Defining Loyalty

Loyalty is defined as a strong feeling of support or allegiance.

In the CrossFit community, we tend to become loyal with the box we have chosen as our second home. For me, this box is CrossFit Reston. From coaches to fellow athletes, I see them all as my friends and extended family. But as in life outside the gym, we tend to have multiple cliques of friends, each deserving of our loyalty. I am truly a lucky guy to have the support system I have with the coaches I interact with in the Mid-Atlantic region. So what happens when you redefine loyalty? When you lift at a globo-gym, there may be loyalty to the gym you workout at but if something better comes along, you wouldn't hesitate to drop your membership and go elsewhere. This is generally where CrossFit differs. CrossFit boxes become small (or large) families. You struggle together, you succeed together and you don't let each other fail. It is an underlying theme in the CrossFit circle.

For me, this family is a much larger extension that some other crossfitters. My home box is CrossFit Reston but I have two secondary homes as well. My first secondary home is CrossFit Rubicon. A box that defines family and makes that evident by the many members who's silhouettes are painted on the walls of the gym. David "Chef" Wallace and his wife Hronn, along with their talented coaches, deliver a mix of Strength and MetCon that always leaves me sore and wanting more. What's more interesting about CF Rubicon and Chef is how I came to call this place a second home. You see, Chef works with Adaptive Athletes and has been working with Brian Wilson of Patriot and Potomac CrossFit to build programming for not only his box but also working to develop a comprehensive site where coaches everywhere can go for insight on the challenges and rewards of training adaptive crossfitters. Chef's project SIX (We got your back, we got your six) is beginning to build steam and should be making huge strides in the near future. (To donate in order to get this going: http://www.realworldsix.com/) I was introduced to Chef by way of the Facebook/CrossFit community and regularly try to make it up their for strength work and his inventive torturous WODs.

As I began to develop a relationship with CrossFit Rubicon, I was introduced to the CrossFit Walter Reed project being spearheaded by Brian Wilson and Dillon Behr. Brian worked to develop programming which can be scaled and build a base for our wounded warriors to continue that warrior spirit through crossfitting.  I expressed interest in working with this project and was welcomed. As I had worked to "teach" myself CrossFit before joining CrossFit Reston, I could relate to some of the difficulties of being an amputee and trying to figure out just how different complex Olympic lifts were to a body compromised by range of motion in one or multiple joints and just how to try to make your body do what you want it to do. As mentioned in previous posts, I started training at least once a week at CF Walter Reed and will hopefully be a trainer there once I take and pass my Level 1 Certification at the end of July.

These three gyms are all homes for me. They are each a part of my family and I am loyal to them all. Am I disloyal to any of them by going to other boxes? No. I am loyal to all of them equally. Each has helped in my journey so far.