The CrossFit Pittsburgh Podcast
We have been a CrossFit Affiliate since 2006. We are one of the originals. My wife and I opened our doors when I was home between deployments to Iraq. It's been an amazing adventure spanning thousands of miles between us over the course of 12 years deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. We formed amazing bonds. Lost good friends. And learned a lot about ourselves and our community. Throughout the course of this Podcast we will discuss all of that and more. We will talk about the people we have encountered along the way and the lessons we learned.
The CrossFit Pittsburgh Podcast
Dismantling Fitness Myths Discovering CrossFit's True Essence
Good morning. Today is Sunday, february 2nd. I came in this morning to get a little work done, nice and quiet, and I put out something yesterday, very brief, very kind of short video, kind of out of agitation, really based on something I had seen on Facebook about some joker, basically like a video using clickbait. This character on camera says to someone off camera and if you saw that little short I put out yesterday, if you didn't, this is a guy on camera and he says to someone off camera if you, if you could start CrossFit all over again, what would you do differently? So, being a CrossFit affiliate for basically two decades, I bite like okay, what is it who? Who is he talking to? Is he talking to our founder, greg Glassman? Is he talking to another plank owner of our community? So I, you know, I proceed to watch. Now he's talking to some social media influencer. You know who has, like, however, many followers in the fitness space. But I'll tell you straight up, my experience has been followers in the fitness space. But I'll tell you straight up, my experience has been followers in the fitness space. You have them everywhere, right? You have them in. Well, in fitness, of course. You have them in martial arts. You have them in jujitsu, you have them in Thai boxing. There are people who and this is no disrespect you're always going to find people who, hey, I always wanted to do that, you know, maybe they just watch from the bleachers, you know that's fine. Or you have people that, oh yeah, I do that, you know I dabble in it, right, you dabble in it, or you immerse yourself in it, and there's there's varying degrees in between there and it's all. You know, it's all wonderful. No-transcript. He's basically some jag off with social media following, probably has clientele, maybe even in, maybe even in the virtual space, right when, where they don't actually go and train with him, but you know they, they train remotely with him or something like that.
Speaker 1:And what I found interesting was and again, I'm not trying to be negative, I'm laying it out there as an affiliate owner, as someone who has trained CrossFit and to be completely blunt, I started CrossFit at 40 years old, on my first deployment to Baghdad in 2004. That I was working out of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, so I found CrossFit at a time where I was just kind of flat with my regular training, training. Coincidentally, that this other individual that I'm referring to advocates. And what I thought was comical was you know to answer the question what would you do differently? He didn't do anything in the first place, so how could he do it if you were to start CrossFit all over again? Am I beating that into the ground? He didn't do it in the first place, so why would we care what he would do differently? But what he said was the. That was the bread and butter of it.
Speaker 1:All right, first of all, I'd eliminate all the Olympic lifts. Okayfitters in general do not specialize in Olympic lifting. Olympic lifting is a part of the CrossFit programming. Our coaches strive to learn the Olympic lifts so that they can teach it with absolute attention to detail to our athletes. With absolute attention to detail to our athletes. Some of those athletes go on and compete in Olympic lifting because that's to their liking. What we use Olympic lifting for in the CrossFit space is the dynamic, explosive movement.
Speaker 1:You don't want to do it. Nobody's holding a gun to your head. I would eliminate that. Then he says I would eliminate kipping pull-ups, essentially the gymnastics component. All right, so let me share something with you, super Chief, and I'm not going to go into the science of it and the distance times, weight over time and how you know that's horsepower. That's a simple mathematical calculation, which I'm not sure you could spell mathematical or calculation. So you notice how I'm leaving names out of this so as not to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities. It's not the point and I don't want to be childish, but what I do want is you know again just maybe I'm ranting right now but if you could start CrossFit again. Strike one you never started it in the first place. Strike two you're only a personal trainer who probably got his credentials online, never having to actually sweat or do anything for them. All right. Then you start talking out your ass, because your mouth knows better, and the things that he would eliminate essentially turn his program into today's back and biceps, tomorrow's chest and triceps.
