Banners And Flags
Why pride flags are important in gyms.
How many gyms have banners of their favourite equipment companies?
Maybe it’s Rogue Fitness. Maybe it's Tydax. Maybe it’s Eleiko.
But they haven’t or even won’t put up a pride flag.
Putting up that banner took time and effort. It was a choice to put it there.
And it has little to no influence on the client or member.
I doubt someone will walk into a gym and say “Oh they must use Rogue equipment, this gym is for me”.
Put up a pride flag. And understand what it means and why you put it there. Make it about the client or member. Make it a welcoming and inclusive space.
@safegymtraining
Gendered Workouts. Why?
Why are there gendered workouts?
Does your gym or training program have gendered workouts?
Does your gym or training program say that they are for everyone?
To me those two things, if both true, are at odds.
Some will use gendered workouts to assign a prescribed weight or volume to an athlete. It is said that if you cannot yet do that weight or volume that you can scale or modify to meet your ability based on gender. For some this could be motivating and give them direction for progression.
Not everyone fits into the mould of being male or female. As such gendered workouts are not for everyone. They are for those that identify as those genders.
We need more inclusive gyms.
When we assign genders to exercise, we exclude those that don’t fit a bias.
Sure progression is important. But that is the role of coaching. Progression isn’t writing a weight for a gender and saying this is what you can eventually get to based on your gender.
Progress based on goals, not gender.
How can you indicate the difficulty or intensity of something without using genders?
I use RPE or Rate of Perceived Exertion. It’s completely individual because everyone perceives events or tasks differently. It’s how difficult something feels to you on a scale of 1-10.
There are other ways to do this. It could be % of a previous lift. It could be a pace based on a previous measured task. It could be based on heart rate or breathing.
It just doesn’t need to be based on gender.
If we are going to say we are for everyone, let’s make sure we aren’t excluding anyone.
CrossFit: Let’s Do Better
CrossFit and its need for improvement.
CrossFit, we can do a lot better.
Recently I went through the process of preparing for and passing the Certified CrossFit Trainer (CCFT) test. Also referred to as the Level 3 test by many. I went through this process for many reasons. The main one being to make me a better coach, which I believe it did.
It is a very thorough test. While I do not agree with all of the content, there is still a ton of great information that can be beneficial to coaches and athletes.
Now the last year has taught me many things. One is that the fitness industry has a lot of work to do to be more inclusive and diverse.
This includes CrossFit.
From CrossFit's website:
"The Certified CrossFit Trainer (CCFT) credential is for an experienced individual who wants to demonstrate a higher level of CrossFit coaching knowledge and ability. The purpose of the CCFT is to ensure that an individual possesses the knowledge and competency required to train clients safely and effectively.
To attain this credential individuals must meet all eligibility requirements, pass the CCFT examination, and commit to a long-term standard of professional accountability"
This is the overview of the CCFT. As such, I believe CrossFit should also be held to very high standards of professional accountability.
In my studying of the content on the suggested reading materials list (I read or listened to everything except for the CrossFit Kids and Masters Training Guides), I noticed some items that I believe to be harmful. This includes misogyny and stigmatization of mental illness.
These are images of two articles included in the study material.
"Benchmark Workouts" - CrossFit Journal Issue 13 - September 2003 - Greg Glassman. Page 5
"Fooling around with Fran" - CrossFit Journal Issue 31 - March 2005 - Greg Glassman. Page 4
These are screenshots of the articles themselves. They are not edited as I have seen done by some web pages.
Now it's possible that you aren't sure of why I may have some objections to that content.
That logic for naming those workouts does not read well to me. That logic for naming storms doesn't read well either. It doesn't say to me "I see you, and I see you as an equal". It has a strong tone of misogyny.
Anorexia is an eating disorder and mental illness. What is the purpose of associating an eating disorder with scaling a workout? To me as a coach (and human), that sort of association is disrespectful and stigmatizes both individuals who scale workouts and individuals who have eating disorders.
This content and the CCFT test itself brought up a lot of questions for me. So I asked CrossFit's new DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Council about that content specifically. I also inquired about the complete lack of diversity (in race and body types) represented in videos shown on the CCFT test. Some responses included:
"I will ensure these concerns are expressed internally."
"We agree that these articles are not inclusive and do not reflect the views of the new leadership team. From our team to our content, we are focused on ensuring that CrossFit is inclusive going forward."
"As you might imagine, it will take some time to review the wealth of content we currently have and make updates or total replacements where needed. And, yet, we are committed to this work and will build addressing dated materials into our project plans. "
I think it's great that CrossFit now has a DEI team. And I can imagine they are busy and have multiple projects on the go.
However, at this time the next group of coaches preparing to take the CCFT exam are currently studying this material. That problematic content has been out since 2010. And I know I am not the first person to bring up concerns.
I have seen new "Girls" workouts be added instead of addressing the logic of those names being used in the first place. Amongst the wealth of content in the reference material, there is not one article about a coach’s role in fostering diversity, equity and inclusion, aside from a statement that the "aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general, and inclusive fitness".
I hope they do have some great project plans. I want CrossFit to be successful because I believe in the community and the results people have achieved through CrossFit. I am very grateful for CrossFit and the opportunities I have within it. With my gratefulness comes criticism because I want it to succeed and for it to succeed I believe the fitness industry needs to be better.
Actions lead to progress. For progress to happen we need to address the future but also the past. If we continue to study problematic and harmful information we will continue to contribute towards the same problems.
