"The media (and the science) is showing that as a population we are more over-worked, stressed, tired and inactive than ever before. The growth of the fitness industry is accelerating to meet this demand, yet it's not having any significant impact.

Why is that?

IMHO, there are a few reasons. Disregarding the people who simply aren't interested in health and fitness, I think that it's a combination of information overload (paralysis by analysis) and too much emphasis on gimmicks and fun.

Wait, why is fun a problem???

Of course there's nothing inherently wrong with fun during fitness. But focusing on that to the detriment of functional, results driven protocols, robust adherence-strengthening practices and lasting behavioural change promotion is the mistake so many gyms and fitness professionals make.

A lot of the issues are in the actual workouts. Trying to make workouts cool all the time, trying to 'smash' your clients, copying high level competitions, and associating sweat and fatigue with effort and efficacy is a mistake.

Why can't we have good tunes, awesome social interaction, laughter, great connection with coaches, AND productive workouts?! There is no reason why that can't happen, but it starts with you and your staff building a culture where it is just as fun to do Turkish get-ups and Pallof presses, as it is to do muscle-ups and snatches. Where a steady state aerobic output session for quality gives just as much satisfaction as a blistering lactate threshold piece or high volume Hero workout.

Not Fun

It’s kind of weird when you think about what exercise actually is.

In order for our bodies to stay healthy, we need to PRETEND to hunt animals, gather berries, lift wood and carry water.

Despite it being the 21st Century, they’re unfortunately still wired to do all that caveman stuff, so as nice as it is to have agriculture, supermarkets, heat pumps and plumbing, we’re not off the hook regarding hard physical activity.

One of the most common reasons people give for seeking us out, is that they dislike exercise/have had poor success with fitness/hate gyms/are bored with what they’re currently doing/aren’t having fun.

If presented with a magic pill that could replace all of that, there’s no doubt that the great majority of us would grab at that option.

But in the meantime, we’re left with strength and conditioning.

Which equals sweat, discomfort, challenge, fatigue, uncertainty and still, despite the efforts of gyms and associated marketing campaigns everywhere… still, not a lot of fun sometimes.

Hence the name games, gratitude practice, breakdancing inspired warm-up moves, terrible dad jokes from the coaches and random memes on our Facebook page…….

Yes, we want you to work hard, bring your focus, and deal with discomfort, but, we’ll do our best to make sure you have a good time too.

That’s partly on you too of course, the mindset and attitude you bring into the gym.

If life is giving you lemons, there might be a small temptation to get others to suck on them with you.

Or, you can utilise the support, friendship and learning opportunities in here to make some darn tasty lemonade.

Together, we can ensure that exercise is fun.

And even on days when it’s not (and that will vary, based on your own preferences, strength/weaknesses etc), everything else about your experience in the gym, will be."

Darren Ellis, Crossfit New Zealand

TRAINING JANUARY 20th