Speaker 1:I do a double split routine. You know, when I want to emphasize the full tricep, I hold my grip thusly. When I want to emphasize the outer, when I want to do anything else, you know I hold my grip thusly, all right. When I want to do anything else, you know I hold my grip thusly, all right. Look again, as I mention all the time, every day I strive to be a better, more mature version of myself. Most days I come up short. This is one of those days because it kind of, you know, I think the success of CrossFit has brought with it that our community has made itself a target. All right, made itself a target for those in the multi-billion dollar a year fitness space, right.
Speaker 1:So you got guys like this who you know. If this were back in the 70s, they'd probably be advocating a class utilizing the Thighmaster. All right, I actually think you probably have to be my age to know what that reference is. But Google it. Google it, the Thighmaster. But the point that I'm trying to stay on track with is this and I will use a martial arts paradigm maybe for a lot of you out there. I know that a lot of folks have kind of dissected this over time, because everybody's looking for the what's the one thing, what's the one thing, and they all maybe use that as like that's the best. Therefore, the rest is the worst or not the best. But you know, jocko's talked about it more than once on his podcast Rogan.
Speaker 1:Anyone with any type of fighting background can. And I think the reality of it is you know, what would you study if you could only study one thing? Well, you can't, you can't only study one thing. I mean, no such situation exists. But if you ask me, I would say be a solid striker and have a solid ground game. You know, personally, have a a pretty significant boxing background. I started as a teenager, uh, boxed through college, boxed into the navy and um, kickboxing, uh, americanized. You know, kickboxing, um, and brazilian jiu-jitsu is is my, my, my ground passion, all right, my, my ground game, if you will. And you know, um, I think the reality of it is, without striking and without a ground game, every fight ends up on the ground, no matter what you think, no matter what you've heard, no matter how. Chuck Norris and I, I adore Chuck Norris, right, but you get taken down. Any fight, every fight, you'll end up on the ground. If you don't have a ground game, you're in a hurt locker, all right, but anyway, I guess that's what I'm getting at.
Speaker 1:So here's, super Chief, I would eliminate the Olympic lifts, I would eliminate the gymnastics movements, I'm like, but you just took everything away that creates functional fitness. All right. So play this forward, you and your little strict weighted pull-ups, that's great. We do them too, but at the same time, if I'm being chased by hostiles and I have to get up and over an eight foot wall. I'm going to use every bit of my gymnastic capability to get up, get over leverage up and over. Do you think, for I'm going to use every bit of my gymnastic capability to get up, get over leverage up and over.
Speaker 1:Do you think for a minute, if I had to do a movement resembling a bar muscle up to get myself up to a second level to accomplish a mission, do you think I would say, oh no, that's cheating. You know, let me dead, hang, you're an idiot. And you're an idiot who's probably never seen the need for the practical aspect, the other side of what we do and why we choose CrossFit as that modality, and you know not to be like. Well, if these guys do it, it can't be wrong. But let's just say, when Naval Special Warfare turns to CrossFit style training, when the US Naval Special Warfare turns to CrossFit-style training, when the US Army changes their readiness test, thank God, to CrossFit-style training. Nobody's looking for your dumbass to come out and train them all right. So listen, you stay in your lane, I'll stay in mine. You know, if I were you, I'd hope those lines never crossed.
Speaker 1:But anyway, happy Sunday. Wanted to finish that rant a little bit, but think about it. I mean, aside from my personal negative slant on this character, functional training there's a reason for it. If you don't like it, it's not for you. Leave it at that to get clicks on your little. You know what do you call it insta face or x, or you know twitness, but that's still a thing. You know what I'm talking about. All right, good to be back, miss y'all, and uh, I will see you again soon. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend.
