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Work pays for gym membership. There is a crossfit gym right nearby and most of the office seems to go there. I am fairly athletic and have been lifting for years at this point. Never tried crossfit, looks a bit cultish but I like that they do Olympic lifts. Yay or nay?
It's not an irreversible decision. Try it out and if you don't like it, go somewhere else.
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The cultish aspect is very dependent on the gym. There are some that are really into it, but I've been to half dozen CF gyms over the years and beyond the workout nomenclature, periodic events (like Open or Murph) and such, didn't feel any other aspect of it. I'd advise to just try it out for a month or so to see if you like what they do at that particular gym - there's a lot of variety between the gyms on how the things are done. If you don't like it, you can always leave (do not go to gyms where they require long-term commitments and don't offer other options - these people profit on people not showing up) and find something else. I personally think CF helped me a lot over the years and never felt any "cultish" pressure in the gym (online that's another matter, there are all kinds of people around).
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If you already lift weights, and you want to work out at a crossfit gym but don't want to do too much WoD HIIT type stuff or don't want to do stuff that only really matters for Crossfit Competition Prep (Kipping pull ups, double unders, that kind of thing), just go talk to the coaches. Your average Crossfit Level 1, in my experience, is more into lifting than almost any civilian; he probably likes the big lifts more than he likes HIIT. Tell him you want to focus on the big lifts, you might find that the programming already does, or that he programs that in the 1:00 class but not at the 12:00 class, or that he'll work with you to fit more big lifts into your programming. Or if they have open gym times, just go to those and lift.
Go in ready to throw down, standard Crossfit practice is to send you into a one-week-to-two-month "Fundamentals" class where you learn the movements, go in and tell him that you've been lifting for years and you know your shit and don't need that. Tons of dudes try to skip it and are bullshitting, so you need to be ready to answer the riddles. Be ready to quote an impressive 1rm in the back squat, deadlift, power clean and then do them right there and then with good technique if asked. Make clear that you can clean two plates, you don't need the fundamentals class, and they're losing a membership if they try to make you.
I first started lifting when I wandered into a Crossfit gym during the rowing off season to try to improve my 2k time. I only stuck with that gym for two months winter of 2011, but I caught the bug and I've basically lifted something heavy three times a week for about a decade, but I haven't really rowed much in years. My second go with crossfit was when I similarly had one in the basement of an office where I worked and it was convenient. All my fitness routines have always been Crossfit inflected even if I have very rarely "done" Crossfit, I've always wanted to be in the kind of well rounded shape where I can deadlift 400, row a 7:00 2k, do ten pull ups more than I wanted to deadlift 550. If nothing else, we all owe a certain debt to crossfit for making the big compound barbell lifts popular enough that you can buy barbells and squat racks at Ollie's.
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I attended a gym that offered Crossfit among other things for years and tried a few of the classes.
The 'cultish' aspect is actually part of the appeal, I think. And it's less cultish if you just consider it a method of leveraging social instincts to make workouts more enjoyable and keep people coming back.
Rather than a bunch of people quietly doing different workouts on different machines, everyone is doing the same workout of the day, all at the same time, and oftentimes there's a teamwork element to it. So this triggers all those social circuits in our brains that tend to find group/team activities fun and rewarding.
For many (not me, I'll say) this really helps with motivation to actually work out. If you miss a workout day, people will notice and ask about it; maybe you feel guilty for 'letting them down.' If you're feeling off and underperforming, others will encourage you to keep going. If you have a particularly strong performance, maybe set a personal record, people will congratulate you and recognize you for it.
So by making exercise into a social activity it helps a certain type of person exercise more consistently and push themselves further. And these types of persons often like to 'evangelize' about their experience.
There's no penalties for leaving the 'cult' so I don't really see the harm.
Can confirm anecdotally: For me, the social aspect of group sports easily trumped my own aversions against repetitive exercise.
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It’s a shame cults get such a bad rap nowadays. They’re the traditional way to make yourself transform into your ideal. Unfortunately a few pederasts + our intolerance for any risks have ruined the model entirely.
Now I imagine a dark dungeon full of guys in the traditional hooded cloaks who spend their time lifting. Wait, isn't that just the Forge cult in Cultist Simulator?
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It can get a bit cultish, but I think it's easy to misinterpret camaraderie with 'cultish behavior'. I think if you like your coworkers and want to have a healthier lifestyle it won't hurt. However, if you hate your coworkers you might want to look elsewhere.
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