Episode 12 - Why the CrossFit Open Breaks Some Gyms (And Builds Others)

Here we go. Before we get started today, the CrossFit Open, it's upon us, it's happening. Registrations are going on three weeks out. Anyone that's a gym owner in the CrossFit World knows it's going on and how you choose to participate is up to you. So here is a do you ever the open edition. So Blair, do you ever say tell a member, a family is totally fine, but then think many definitely be doing this already. I guess it just depends if the members like really a scale member. If they're a scale person, then no, I would never say that, but I guess I say yeah, sometimes I'm looking at people and like you can, I mean, maybe you can't do the muscle up at the very end of the workout, but you can do everything else. It shouldn't really feel bad about believing in someone more than they believe in themselves, right? That's what I'm like, that's going on sometimes. Do you, do you start, have you restarted workout redo and then stopped partway through knowing you're not going to be drilled for? Oh, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I do. There are probably the first 10 years of the open, I never re-did a workout like on principle. Like this should be I just I am what I am. But then I have re I have re tried I have re tried workouts and you know you're not going to be doing like, oh, well, then I'm just not going to suffer like this just for the sake of suffering. It feels weird, huh? Yeah, it's weird. I've only done I've only done a handful of times. I don't really care about the open, but ever now, then I'm like, oh man, I just know it's like really honestly to myself or anything. I'm trying to go anywhere. But anyway, it's I get to a certain point, I stop and then I look back and it's like, man, just feels weird. It feels weird to like stop in the middle. Yeah, it does feel weird. Oh, once you're a viewer, it makes you feel weak. It's totally does. It totally does. And then later, it's silly too, because I'm just doing it just because I thought I could have done better on that workout. I'm like, well, I probably could have just finished it. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, why didn't I just do it? You know, like, we care this. What's your favorite open movement that you pretend to like that I pretend to like? Yeah, you say it's fun, but you know, you're telling me otherwise not be trying to get people pumped up like, no, man, it's cool. Everybody loves these overhead walking lunges. Oh, man. I mean, the one you got to convince everybody of is thrusters, right? It's in every open. It's always the last workout. So you have to, and everybody dreads it. The kind of it's like the movement they love to hate. So we try to like pump people up on that one guy. Yeah, man, it's like a right of passage. Like see if you can do the 15s I'm broken this time. I feel like weighted box step overs because there's just such a red when you can learn to kind of swing those things. It makes it so much better. But it's like, I'm not really sure I'm going to tell people like, oh, did you just got to swing them? And then it gets you up. Like that's a, there's like a whole the best, most efficient way to do it is for sure. Also, the best way to hurt yourself doing the movement. Yeah, that's a really hard movement. That's hard no matter what. What is this? I mean, maybe that's what is your least favorite open movement that you're tired of defending? Because you're making people do these workouts for your like, I probably wouldn't put that in there. No, I mean, I would definitely put in box step overs. But I would probably make people, but I don't like is on box step overs where everybody stays like hunched over the whole time. Yeah, a bad position to be in. It's terrible for a lot of reps. And then twist like me is like, let's put some torque on that knee. Yeah, I know. Like, Meniscus gone. So that's a good question. I think, but what do we consider like open movements, ones that are on everything? Yeah, like common, common things you see in the open, then maybe you don't do a ton of during the year. Yeah. I mean, got me wall walks. We do a lot of wall walks at our gym. Yeah, we do. But I love wall walks. Dude, they're, they're a great exercise. I mean, talk about something's hard to get people pumped up for them. I mean, I guess I kind of did right? You're like, no, man, it's actually a good test. Like you're like convinced. Yeah, really, really good. That's actually really good. But I know, why if I carry you outside here, I'm down to go for a ride. Yeah, I got my, this like treetrum or just showed out. So I got to make sure that that's it. Oh, perfect. Well, while you do that, I'll do this. All right. With me today, a man who's been through more opens than most people have training cycles of Blair Morrison, three times, trust in games, athlete, affiliate owner, NorCal Classic mastermind. I want to clear out one of the two people who's lived on both sides of the open elite competition. Yeah, real world gym ownership. I'm like, and I'm really there from Cahead and Keyless. Jim, Jim, I'm like, I'm a real out of the, and you're from the moderators that ask for your opinion straight out and you're gonna tell you why. Okay. So, sort of the, the question that fills illegal to ask out loud as a crossfit affiliate number as a affiliate member, would it be easier to run your affiliates at the crossfit didn't push the open and maybe even stop the games off together? I don't mean better for the sport of fitness and I mean better for the athletes. I mean, easier, easier to coach, easier program, easier to manage emotions, easier to stop people from doing dumb stuff, chasing imaginary leaderboard points. Because the open for a lot of gym owners is three weeks of extra