The New Age of CrossFit - 1.0

CrossFit has changed, evolved, and grown.  The past few weeks/months have opened my eyes to how much has evolved with CrossFit and how it has changed as the sport grows exponentially from  year to year. 

CrossFit was first founded in the year 2000 with its first registered affiliate opening in Seattle called CrossFit North.  Between 2000 and 2005 only 13 more gyms opened up.  Needless to say the growth in the early 2000's was small.  Today there are several thousand CrossFit gyms worldwide. 

I found CrossFit in the summer of 2008.  At this time there were only a handful of boxes in Houston and it took some real searching to find one initially.  I began working out with Carlos at CrossFit Houston that summer until my job forced me to spend more time at work than in the gym.  My schedule wasn't working with theirs and I had to take a small hiatus from CrossFit.  Meanwhile, I got chunky.  My brothers noticed and, like all brothers do, gave me some grief about it.  I immediately went back to CrossFit, this time finding Vic and Bayou City CrossFit in the heights.

The original Bayou City

When I started at both of these places, equipment was sparse,  facilities left lots to be desired, and it was anything but a luxury experience.  I loved every minute of it.  We shared bars, used dumbells for KB swings, jumped on whatever we could find as a makeshift box.  It was exactly what I wanted in a workout.  No one complained that we didn't have enough bars for the whole class or that you had to use a heavier KB because the rest were being used.  No one ever even blinked at the dark, dirty, sometimes working bathrooms.  There was no AC...anywhere in the facility.  If you wanted to cool down, you went across the street to Cedar Creek and had a beer...no one ever even asked for AC.   In fact, we even drug our mats outside every single day for about 6 months after being denied permits by the city...rain or shine, hot or cold, light or dark.  Every day.  No one cared.  We all came back day in and day out. 

Time passed and we upgraded.  Vic bought equipment as we needed it, never going and and buying just because it was new.  We moved a larger space, but only as the clientele grew so large that it was necessary.  We added more equipment as the clientele grew even further.  You get the idea...things were added out of necessity, not because there was a wish list. 

The original Pin Up

The new and improved Pin Up!

Finally we opened Pin Up CrossFit.  We started small in a tiny 1800ish square foot office space.  Low ceilings, bad parking, not the most ideal CrossFit space.  We used old discarded equipment from
Bayou City and purchased a few new things to get us started:  some bumpers, a couple bars, a handful of KB's and some jump ropes.  I remember finally getting some medicine balls after clients begged for them so they could do beloved wall balls. I think we were at least 6-8 months in before we even bought a wall ball.  We have also evolved since then.  Moving into new digs a few months ago, purchasing some new equipment along the way, and adding things as necessary.  We still live by the philosophy that we get what we need. 

Freshly painted exterior

Where am I going with this?  I noticed the other day when I was out to pick up an order at our local equipment store (more wall balls - only our second order in the 2 years we've been around) that there were a couple new box owners picking up an order as well.  They had a truck FULL of KB's, plates, bars, bands, wall balls, GHD machines, etc..  You name it, they were buying it.  They told me they were opening the beginning of August.  I simply smiled.  Things have changed.  They'll open their doors with a full stock of equipment (in fact I noticed via the wonderful internet they have the whole place matted, several rowers...anything you can think of).  Their new clients will walk into a gym with brand spanking new equipment and tons of it.  I'm not dogging these folks.  It's what CrossFit has become.  If you want to compete with the gyms around you, you're going to have to outfit that gym!

And some new facilities look like this!

But at the same time it sucks.  Those new clients don't get to appreciate the "grassroots" feeling of using banged up, rusty old equipment, sharing a bar with a neighbor, or rolling around in a dirty parking lot because it's all you have.  To me, that's part of the draw.  You don't need fancy equipment to PR your clean.  You don't need a $10,000 pullup system to get good at pullups.  You don't need your whole floor covered in clean rubber to get your ass kicked in a workout.  All you need is some folks that are willing to push their body to the limit, red line that heart rate, pick themselves off the floor, and come back and do it again the next day. 

Don't get me wrong, I didn't get in on the ground floor, but I wish I did.  I wish I could have seen it it 2000, applied it when playing college football, and been a part of it when it was just 13 gyms strong. 

CrossFit has evolved.

Watch for 2.0 coming soon.

cg