying, “It’s about how well you move, how you feel, and how you look.”
Another thing he stressed that stuck out in mind was this phrase: “We get fit, and we get fat.”
He was talking about how sometimes other priorities take over in life, that sometimes we may gain a few pounds of fat and be discouraged by it, or perhaps be too busy to care too much. Either way, it’s not the end of the world. We can gain fat, just like we can lose fat. As he said, it’s about feeling good and looking good, whatever that means for you.
Personally, though I’d love to say that aesthetics fall to the wayside in my life and I workout mostly to be stronger and faster, I have to say that I agree more with the latter owner’s perceptions. I workout to move well, feel good, and yes, to look good.
I want to hear from you guys on this! How do you feel about the CrossFit mentality on aesthetics? What are your primary workout motivators? Do you do CrossFit?
I too am familiar with CrossFit but haven’t done it myself. Thank you for sharing this!
Yeahhh I haven’t had a burning desire to try it! Haha.
I am right there with you – I workout for overall healthy but sadly a big reason is that I strive to look and feel the best. I want to feel comfortable in my clothes and that means maintaining a certain weight. But you know what, at the end of the day – it doesn’t matter what your motivation is to be fit (to an extent) it just matters that you want to be fit and healthy. And so long as you don’t take it too far to a point of obsession/injury, then you’re doing fine. My man does crossfit and he LOVES that all he has to do is just show up to his gym and the rest is done for him. He’s not the epitome of health but he loves the workouts he gets to do while he’s there. Hey, whatever works!
Agreed!! That is a good point, a lot of people like having the workouts all planned out for them. A lot of CrossFit members I spoke with also mentioned that the scalability of the workouts is a big draw to them as well.
Not a crossfitter here though I’ve tried it before. I agree with the mentality in moving your body in functional ways but for me that means not pounding the weights day after day. I do think lifting heavy is important but no need to throw around tires and clean and jerk like a body builder to get strong. I feel strong when I lift heavy and I also feel strong when I go hiking or walk on the treadmill. Ain’t nothing wrong with that!
Hehehe preach woman, you crack me up! Between the “caveman” type of workouts and CF’s obsession with the Paleo diet, I had a hard time resisting putting a few jabs in here reminding people that it’s 2014 and we are NOT cavemen, even if they’d supposedly like to be..
I have only tried a sample CrossFit workout at a conference (so it wasn’t at a box and probably not as hard as a real workout). I liked it enough but it is just not my workout style because I prefer music/choreography/having to focus my mind on steps, etc.
I think their take on aesthetics is interesting. Personally, I’m with you, part of what motivates me to workout is i want to look good and honestly I want to feel good in my skin. I think if I cared less about this I would probably do easier workouts and not worry so much about pushing myself.
I agree, it’s just not my style, though I have to admit that I was more intrigued to try it after visiting some gyms and seeing people do the workouts.
Exactly! I’d probably be all about light yoga and hikes and stretching if it wasn’t for aesthetics hahaha
Definitely with you on working out to look good – sometimes, I run because I need to move and to de-stress, but usually I’m bikini-body motivated 🙂 I’ve never tried CrossFit before (it kind of intimidates me) but I have a few friends that do it and love it, and they definitely do it for the aesthetic benefits, too.
Exercise is a great stress reliever for sure! Yeah I’m sure a lot of people that do CrossFit are motivated by how it changes their bodies… I mean how could the vast majority of people not be right?
I’ve been wanting to try CrossFit, but haven’t…I don’t know if I’ll like it or keep going, but I at least want to see what the hype is about and if I would see changes that I haven’t seem in my current workout routine. I agree though- I workout for health and to look good! And I feel just as strong running as I do in a strength class…
You definitely should give it a try if it’s something you’ve been wanting to give a shot! One thing I noticed at all of the gyms I visited was that the members seemed really close and supportive. I think that’s an aspect of it that I’d enjoy!
I’ve never tried CrossFit. Honestly, I find it intimidating. I have to agree with Davida – I feel strong when I lift weights, but I feel strong when I go for a hike or for a jog or do a cardio work out in my living room. There’s more than one way to feel strong 🙂
I try to stay fit so I can keep up with my son. And I want to look my best. I think I will be able to pick up my grand kids when I’m 80 and part of the reason why I want to be healthy is so I can have a better chance of living that long. And yeah, I want to feel comfortable in my own skin and I want to look good in a swimsuit {who doesn’t?}.
I couldn’t agree more about strength being measured in a lot of ways. And I’m also with you on wanting to live a long, healthy life!