stress, extra people tearing their hands and bleeding on stuff, extra opinions, and at least one member who suddenly thinks they're right there and you need to do additional programming. So, what's on packet? Does the open actually build culture or does it just get in the way of culture? Okay, I get the question. And yes, it would be absolutely easier if the open didn't exist, if the games didn't exist. But I think it would be much worse. I do think that the open, I mean, it's just how I feel about it. I feel like there's a lot of people, a lot of adults that don't want to compete because competition is, it can be stressful. It adds this, this layer of anxiety that feels unhealthy. And they're like, this is stupid. Why am I stressing out over this? But I make the argument to people all the time, that is the absolute reason that you do it because you're not going to get that anywhere else in your life. Most adults are in charge 95% of the time and they're in a very comfortable place most of the time. And that's kind of why they come to CrossFit is to get uncomfortable. At least, yes. They appreciate that from the workouts being harder than they want them to be, from the coach being tougher than they want them to be. And so I think the open kind of as far as when it comes to competition, it fits into that that ethos or that archetype of kind of what CrossFit brings to their life. And as far as the gym owner, gym owners are lazy. They can get lazy. And if you make it only about fitness and not about things that bring the community closer together, you're missing out on something that makes CrossFit really special. It makes it different than a 24 hour fitness or any time fitness or whatever you got. So I definitely think the open is worth it. I think that CrossFit, I think the decline in open participation is more of a reflection of people's displeasure with CrossFit corporate than it is with the actual activity of the open. I think that's why you're seeing the registration numbers bumping back up this year, because people have a little better opinion of leadership. And now they're like, yeah, man, this is part of the deal. I'm like, we're in for it. Yeah, I mean, something you brought up there, it thinks a great point, which is as an adult, how many times you do something that's extremely uncomfortable. As an adult, we live in this world where, I mean, look, dude, I'm 41, I learned to walk 40 years ago. You know what I mean? You've done all these things. You're in a job where most of the time you're in a job where you know what to do. You know what I mean? It's not this scary thing. And you just as you go through your life, you're driving a car, how many hours we spent behind the wheel? Like all these things you do are comfort zone. And so doing something that pulls you out of that comfort zone is, I mean, there's huge benefit to that. It's very beneficial for a lot of reasons. And like you said, it's probably the same way they felt when they started CrossFit to begin with a lot of people. And the reason what would draw people in the CrossFit, every time you get a new skill, I couldn't do double unders. Now I can. Again, in your average adult's life, how many times are, how many new skills are you actually acquiring versus how many things are you doing that you have pretty much got that sh** down. Yeah, especially once you pass like the kids phase, they bring it on. Yeah. You need something to like stimulate your brain and your body and why not? If you're a grown man and you're not even scared to hold a baby anymore, like what is there in your life to fear? And you're like, oh, I think you, like as of now, like I can keep that thing alive as long as you need me to. I'm proven up to 13 years now. And so like how long you need me to like watch that baby? I got it. And see what else? It's true though. Right? You kind of done these things. So what are you doing to stretch yourself or push yourself or provide new experiences or some sort of stimulation that it is probably good for you, right? Yeah. I mean, I think so, man. That's not everybody feels that way, but I think in our community, that's that's kind of an accepted truth that pushing boundaries is a good thing. And that includes like your mental totally, you know, comfort when it comes to putting yourself out there like against all these other people in the world or in your gym. And anyways, so how do good gyms? Well, why do you, why do gyms sometimes forget how to coach a femurate? Right? Meaning all year it's you meet people where they're at, you scale for longevity, you train for a life, and the open hits. And suddenly it's like, all right, everyone, this for time, God will sort it out. What's the, ready go. Right? Like, how do you, is there, is there just connect there or is there a way to, you know, responsibly living both worlds, I guess? I think it was a lot harder before the open had a scale division. Do you remember those days? Yeah. That was really hard because people get swept up in the, in the moment, you know, like they don't want to be competitive, but then they get in and they're like, actually, I'm a little competitive. Yeah, actually, the guy that I work out with is doing this and he can do it, he can do the way, he can do it at 95 pounds, like, you know, like, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna go for, and then that is, that is potential for injury, that is a little bit dangerous. And I think it's a good point, like, why do people forget their normal, you know, protocol or principles that they run their gym by. So I think once, now that there is, there is scale divisions, I think the coach needs to be like keeping people in their lane, keeping them safe, holding, holding them accountable, to like the same standards that they normally would have, and make