Rest Day - Post thoughts to comments

The first time I met Greg Glassman, he embraced me enthusiastically. "Laura! You little firecracker! You did your first pull up!" You see, Coach (if you forgive a little lifting from sacred texts) is "no respecter of persons". In other words, he doesn't care what you do, he cares who you ARE. He cares that you are a person. When you become a crossfitter, he doesn't care if you have ever done a pull up, if you ever deadlifted your body weight or if you have ever even looked at a pair of Olympic rings. But he DOES care if you ever DO a pull up, if you ever DO deadlift your bodyweight and if you plan on getting a pair of olympic rings for your garage.

When men and women of some note in other circles of fitness approach his concepts with some skepticism he invites them into the fold. He says, I don't care if you believe in my concepts when you get here. He invites skepticism. He opens his arms and shows them that the man behind the curtain is actually a guy looking in a mirror. The magic is in the programming. He shows them the secret ingredients, he waits for the light to dawn. "I'm not a salesman. I'm passionate." His words.

But back to me. So here I am a short, fat, middle aged woman - Remember, I'd just done my first pull up a couple of weeks ago and he says in front of a group of 100 people, Hey there's Laura! Let's get her up here to do 45 pull ups and 45 thrusters." The other people doing this workout had been doing pull ups and thrusters in this setting for a while...and he asked me to go up there. Well, I was afraid I'd be embarrassed. But guess what. An entire crowd of people, from novices to the "elite" (these elite would laugh in your face if you used that word to describe them) cheered and encouraged me and I completed the workout with assistance and with a decent time.

Back to Coach. Say a man who was of some notable reputation in a specific sport would come in to the same setting, here is how Coach approached them:

"Hey! Joe Athlete! I've heard you are in great shape. How about doing 45 pull ups and 45 thrusters in front of a crowd of 50 - 100 people." Joe Athlete, may or may not need assistance, and may or may not get a "respectable time" but he would get the same coaching, encouragement and support that I got. Same with military personnel, rescue and law enforcement men and women and yes even elite athletes from other fields. Even BAD ASS trainers who declare their programs are not for the "everyday joe or housewives."

So what happens once in a while is that Coach, giving of himself, his life, his work and his passion draws one of these Bad Asses into the group. The BadAss sees that what Coach is doing WORKS and it adds to his BadAssnes. This person becomes "one of us" and contributes to the group. Then goes back to his sphere of influence where his BadAssness is revered above all other BadAsses. His people thank him for bringing the new concepts and probably his program is transformed. Renewed maybe. Pretty soon the BA (I'm tired of typing all the ssss's) forgets that what he has infused into his group is NOT from himself. He absorbs it into his programming and begins to see these additions as something he would have come up with on his own.

Now, that's not that unusual. But what is unusual and what injures Coach, is not those who absorb the program and forget where it comes from, but when the absorbers, begin to attack Coach's program and defend their "own". And detract from Coach's reputation. And harm his livlihood. A person who had declared himself a friend.

Now back to me. Back to us.

Do you think Coach cares what thousands of "average joes and joannes" who've been transformed believe about his program, and whether it is safe. Whether he has integrity. Whether he is just going after someone because of a few copyright disclaimers? Yes, he does. Because all of us, we are his program. We are the proof that his work, his labor, his passion...it works. It works because of who we are. And he cares who we are.

Hey, Coach. I did 30 pull ups a few day's after my 41st birthday. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you CrossFit.

As a postscript, I would like to contrast the current situation with how things SHOULD work when an existing program absorbs and is transformed by CrossFit. See Brand X Martial Arts. See Jeff and Mikki Martin. Bad Assness personified. But also Sweetness, Honesty, Openness, Caring, etc. Their program, their passion, their integrity combined with the potential, the beauty and effectiveness of the Glassmans' program. That's how things should work. Thank You, Jeff and Mikki.