The purpose of my study is to answer the question of why Crossfit is so addicting? I have observed this discourse community thoughly through extensive literary research. I have interviewed members, participated in the group, and collected literature from the club. Throughout this blog you will notice through my literal research that Crossfit becomes addicting by literacy’s like; the internet, journals, and numerical pattern encompassing the drive to be better everyday at what you do at a fitness level. These motivational literacy’s used within the group, shape them with patterns of symbolic structure.
The atmosphere inside Crossfit is confusing to a first time visitor. It does not look like a normal gym with a bunch of meatheads lifting weights.
This is Crossfit Covington. It has a network of pull up bars, a digital clock that flashes the countdown of time, Olympic rings, ropes, box jumps, weights, and various other fitness equiptment. This gym comes alive everyday the W.O.D is in session. Rock music is pumped through the speakers and people get to work.
When I arrived at Crossfit Covington on Saturday May 21st. A woman named Emily Wasson greeted me in the front room of the garage gym. She was the manager and boy was she fit! I entered the gym and looked on the dry erase board to see a group of exercises written down known as the W.O.D. Workout of the day! The W.O.D. was
200 box jumps
Lunging for 400 meters
100 squats
400-meter sprint
This is the workout we did outside! Above, is a picture of the box jumps.
Emily, the trainer, divided us into groups of four and each person in the group had to finish the set of exercises. Each group was timed. After this we did an abdominal routine and we were done!
Crossfit has a lot of literal practices that they do. Posting the W.O.D everyday is available on the internet and in the gym. A lot of members look at the website and know the W.O.D before they even get to the gym that day. It is pronounced (wod), often combining a mixture of jump roping, rowing, pylometrics, climbing rope, kettle bell swings, Olympic rings, body weight exercise and power lifting. Every person has an individual race against the hanging clock. They try and beat their time for every workout and this becomes a real addiction.
Multimodal literacies means systems of representations that include written forms that are combined with oral, visual, or gestural modes (Hutchins, 1995, p.370). We read and then we act. And this comprehension of the WOD board is really one of the huge aspects of Crossfit. Something that shapes these people for a better life all around. Crossfit logs members record times on this dry erase board for everyone to see.
These are acronyms and abbreviations for various exercises, reps and times posted next to participant’s names and dates. W.O.D’s are named after “ladies.” Named like hurricanes, WOD’s have women’s names or after soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty who were apart of the Crossfit community. Just like Edward Hutchins explains about his studies of ship navigation in San Diego harbor, this distribution among members of the group of formal manipulations of numbers, symbols, and lines on charts; on the spot communication is taking place as well as later reflections of participants. Members, who observe and analyze these WOD charts, find that it promotes ambition for a better workout for the next time. If you’re interested in concrete numbers with which you score in your performance and record your improvement then you will get faster and stronger.
The Crossfit journal is an online blog where the top Crossfit personal trainers post workouts, advice, and up coming information. This is how smaller Crossfit facilities and trainers get new workouts and special informatiThe online journal is a chain of communication through one Crossfit to an another. They also share recipes and diet advice as well. The journal is a great form of literature that summarizes the group. This system of person interaction with technology promotes motivation and allows tasks to be done in a similar way in the overall Crossfit community. These literacy’s help to add to the addiction of Crossfit. People love how its new and different everyday and it never gets old.
On my second trip of research to a Crossfit gym I interviewed the owner of the Burlington, Kentucky location. He explained many things that indeed show the obsession and love for Crossfit. Here are some of the questions I asked him:
Me: What is Crossfit?
Rich Vos: Strength and conditioning program based on measurable, and repeatable data. We measure the performance of a human.
Me: Why is there a Crossfit journal?
Rich Vos: Anyone can buy a crossfit journal. Its 25 bucks a year. The videos are really motivating, you have Iraq war vets that have no leg, but they are still doing the workouts. Then you have the pro’s explaining how to do workouts and what works and what doesn’t work. They are not saying you have to do it this way, just ideas. There are articles on motivation, lifting tips. It is like the EBSCO host of elite fitness.
Me:Why is Crossfit so addicting?
Rich Vos: It is measurable, repeatable and something new. If you have never done it before and just like picking up any new toy or anything, it’s cool, at first. A new puppy is really cool at first and then you kind of get bored with it. What keeps people on is the community, you get to see your friends everyday, and you get to make them work harder, and they make you work harder. It’s the way we attract data across all these different time and mobile domains. You can do a workout the first day and then two weeks later you’re a little bored but your itching in the back of your mind, “I wonder if I can beat that time.” Like the other day, I had the “itch” about the workout named Grace and I came in and tried to beat the time I had for Grace.
Me: How did you discover Crossfit?
Rich Vos: A buddy of mine who worked in the Special Forces was bragging about how well I was at bench press, dumbbells and stuff like that. He told me I should try Crossfit I would be great at it. So on February 27th, I checked it out on the website and decided to start logging what I do and timing myself.
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I also asked Jarrett Baston, a member of Crossfit Covington and the owner, Emily how they believe that Crossfit is addicting. Becoming confident and participating in something different everyday is what makes people come back. The times, names of workouts and literature that is available within Crossfit shapes the community to this addictive state. Its what starts the itch to come back and kick some Crossfit ass! The pull-up bar is used daily and until Crossfitters get their WOD fix, they often feel incomplete. In the blink of an eye, Crossfit becomes a lifestyle. As Diehard Crossfitters see the workouts in everyday life. Bobby Noyce said, ....people come in here and do things they never thought they could do in thier intire lives, and push themselves harder than they ever thought they could push themselves...so it makes everything in life seem not as difficult...(Bobby Noyce, Personal Communication). Sweating with Crossfit is a constant desire for improvement. A Crossfitter doesn't look in the mirror to admire their physique, they look on the WOD board to admire their times. As Crossfit creeps into ones life, thier habits change, for the better, to support thier love of competition. Diet, sleep schedules, and relationships change as ones life revolves around Crossfit.
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting topic! I don't like working out, but this definitely seems like a fun way to work out anyway. I never would have realized how many literacy practices go into crossfit. I like how you actually participated in this type of training in order to fully understand the concept. It was a good article to read and I definitely believe you grasped the concept of the assignment. Great job! :)
Ali
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a god job. Your article was interesting and easy to read and understand. I thought it was smart of you to place you video at the beginning because personally I had never herd of crossfit and the video explained it well. I also thought you did a good job at the beginning when you introduced your topic because it gave you a clear feel of what your paper was going to be about.
Marizzel