it more about movement quality, rather than the absolute fastest that you can go. Right. Some of that comes down to programming. Right. I mean, the open is program pretty aggressively, aggressively. Yeah. But it's like a long time. Like, you're doing am wraps for, you know, 15, 20 minutes of three very achievable movements. Like, you're just the volume is incredible. Some 15 rounds at an am wraps. Right. Like, like, like, like, I mean, kind of what you're saying, I think is interesting to point out is, it's the difference between training and testing. Right. And I think that's maybe a way, kind of, can explain to people or tell people, like, hey, man, like, all year, we're just training, training to be healthy, training for life. But this is the one time of year. Hey, we got three weeks of this every week. Well, there's going to be a test and see where you at. We have a member who's told us a bunch of times, like, this is, he loves it because he basis his angle goals off his open placement. He's like, hey, I was in the whatever, you know, top, I was the 37th percent, whatever. Next year, my goal is to be in the top 30 percent. Right. And then over the course of the year, he brings it up. Sometimes it'll be October. And it's like, hey, you know, I'm feeling pretty good. I just got to go grow time. I think I'm, you know, shoot for that top 30 percent in my age group, you know, and that's what drives him. And that's, that's, for me, if it good to help recognize that as difference between a test and training, right? Yeah. I like that. That's a good way to phrase it. So long as you can, they'll listen to you when you don't, hey, this is the level you're going to test that. Right. That's the, well, they listened to you. That's the, that's always the fun part. Now, which brings us to Friday night lights, right? Is that the community event or a controlled burn? You know, Friday night lights is either the best thing CrossFit ever gave to affiliates or is a three week stress test for the owners. You know, it is good. It's electric. When it's bad, it feels like a force work happy hour, you know, something like that. One time, I call I had to call the cops like we can get it to the estimate if you want, but other jiff have to like call the police to have somebody remove from the premises during a Friday night lights event. Yeah. And so, you know, I guess you got a couple of affiliates. The whole thing going on, you know, do you do Friday night lights at your gyms? Do you do them every week or just the first week or last week? What does that look like anywhere? It depends a little bit on location. So we have, I say different, different levels of interest, you know, and like, and honestly, since we've been doing Norco classic, our open like energy has kind of decreased a little bit because excited for for Norco because it's, you know, it's in our backyard. It's an in-person comp that they get to go to and the open is it's a little more like of a legacy event, I think, for a lot of our cars because none of them qualified to regionals to do the open, you know, like, right. But so anyways, certain, certain locations have are a little more creative with how they kind of amp up the energy. Our Rancho location this year, Matt Rite, Mighty Mouse, he's he's all about the open, loves the open, and he's going to do like an intermural competition within the Rancho affiliate between basically it's like short people versus tall people. Oh, hell yeah. I'm just talking about it. I have a good touch of great idea. So people like other people are going to be on one team and then people that are 5-8 or above are going to be on another team and then if you're 5-6 or 5-7, he said you can identify either way. That's like cool and they're going to do a Friday night event and also a Saturday morning event, so you can kind of like go to one of the other. A Rockland gym is just going to do Friday evenings. And that's like a people show up and that's an economic kind of gym. So like people are going to show up with food and drinks and just kind of like kind of watch most people are there to watch, but then there'll be a few of the the better athletes that kind of like showcase. So yeah, it kind of just depends. Do you program? Do you program? Is the Friday workout at the gyms? Is the Friday workout the open workout? Yes. Yeah. Do you do feel like doing that maybe stops? Do you think you get better attendance at Friday night lights if you didn't have Fridays, class workout, be the open workout? Or do you think you would probably get the same attendance but less people signed up for the open? That's a good question. I think we would get less people signed up for the open. You know, I think it's it's easier to get them to do it to sign up once they've done the workout. Okay, you're going to show up. You're going to do it anyways. Yeah. You know, why not just be part of this global community gathering. You know, you were you stack, you know, it's not like no, this isn't going to go on your LinkedIn profile, you know, like if you do bad, my hair. Right. And like I said before, if people are pro happy about CrossFit in general, they're not going to be like, I'm not going to you know, throw $20 at this, you know, tire fire that the, you know, is going on. So I think I think so many people show up, even if they're not working out Friday night, the people are in the gym. I think that's a win. Yeah, you know, it's a great. Last year we did, we have a coach that super pumped up, loves the open, all fired up about it. And he's taken on last year and he crushed it. He did great job worked as hard on it as anybody ever has. But we did that. We didn't do it as a Friday workout to try and encourage more people to come to Friday night lights. And I think we got some more people to come and do