Reflections on How To Be An Oldhead
This past May was my nine year anniversary in CrossFit and my nine year anniversary with the same gym. Here is the first WOD I did way back in 2009. I can’t believe it’s been nine years. I’ve been thinking a lot about the lifestyle and the sport and longevity with both.
I’m the second longest tenured member of my box, slightly longer than the current owners, and I’ve been doing CrossFit longer than almost every other CrossFitter I know. When I do drop-ins at other gyms, I always have more experience than the coaches–sometimes by triple–and usually more than the owners. I’ve seen over a 1,000 people come and go at my gym due to turnover. I’ve watched CrossFit grow from a couple of thousand boxes to over fifteen thousand in the world. I started back in the day when Inov-8s were de rigueur and Vibram FiveFingers were a thing. I’m truly an OG.
I’ve noticed most people don’t stay in CrossFit. They try it for a year or two and move on to other types of fitness. I consider a person who has been doing CrossFit for 4-5 years a serious veteran. We have very few of those left at my box. It seems like 4-5 years is an important threshold.
Why is that? Why the high turnover? I think most people who try CrossFit can agree on it’s effectiveness. If you WOD regularly and have a decent diet, you’ll look fit and feel fit. You’ll be fit. It’s also time efficient….that was a big reason I moved away from the boathouse and into the box. I didn’t want to practice for two hours at a boathouse that took me 30 minutes to drive to. With CrossFit, I only needed an hour and change to get my work done.
Here is my take on why people get burned out. I see two problems that creep up over time. First, people get burned out from competing against the clock, against the whiteboard, and against themselves. You’re competing all the time. I get anxiety before a WOD. I want to be at the top of the leaderboard, and if I’m not, I’m disappointed. I know there are other people like this. Regular people, that is people who don’t compete in CrossFit competitions, don’t need WOD anxiety in our lives…the gym is where we go to de-stress. I strongly believe that if you remove the anxiety of the leaderboard and replace it with [anything else], people will stick around longer.
Secondly, doing heavy weight lifting and high risk movements at high speeds causes an inordinate amount of stress to your body. You get injured. Even if you’re lucky enough not to get injured–I challenge you to find a veteran CrossFitter who has never been injured–you’re sore and tight all the time. Has anyone ever been so sore they had trouble sitting at work? How about so sore it woke you up at night? That sucks. We don’t need that.
My solution is elegant. Don’t compete, and instead go into the box and go 70%. Do a bro sesh lift, or a light WOD, or just fiddle around on your own and don’t be part of a class. I call these OG workouts and I do them 3-4 days per week. I do a Strongman class on Tuesdays (non-competitive), and I only compete in WODs 1-2 days per week. That way I’m always feeling good. Importantly, I’ve reduced my CrossFit anxiety to nothing.
Full disclosure, I do love competing. I’ve played sports my whole life and competed in throwdowns for years, but as a masters athlete, I now only want to compete 1-2 days per week. My day to go HAM and compete is Saturday.
We have this joke at my box among the few veterans. The joke is today I’m giving my best 70% effort. Laugh, but it’s true. If you want to stick around for a long time, you have to dial it back to 70% on most days. If you go 100% every day, you’ll burn out.
For the second problem, I am careful about how much risk I take in a WOD. I’ll either switch the movement, reduce the weight, or reduce the rep count. I work on strength during classic weight lifting sessions or in a barbell class. This reduces my risk to an acceptable level. I also usually do step-downs on box jumps. Anyone know anyone who blew out an achilles? Don’t do that, and don’t tear a labrum while you’re at it.
There is another layer to this I think is even more important once you get Oldhead status like me. If you’re in the lifestyle for a long time, you should train for other sports and activities that take place outside the gym. Do some non-CrossFit stuff. It gets old seeing the same four walls and bumper plates every day. I do obstacle course races, trail marathons, and other outdoor sports. I even trained for skiing one winter. I use CrossFit as a cross training tool, which is what it was originally designed for.
Let me emphasize that again: GET OUT OF THE GYM.
I’m very fortunate because my box is receptive to other activities and we have the facility to train those things. We have a 1K running loop and I’ve used it to train for Ragnar Relay, trail marathons, and GORUCK Challenges. I’ve even used our pull-up bars to train for monkey bar obstacles at Savage Races. It all works great. This keeps me fresh and coming back every week.
These days, I think of my box as more of a universal training facility than a CrossFit gym. It’s the place where I go to train for whatever I’m interested in that year. It’s also a place I go to melt away stress. If you can make those switches, you’ll be able to stay in CrossFit for nine years or more. Perhaps even a lifetime.
Takeaways:
- Figure out a way to remove the anxiety of daily competition.
- Don’t go 100% everyday. Mix in 70% days.
- Train for other sports.
- It’s okay to be an Oldhead.