Denmark going down the slippery slope

[Blair Robert Lowe]

Something very similar happened to the box Alison Bishop and Brendan had before their current one. I think that was last year before CFHQ stepped in. Blauer was involved as well.

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by Peter Assentoft

I understand the argument when people say "if it makes more people do Crossfit, then why not" I agree to a certain extent. But to me there is something deeper in Crossfit then just training. To me Crossfit is a lifestyle, like it is, for some to go green. The Crossfit community is run by passionate people, that lives and breaths for their sport, like any other athlete would do it. Now if you then looks at the mainstream globogyms, where quantity means way more then quality, then you see a very different picture. The Crossfit way of going back to our ancestral roots to become more equipped for our every day tasks, fades away by these globogyms that now smells money by offering "Crossfit" to the public. To me Crossfit and globogyms are two opposites of the same coin.

There are a lot of big assumptions being made there.

[Jason M Struck]

Originally Posted by Kris Murphy

Those are words of gold, John.

amen sister. I feel sorry for small business owners that blame 'the economy'.

[Andrew Bolliger]

The local Globo gym in my town (that has a strangle hold on what they call fitness) started a program called "Spartan Fitness" which as you can guess is a direct knock off of Crossfit... but it costs more on top of your membership and therefore is even more expensive that the boxes in this area. From what I can tell it is a flop. There is no culture of excellence. When the globo gym adopts this program it's like adding a new spinning class or TRX class... its a financial decision and the lack of heart and true understanding of the movements means it will fail. I am not worried about globo gyms doing crossfit because it will happen in every town, just a matter of time. But as long as they have peck-decks and cable cross-over machines they are selling crap and gold in the same bag and can never provide the kool-aid that we can!

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

"But as long as they have peck-decks and cable cross-over machines they are selling crap and gold in the same bag and can never provide the kool-aid that we can! "

Mark Cannella trains high level weightlifters out of a YMCA.

[John Pollock]

There is a Globo Gym in my country that has also set up a "Spartan" Fitness programme that looked incredibly like a Crossfit copy. As it happens it was written by a Crossfit affiliate director who was working out of their facility before he moved into his own box (I think he also ran the staff training modules for the PT's who would be running the programmes).

I don't know how many ways you can re-use movements and excercises before it looks like somebody is ripping off another persons concept, but if it looks like crossfit, sounds like crossfit, and feels like crossfit.....

Just another example of a gym jumping on an idea that they think they can use to create money (last time I checked it didn't get off the ground because there was no member buy-in, but the gym still tried it on).

[Peter Evans]

Originally Posted by Wayne Riddle

CF just slapped their own name on a type of training that has been around for a long time and did a good job of marketing it.

Wayne, have you been, or more to the point trained an affiliated CrossFit gym?

From your comment I'm perceiving you have a very limited experience of CF.

Go to a CrossFit gym and allow yourself to discover what CrossFit is about.

You'll find (at least in my humble opinion) that it is more than 'Exercise's we used to do at basketball/ football practice' etc.

What I've found is that the majority of CrossFit gyms represents something that money can't buy. Quality coaching and an amazing community.

But that's something you can only experience to understand.

[Wayne Riddle]

Originally Posted by Peter Evans

From your comment I'm perceiving you have a very limited experience of CF.

Been to, which has nothing to do really with my point.

Go to a CrossFit gym and allow yourself to discover what CrossFit is about.

See the above statement.

You'll find (at least in my humble opinion) that it is more than 'Exercise's we used to do at basketball/ football practice' etc.

I have not found the exercises to be any different then any other training I've been through during basketball, football, soccer, etc. Especially football and basketball. Guess I was lucky and had coaches that were ahead of the curve.

What I've found is that the majority of CrossFit gyms represents something that money can't buy. Quality coaching and an amazing community.

I can't speak for the majority of gyms, but the gyms I have been too I can the quality of coaching and program structure has run the gauntlet from good to are your friggin' kidding? I can say that about any program where I've paid someone to coach me, good ones and bad ones. As for community, that can be a positive thing but for this type of training (S&C) it isn't something I place a high plus factor on for myself.

But that's something you can only experience to understand.

As stated above, I did. I didn't like the taste of the kool-aid. I did CF for a year and now some might even call some of my workouts as "Crossfit". I call it HIIT.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Peter Evans

What I've found is that the majority of CrossFit gyms represents something that money can't buy. Quality coaching and an amazing community.

Leaving aside arguments about just how good CF coaching is (or isn't), money absolutely can buy quality coaching. All the best coaches--including the ones at CF gyms-- insist on being paid for their services.

It's true that money can't buy community, but that's not an argument for Crossfit. There are plenty of communities out there that don't charge monthly dues at all, or that only charge dues sufficient to cover the group's activities. Communities are--by definition--made by their members, not by profit-seeking commercial entities.

Katherine

[Emily Mattes]

You guys really believe Crossfit invented metabolic conditioning workouts? Invented the use of weights and couplets/triplets/chippers for strength-and-conditioning? Start with John Jesse and go from there, man. Just because you never heard of it before Crossfit doesn't mean it didn't exist.