One of the paltry rewards of freelance SEO writing is a brief - and sometimes fruitful and interesting - glimpse into worlds that I'd otherwise choose to look away from.
Modern workout culture implies such an intricate tangle of problems, which are incredibly interesting, but I simply don't have the time or energy to address them at the moment.
What I do have time and energy for is a brief discussion of the Crossfit phenomenon.
This workout regimen, which has spread like wildfire worldwide, has garnered a share of cultural antipathy that mirrors or surpasses the levels of devotion in its enthusiasts. But this polarization masks an important contrast in the workout world, that undoubtedly arises out of the passage of time.
What I mean is this: part of what makes the culture of Crossfit so irresistible to some is the passion that can be found in its adherents. New members often report a welcoming atmosphere in which members of the gym welcome them in and help motivate them during workouts. There is a sense of community then.
This is contrasted to the general atmosphere in other traditional commercial gyms, in which members work out together in parallel in isolation. Individuals come in with ear buds and music, work out, and then leave. There may be some pockets of familiarity and friendship, but overall the atmosphere is open to the individual yet closed to the formation of community.
Where I suspect the passion and openness comes from in Crossfit is a combination of the workout's novel training form and the glow of the enthusiasm of newcomers still benefiting from this novelty. The novelty in the workout consists in the way it is formulated for a modern fragmented consciousness: each workout is very short, very intense, and highly varied, so that boredom is not allowed to creep in, yet the practitioners are able to derive the physical progression and mental benefits from an intense workout.
But this progression of the workout form will only suffer from the same problem that plagued its precursors in the first place. One can rearrange one's life activity to cut down on boredom, but if one's workout is separated from one's other life processes, one is doomed to progress to some plateau or other and stagnate.
Combine this internal problem with several social problems, such as the increasing antipathy towards Crossfit, and the increasing popularity of the program which, like all growing activities in this society, come face to face with more problematic and opportunistic members, financial polarization, irreducible member conflicts, creeping competition, and so on and so forth.
How long before Crossfit comes to be known as a strange activity in which members separate into small cliques in a gym, or else cut themselves off entirely and practice their workout in isolation, growing more bored with even the highly varied workout patterns, before being saved by a new workout rearrangement fad?
