APADIA 11: Putting the Type A in CrossFit

(What’s APADIA? See here.)

We are a weird community, CrossFit.

We often seem very dissimilar on the surface. Some are super-fit. Others aren’t. Many of us are in between. There are professionals and blue-collar workers, teenagers and grandparents. We cross most any demographic or psychographic boundaries you can think of.

But when you dig deeper, there’s a common element that I’ve found.

There are a lot of words you could use to describe it. Addictive personalities. ADHD. OCD. Autism spectrum. Hypercompetitive. Anxiety. Perfectionism. Certainly no one person is all of those things, but the vast majority of people I’ve met through CrossFit would check at least one of those off. We’ve all got a slightly odd need to push, to drive, to focus, to perfect. Put another way, we all have demons that we’re anxious to exorcise. As we all do. And this group has chosen to do it this way.

(Credit for my restraint in refraining from the exorcise/exercise pun? No?)

I’ve offended a couple of people for having this point of view – but I actually don’t think it’s a negative observation at all. It’s an incredibly positive community of, by and large, very intelligent people. With extremes and bad eggs, of course, like any other. But on the whole, a phenomenal example of people pushing themselves toward self-improvement.

And if being part of it means owning up that I’m yet another people with these messy tendencies? Count me in.