What to look for in a Crossfit Gym

So my quest begins. I've moved to Barrington, Illinois, and out here in the 'burbs there are not a lot of crossfit gyms. That's one reason why I thought about starting my own (I've decided to try another venture, more on that later). So now, after almost three years of crossfitting, what has my experience taught me in what to look for in a gym?

Programming: Do they actually have a plan with programming? Do they usually divide up the WOD into a strength element and then have a met-con finisher (this is a good thing)? Do they go through strength cycles (aka, avoid the sexy met-con)? Or do they just throw together a bunch of random movements and say do it for time? Do they include dangerous movements? Strength really does seem to be the factor in separating the men from the boys in crossfit, and if you don't work on strength with a plan/periodization, you're not going to get your deadlift up to 400# (which in the world of weightlifting isn't that much), or overhead squat 1.5 your body weight. There must be a plan, or else you're just spinning your wheels.

Emphasize proper technique: I feel like this one should be a no brainer, but in some gyms people get respect for squatting heavy even though they don't hit depth, or they don't reach full extension on thrusters when doing Fran. Personally, I don't believe in letting technique slide for a better time on a WOD (aka a stopwatch whore). I've been injured enough from lifting incorrectly that it's just not worth it to me. This is one reason why I believe it's better to divide the WOD up into two workouts, for example find your 5 rep snatch max and then do an AMRAP of toes to bar, KB swings, and jumping lunges. You want to work on the complex lifts, but you don't want to do 50+ of them because your form will degrade and you will injure yourself.

Work on mobility: If you've been following my blog over the past year, then you know how much working on mobility has improved my life and my workouts. I no longer have constant pain in my hip, my shoulder no longer feels numb after a workout, and my elbows feel good. However, there are a lot of people out there that completely ignore this aspect of training, even though recovery is perhaps more important than the workout where we wear ourselves down. Gyms should set a time after each wod for at least rolling out some.

Emphasis on Diet: Like recovery, diet is as important or more than the actual workout. I've been to a gym where the owner walked in carrying a bag from McDonalds. If you see that, it's your sign to look elsewhere.

Coach/athlete ratio: This one is also important. They say a coach can effectively handle up to seven athletes, but more then that and it's easy to miss somebody's mistake/poor form. A low ratio also helps in the coach tailor the Wod for each athlete, since we're all different.

What is the owner like: This is very important for making it easy to have fun at the gym. If you're in your forties and have kids, and the owner of the gym is in the same situation, you'll be able to relate. If you're a triathlete and the owner plays Ultimate Frisbee, you'll get along. If you're the type that needs your coach to yell at you and question your manhood for moto and the owner is an asshole (I've met a few of these) then you'll get along. If you respond better to positive feedback and the owner is a nice person, you'll get along. This isn't to say that you won't get along if you're not identical to the owner, just that both of you will know where you're coming from and it makes it easy to feel like you're part of the community.

And with that I'm off to go audition a couple of gyms in the neighborhood and see what gym "speaks" to me. Here are the four candidates:

1. Crossfit Rise
2. Crossfit Arlington Heights
3. Crossfit Roselle
4. Crossfit LGN
   

Obviously, Crossfit Oldtown will always be my home (you never forget your first), but I'm excited to see where this will lead me.