5 Reasons Why CrossFit is Filled with Type-A Personalities
If there’s ever been a hot, sweaty room filled with strong-willed, competitive, powerful, perfectionist, Type-A personalities: CrossFit would be that room. Let’s look at the dynamic of CrossFit. It’s a goal-driven, time domain sport in which participants record their best lifts and times in order to achieve heavier lifts and faster times through periods of training. Parallel to CrossFit is the genre of people we categorize as Type-A: competitive, self-critical, outgoing, ambitious and urgent.
I am this person. I am Type-A and I do CrossFit. Admittance is the first step. I’ve been training CrossFit for almost seven years now, and there hasn’t been a training day that’s gone by where I was satisfied. Maybe I could have pushed harder, or lifted a few pounds heavier or executed the lift with more technicality. Whatever my self-critique was for that day, I would swallow my pride, stow away my observations and learning experiences from that day and show up to the gym the next day to do it all again. All for the constant pursuit of perfection.
But there are other people just like me that are attracted to CrossFit for the same Type-A reasons as myself:
- It’s all about creating goals and crushing them
In every CrossFit workout or lift, you are chasing after a goal. Whether it’s to do the workout the fastest or to lift five pounds more than last time, there’s always a goal to focus on. Type-A personalities love to set goals because they thrive on the journey to achievement. CrossFit is a constant journey, as one never really masters a skill, but rather continually challenges the skill by adding more weight, moving faster or adding on multiple movements to a workout.
2. The whiteboard never lies
In CrossFit, athletes document their workouts and lifts as a reference for the next training session. Most gyms also have a dry erase white board in which each participant from the class can write down their times and PRs (personal records in weight lifting) for all to see. Type-A’s love competition and you bet that looking at that white board and seeing others’ achievements sends them into a dark place before the workout. Are scores on the whiteboard inflated? Of course! But not by those Type-A’s that take competition to heart and narrow in on that one person’s time or weight that they need to hunt down.
3. Time is valuable
Type-A’s hate wasting time. Every single minute of the day should be spent doing something productive, so we don’t have two to three hours to waste at the gym. CrossFit classes are one hour in duration. Type-A’s can get their workout in and still have time to do the million other things that are on their to-do list.
4. Being task-oriented requires laser focus
Type-A’s are highly focused individuals. Things always need to get done and Type-A’s won’t rest until the task is completed. In CrossFit, there is always a set rep scheme to follow, whether it’s in a WOD (workout of the day) or strength training session. Type-A’s focus in on the movements in the workout and won’t quit until they’re complete.
5. Passion. Period.
You’ve got to be passionate to do CrossFit. The workouts are demanding and intense and oftentimes hard not only physically but also mentally as well. Type-A’s are passionate. If they believe something is meaningful enough, they will devote all of their attention to that subject. CrossFitters take their training very passionately.
Honing in on and accepting my Type-A tendencies has actually helped my CrossFit career and shaped my training regiment. I’m constantly striving to be better. Why? I don’t know. I just want to be. I guess it’s that constant pursuit of perfection that is ingrained in my being. Whatever the reason is, I am Type-A and I am a CrossFitter.
