by Robyn C., self-confessed CrossFit addict and long time member at CrossFit Victoria

A week on and we’re still fired up from The 2015 CrossFit Games.   It was a nail-biting week that left us feeling incredibly inspired and already eager to start preparing for the 2016 season.

 Every year, The CrossFit Games spark much debate regarding the level of intensity/volume that athletes endure during the five days.   This year was no different, with many saying that the event programming was “unrealistic,” “too difficult,” “too dangerous,” and others being even less kind.

However, it’s important to step back and look at the history of the sport and The Games in conjunction, and really appreciate how far they have both come in such a small stretch of time.

Past

It’s easy to criticise The Games programming when looking solely at one year.   Take the infamous peg-board from the final event this year.  Only a handful of competitors could complete even one ascent and descent.  There were, to be honest, a lot of athletes just standing around looking frustrated.  However, we need to remember that that is not the first time it has happened.

 Consider The 2010 CrossFit Games for example.  Rich Froning, the ‘rookie’, saw his grasp on first place slip away in the final event when he struggled to complete even one rope ascent.  It was a skill he had not mastered yet and it was his downfall right at the very end.  Sound familiar?

Watch the coverage of the workout ‘Amanda’ from the same year and you will see that both the men and women struggle to link muscle ups and battle with the heavy weight of the full snatches.  This workout was considered dangerous and too difficult for the athletes by many.   Now, Amanda is a widely recognised and widely completed benchmark WOD.  At this year’s Games, athletes in the teen division (ages 14-17) were tackling the exact same workout, and they were doing it faster that a large percentage of the athlete’s from 2010.

The Triple Three from The 2014 CrossFit Games, which consisted of a 3k row, 300 double unders and a 3 mile run, put the athletes through their paces in the blistering Californian heat.  Tiffany Hendrickson of Wassatch CrossFit, Utah, was noticeable struggling coming into the last 100m.  So much so that she tripped and collapsed only yards from the finish line.  She looked completely out of it as she zig-zagged across the finish line.  Also sound familiar?

Our head coach, Amelia Thomsett, competed as an individual at Australian regionals in 2010; “One of the events at regionals that year included 24kg kettlebell swings.  At that time, I honestly don’t think I had ever even picked up a kettlebell heavier than 12kgs.  Another event involved 40kg overhead squats for reps, which was absurdly heavy for me at the time!  I struggled with both and left regionals that year knowing exactly what I needed to do.  Get stronger!”

 The point is, the sport has evolved so rapidly in such a short space of time and, alongside it, so have the athletes.  We are stronger, fitter, and faster than we ever have been.  We are capable of feats never imagined by our predecessors.    Movements considered dangerous and difficult then, are now our bread and butter.

Learn more about the history of CrossFit and The Games in this video from CrossFit HQ

In brief – CrossFit was developed in 2000 and the first affiliate was registered in 2002 (CrossFit North – now CrossFit Seattle).  The CrossFit Games first began in 2007, with Progenex and Reebok becoming official sponsors in 2010 and 2011 respectively.  Only a handful of affiliates existed back then, but that number has exploded in recent years.

Present

Fast forward to 2015 and there are now more than 10,000 affiliates worldwide.  CrossFit gyms (or ‘boxes’ as we affectionately know them) are going from strength to strength, with many eager and inquisitive members signing up for gains every week!

 Take CrossFit Victoria for example.  We first opened our doors in 2006 as the first affiliate in Victoria and only the third in Australia.  Back then we operated out of a grungy garage-style warehouse, in a time when you couldn’t buy pull up rigs, so we built our own out of scaffolding.  We flipped tyres and pushed sleds daily, it was dark, smelly and raw – it was old school CrossFit!

Now, we have a bigger, newer, shinier warehouse (right next to our old one, funnily enough), it’s clean, it’s light, it’s fully equipped – it’s everything that the modern day CrossFitter needs from a gym.  CrossFit Victoria, and CrossFit in general, now caters for EVERYONE.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re 65 years old, 14 years old, 50kgs or 150kgs, all ages and body types are thriving under the exceptional coaching and encouragement that the CrossFit coaches and the CrossFit community offers.  CrossFit’s ethos of being constantly varied and functional fitness has people hooked.

 Regardless of whether you’re training for regionals or a grass roots competition, training for a triathlon or a marathon, wanting to lose weight or wanting to gain weight – the beautiful thing is that, no matter the individual’s goals, all can work harmoniously side by side as part of an incredibly supportive and positive community.

Future

There are many theories of what will happen to CrossFit in the future.  Some think that the speeding juggernaut that is functional fitness will crash and burn, leaving smaller affiliates struggling to pay bills.  Not us.  We believe, like successful 80’s pop singer Yazz, that; ‘the only way is up’ (baby).

CrossFit has taken the world by storm and has easily established itself as a market leader in the fitness industry.   CrossFit is spearheading a fitness movement that echoes a generation sick and tired of being mediocre and being lied to by an industry that is supposed to help them.  Thanks to the knowledgeable coaches and incredible community, CrossFit not only makes us fitter, faster, stronger human beings, it educates us.  It educates us about nutrition, how to look after our bodies properly, how to prevent injury, how to move well and enables us to change our negative mind-sets to positive ones.

The future of CrossFit as an exercise regime is any easy prediction to make.  It will continue to go from strength to strength in the future.  It will continue to build on its reputation as the market leader in the fitness industry.  As it’s coaches become even more experienced, they will assert themselves as experts in their fields and be the first port of call for individuals seeking fitness advice.

However, CrossFit’s future as a sport is a little more open to interpretation…

As CrossFit’s worldwide membership number increases, as does it’s talent pool.  Especially with the introduction of the teens’ division, the amount of talented athletes of all ages is staggering.  As we saw regionals evolve into ‘super-regionals’ this year, so we will see them change again.

Asia and Russia, giants in disciplines such as gymnastics and Olympic lifting, will be producing CrossFit athletes that will start competing at a world level soon.  As a result, how we see athletes qualify for the world stage will ultimately have to advance to accommodate this.  No longer will the leader board be dominated by American flags and we saw a glimpse of this, this year when the top five spots were occupied by Icelandic, British and Australian women.

 With the introduction of CrossFit Kids and the teen divisions at The Games, we are going to see some pretty impressive athletes in the next few years.  With children learning the fundamentals of CrossFit early on, it’s almost scary to think how impressive future athletes are going to be.

As for the Games’ programming itself CrossFit Victoria owner, Scott Waugh, hopes that the sport of CrossFit moves to a more structured format; “For the sport of CrossFit to become more universally recognised as a concrete sport, there needs to be more structure to the format and rules.

“I’d like to see more benchmark style events that are more universal, not unlike the GRID league system – it would be great to see something like GRID to go international. This standardised format will ultimately open competition up to the world stage and we might see larger international events.”

The possibilities for the future of CrossFit really are endless and we can’t wait to see what’s in store.  As CrossFit has grown, so have we.  As the sport has evolved, so have we.  As the athletes have gown fitter, faster, stronger… so have we!

What are your predictions for the future of CrossFit? What do you love now and want to see more of in the future? What do you not like so much and how do you think it should be improve? (I’m sorry, but thrusters are here to stay I’m afraid!)

Photo credit: CrossFit.com