REQUIRED READING FOR ALL STACKED MEMBERS CrossFit Verve recently wrote a great blogpost that we felt the need to post as well. All credit goes to Verve for writing this piece. We love our gym, we are comfortable here, we have friends, and this is our home away from home for many of us. Just like in our home with roommates, we can create some habits that are less than desirable like leaving dirty dishes in the sink, random socks jammed in the couch, dried toothpaste in the sink, etc. The same bad habits can happen at the gym but now we are talking about equipment, cleanliness, and bodily funds. Verve has some great equipment (some of the best available) and prides itself on being one of the more clean and organized boxes out there. Boxlife Magazine recently posted a great article on some general guidelines for keeping friendly with our housemates. Rule 1: Put. Your. Crap. Away. Seems obvious enough, right? I assume you all clean up your own dishes when you’re done eating at home—you wouldn’t wait for someone else to do it for you. There’s nothing more infuriating for a box owner and coach to see plates left out or a stray band tied round a pull-up bar after class. Space and time is often a premium for a CrossFit class, and no one wants to waste it by cleaning up someone else’s shit. So do everyone a big favor and take pride in your box by putting your gear away. It’s really not that hard. If you want to take it a step further, help your fellow athletes clean up too. Many hands make light work. Rule 2: Don’t drop the barbell when you’re stripping the plates. When you are cleaning up, save your coach from a brain aneurism and strip down your barbell properly. This means you should lift the barbell and slide the plates off of it, then place it back on the floor—don’t just let it crash to the ground. This is how they get damaged, and as your coach will tell you, they’re not cheap to replace. The bars in our gym range from $200 to $500 per bar. Each bar has it’s own intricate bearing system that allows it to spins easily and when dropped naked on the ground, will seriously decrease the life of the bar. IF YOU GET NOTHING ELSE FROM THIS POST, PLEASE LET THIS BE YOUR TAKE AWAY!!! Rule 3: If you’ve sweated on the equipment, bled on the equipment or cried on the equipment, wipe it down. Aside from being on obvious point of hygiene, it really isn’t a pleasant sensation to grab a wall ball that’s wetter than a new born baby, or sit your ass down on an abmat that might as well have been placed against the bare skin of the person before you. Grab a paper towel and disinfectant, and take the 30 seconds to wipe down your equipment. Please do it—for everyone’s sake. Rule 4: Don’t steal other people’s equipment. When you’re setting up for a chipper (or any WOD that requires numerous pieces of equipment), you try to set up your area with the gear in such a way to make everything easily accessible as you switch from movement to movement. And this can even extend to the pull-up bar—especially if you need to attach a band. So when some fool takes your wall ball or steals your bar in the middle of a WOD, you have every right to feel upset. It’s a CrossFit faux paux that should NEVER, EVER happen. Rule 5: Don’t be late. Maybe a minute or two is ok for some boxes, but I know there are some gyms that have burpee penalties for a late arrival, and others that simply turn an athlete away if they turn up 5 minutes after class has started. Remember, the box isn’t a globo gym—you can’t turn up whenever you please (unless it’s Open gym). Classes run in a box, and people pay good money to attend them and get their hours’ worth of fitness and instruction. There are few other things more annoying than watching a straggler turn up and think they can just jump into class as if nothing has happened. Hell no, son. Go home, and have enough respect for your classmates and coaches to arrive on time. Rule 6: Check in/Sign up for class. This applies both to drop-ins and regular box attendees. If you are a member of a popular gym, and you know that classes get pretty full, give your coach a heads up by signing up online. We’ve all been through WODs that have had to been altered significantly because there wasn’t enough equipment/space to go around, and it’s not fun. There are class caps for a reason, so save your coach the trouble of having to change the WOD around and just sign up. If you do not sign up or are wait listed and cannot join a class at another time, please be prepared to have a modified workout as people that were able to sign up have priority for equipment. If you can’t make a class, please don’t forget to cancel so your fellow gym mates can take your spot. Rule 7: Pay attention when the coach is giving instruction. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing CrossFit for 1 month or 5 years, it’s disrespectful to have your own private conversation or do your own thing when the coach is trying to give instruction to the class. You may know how to perform each movement off the top of your head, but not everyone does, so just be patient and quiet and let everyone get the full benefits of the coaches’ knowledge. Besides, you might learn something new about the lift that you would have otherwise missed! Rule 8: Don’t have a conversation with someone in the middle of a workout. If your “short” conversation is going to force me to warm up again, then you might want to save it till after the workout. Rule 9: If you ask to borrow an athlete’s gear—give it back when you’re done. Have you ever had someone ask if they can borrow your roll of tape, only to find that they keep passing it off to every single person who suddenly needs to wrap themselves up like a mummy? And you’ve always had a suspicion that someone else might have conveniently ‘lost’ those wrist straps you lent them a few weeks ago. Don’t be a jerk, if you borrow some gear, give it back when YOU are done with it—not the entire class. Rule 10: Don’t move the chalk bucket mid-WOD. I believe that chalk, much like PEDs, are essentially to an athlete’s success in a workout. The buckets containing this white gold are usually tactically placed so as to be easily accessible to as many people as possible in the midst of a WOD. If someone decides to move it to their area, then all hell breaks loose. At least for me. Hell hath no fury like a Brit denied his chalk. Rule 11: Respect an athlete’s space. This is crucial for safety purposes, as well as the focus of the athlete. If someone is preparing for a major lift, don’t walk behind them, in front of them, or anywhere close to them. If they need to bail, the last thing a coach wants to see happen is the bar strike an athlete standing too close, or worse yet have an athlete fall back on to someone else’s equipment. Rule 12: Try to avoid ghost riding.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ghost riding refers to the phenomenon of dropping barbells, kettlebells and all manner of equipment from overhead, regardless of the situation or weight. This is important because dumbbells, kettlebells and barbells with thin plates can bounce when dropped from overhead and ricochet into yourself and other athletes. While it is very satisfying to hear the crash of the weights against the floor, try to reserve the sensation for the strictly heavy lifts. We got some new pretty 10# and 15# plates that are already starting to explode at the seams. This phenomenon happens when bars are dropped from the top when only those plates are on the bar. Make an effort to drop the bar from no higher than the hang and the coaches heads’ won’t explode. Rule 13: Introduce yourself to newcomers. Hopefully your coach will take the initiative and announce a drop-in or a new member when you turn up for class. That’s the first step. But you should view it as your duty as a member of your box to make sure that the new athlete feels welcome in a new environment—especially if it’s their first taste of CrossFit. Furthermore, the new member will probably give a positive review of your box to their friends, which will bring in new business for your coach and help the community grow. Ververs – we appreciate you and everything about you that makes our gym what it is, but following these few simple guidelines make this operation smooth like butta!!!
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 00:16:04 +0000
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