When people ask me, "What is CrossFit?" I do my best to give them a concise and non-technical answer. I eschew Coach Glassman's classic "constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movements performed at high intensity" (too many terms to define) in favor of something like, "It's kind of a mix of Olympic-style weightlifting, basic gymnastics, and sprint training." Usually that satisfies their curiosity--most people, especially the sedentary, seem to then immediately mentally file CrossFit under the heading "Things I Would Never Do." I can never let it go, though. I always go on to say, "The genius of it, you see, is that by requiring its athletes to perform for time or for points, CrossFit turns fitness training into a competitive sport. You end up killing yourself to get those extra couple reps in, to shave just a few more seconds off the clock. And then you flop to the ground. Wrecked. Like, you couldn't stand up even if you wanted to." To which most people can't help but respond, "You think that's fun?" I'm sure my "Hell yeah!" does nothing to stop them from further filing CrossFit under "Things I Most Definitely Would Never Do."

And that is a terrible shame, because CrossFit is so much more than just an exercise program. CrossFit, as Greg Glassman says in one CrossFit Journal article, is a means to self-actualization. I really believe that. Any activity that regularly necessitates facing and overcoming fear (and everyone who's "drank the Kool-Aid" knows the anxiety that builds before one faces "Linda" or Fight Gone Bad) forces you to grow in courage and integrity and pure grit. CrossFit forges fitness, sure, but it forges character, as well.

At the recent Portland Certification Seminar, Dr. Kelly Starrett said, "This stuff just selects for a certain kind of person." The result? CrossFit is a tremendous community of like-minded, self-starting strivers. Being associated with and accepted by such a community is a joy. And it's also an antidote to some of the alienation and loneliness that are part of our modern life.

Go to any "Globo-Gym." Watch the people on the elliptical machines reading their magazine articles, or the people on the treadmills watching CNN, or the guy doing biceps curls in the squat rack with his little white iPod headphones screening out everything but his reflection in the mirror. Contrast that with the scene at any CrossFit affiliate WOD session: people sweating, cursing and suffering together. The early finishers are applauded for their impressive performances, but the less-experienced athletes, the less fit, those non-firebreathers who are gutting out their third round with two more to go, they're the ones who get the loudest cheers, the most encouragement. And that is awesome. I've been living in big cities for going on fifteen years now, and I've trained in all kinds of gyms, and I've never seen the like, anywhere.

That's what I love about CrossFit. Even more than the hundred fifty pounds I've put on my deadlift, and the extra fifteen pull-ups I've added, and the pride I feel when I finish a WOD like "Murph." That camaraderie and support are what we do best, and I'd like to do my part to ensure that it remains central to the CF experience. Opening my own affiliate is a chance to create and nurture a CrossFit community, a place where people can come and get expert instruction and train themselves to perform once-unimaginable physical feats, a place where they can find out what they're really made of. We can help them strip away the excess and discover the pure gold beneath!