the workouts at Friday night lights. And I do think that experience was maybe better for the people doing it because it did feel more like a competition because doing it that way, he like, that was squared away. And like every lane, like you're doing the RX, you for sure have a judge with the judge certificate. Like without fail, there is no, you know, I mean, like it was and it was tight like he ran like it was a little mini competition, which the people doing it better experience. However, I think we have fewer people participate because of that, right? And so we just talked about this in a coaching meeting the other night. That's why I've been like thinking about a lot. And so then the question is like, well, do you just do it as the class workout and you probably get more people to sign up because exactly that after the first week, we're like, all right guys, you just did it. So like, my will go here, pay your 20 bucks and then like get, you know, it'll be vlogging online, you can check out in your, you know, be a part of something, right? But then you may have less attendance or less people, you know, then the experience that Friday night lights isn't going to be as right competition like you're going for mass. And it was fun. He was brought up some, this how they phrased it. They're like, would you, would you rather like what do you want as the gym owner? Do you want as many people in bulk as possible who are then excited more excited about CrossFit? And he's like, oh, and I was like, well, that one, that's the one I want. Like I don't really need to other options. Like I want more people to sign up and do it and be more excited about CrossFit. Like that sounds great. And if that's the goal, the open is to get people to be more excited about CrossFit to come down to the gym a couple days or evenings that they wouldn't to push themselves hard on workouts normally would. I think judging each other is crucial. Like in class, you know, you figure it out a way to get it done where you partner them up and everybody has a judge because of the act of judging other people. Like watching their deaths and no wrapping them and paying attention to how they're moving. I think that kind of elevates you as an athlete paying attention to that type of stuff a little bit more. And I think there's all those benefits to doing it as much as it is for sure pain in the ass. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So, I mean, you got to run here, huh? Yeah, sorry about that, man. It's not all good. It's perfect. All right. So last little thing here, we'll do a very quick one-minute long lightning round. All right, hot takes on glare. So, what is the worst open behavior you've ever seen? Worst open behavior? Yeah. God. I mean, I think it comes, I think it's double unders. People getting frustrated and double unders and like, like, cursing, throwing the rope like that is elevated. I mean, that's always a bit about double unders in general, but like that is elevated. I've seen that get too aggressive. I had to tell somebody like afterwards, like, hey, I get it. It's frustrating, but like, you know, you're you're 45. Let's keep it in perspective, you know. You've been frustrated before? Yeah. We'll work on it. But let's like, you know, let's keep it, let's keep it in space for everyone, you know what I mean. But yeah, we had a girl's doing bar muscle ups and her feet were going above the bar before going into them type of a thing and burst. Anyway, someone over and told them her judge, like, you can't count those. And she's like, what the judge is counting on, but it was just this member. Anyway, bottom line is she gets off all of a sudden this dude's a racist. She's yelling at him. I asked her to leave. She refused to leave. Have to pull the cops to come get her to go. It was a whole it was a whole mess, dude. Actually, that was the huge moment for me. I felt so good about myself. Like, I stay calm. I like, kindly ask her multiple times. I'd say, hey, if you don't leave, I'm gonna have to call the police. Or you're gonna do, I said, dude, I don't want you. If you would just please go. When it was all started done, I was like, I actually feel pretty good about myself there, you know? Like, anyway, I'm just gonna do one more quick. What is the best open to tradition that you never want to give up? Best open tradition. Yeah, I mean, I mean, Friday night, that's our only open tradition. Just like having people show up and like doing heats instead of class times, you know? Yeah. I can't think of any other tradition that Blood on the walls. That's the best one they want to give that up. Do enough bar, bar mosleps and chest bar of a hand for it. And then it starts spraying the wall. You know, that's what, that's what I'm talking about. I'm roll number one at our gym is don't tear your hands. I might just start doing it during people's on-ramps. It's just giving them a pumice sound. And being like, hey, this one like once a week, I want you to get some running water in the sink and just kind of run this over the rough parts of your hands. And move. Just get it smooth. All right, that's a wrap for episode 12 of Not My Box, the Open Edition. Huge thanks to Blair Morrison for reminding us the open isn't always about being the fittest person in the room. It's about making sure people still want to be in the room next month. If you listened and felt personally attacks, congratulations are one of us. Go buy some coffee from caffityqls.com, support fun competition like the NorCal Classic. They don't hate their athletes and share this with the coach who turns in to help to the open in like it's a military selection. And remember, if you say it's just for fun, if your mood depends on a tie-breaker time, you're one of us. We'll see you next week and not in my box.