People join a CrossFit gym for many reasons. Once they do they begin a journey. Some journeys are long and some are short. There are 5 stages in this health/fitness odyssey and I’m going to lay them out for you. If you haven’t yet tried CrossFit this should give you an idea of what to expect. If you’ve been doing it for less than 6 months you may be able to figure out where you are and move forward to the next stage. If you’re having trouble with this talk to somebody. Every member of Motor City CrossFit will undoubtedly help you get to the 5th stage. And that’s where it’s at. The 5th stage. What we’re all shooting for. A healthy lifestyle.

Stage 1. Terror.
Most (not all) people are horrified when they first walk in. This is normal. People are either thinking they are too old, to weak or too fat. Nobody actually is. But people generally want to be successful at anything they are doing so when they see people doing pull-ups, overhead squats or handstand push-ups they tend to get a bit freaked out. “But what if I can’t do X”? It’s okay. We all felt that way when we started – it goes away. It goes away when we get to stage 2.

Stage 2. Honeymoon
The honeymoon stage is cool. That’s what happens when we actually start looking forward to going to the gym. We notice our pants start fitting better, our sleep gets better and we are generally happier. We feel faster, stronger and are starting do do things we never imagined. We might even have started doing a few of those things from stage 1 that so terrified us initially.

Stage 3. Religion
This is a weird stage and a bit of a tough stage from which to break free. People here have usually cut grains, processed foods/sugar or even dairy out of their diet. They also start to compare CrossFit to other exercise programs out there and begin to preach the superiority of their new diet and workout program to anybody that will listen. What people have to realize is that everyone has heard all this shit before. They’ve heard about the South Beach Diet, the Ab-doer, Atkins, Zone, P90x, Insanity, aerobics and even the 30 bananas a day diet. Most Americans are going to hear any diet/fitness advice and take it as white noise. This doesn’t make them stupid, it makes them normal. Most of the stuff we say sounds crazy to everybody but us! Even though we may be confident that our way of doing things is ‘right’, one of the things we should try to do is not piss everybody off in the process. Most of us did curls in the squat rack at some point and followed it up with a protein shake and then went home and ate some low fat food for dinner. Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere are this stages ‘church’. You are also probably still in this stage if you are doing burpees or handstand push-ups in a bar.

You are OUT of this stage if you are talking with a group of friends and one of them mentions how much they love their new Shakeweight and can’t believe the results they’ve gotten with Nutri-System…and you manage to keep your mouth shut.

Religious stage fine print:
1. Some folks think we are still in this stage even when we’re not.
2. Inside a CrossFit gym we’re all still in this stage.

Stage 4. Frustration
Ripped hands, tweaked backs, ‘Fran’ time goes down, still no muscle-up, overhead squatting the PVC pipe etc. You’ve been working hard for months and for some reason you can’t do the stuff you see on TV or the youtube videos. This can be tough. If you are in this stage it’s important to realize how far you’ve come and how much you have learned. Where you would be otherwise? Think about the friendships and relationships you’ve built. Think about all of the positive changes that have come as a result of CrossFit. Did you really think you’d be going to the CrossFit Games? If you took up hockey right now do you think you’d be in the NHL in a few years? Embrace your weaknesses and adjust your goals. We’ll work with you on those as best we can. Relax…

Stage 5. Lifestlye
When you wake up one morning and you remember that you have CrossFit today and that makes you happy – you’ve made it. That is when eating a healthy diet and exercise has likely become a part of your life. And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?