I have committed to 6 weeks away from the box I train at because of a desire to address some lingering mobility issues before the open. The reason I can't train at my box is that the owner won't let you deviate from his programming. And I generally stay 30 minutes after the class each time anyway to fill in the holes (by my definition) in the programming. But now I'm customizing my warmups to address these lingering issues and I just don't have the time if I stay at my box to do this and still plug in the other holes.
Big deal right? Well I know of at least 7 members ranging from competitors to regular exercisers complain about the programming and some leave because of it. What do I mean specifically??
Well let's start with the pizza analogy. I like pizza. It's all actually pretty good to me. However, I've eaten a lot of pizza in my 45 years. And so Pizza Hut might have been "great" when I first tried it. I've since become a bit more nuanced about pizza and I actually like a new york style, thin crust, margherita pizza. There's a local place that has a bunch of options for pizza too that are really good and kind of serve whatever mood you're in. So while Pizza Hut is still "fine", I've come to see that it has some limitations.
Let's move on to the box I train at now. If you're just starting crossfit, it's great. Even if you have been doing CF for 5 years like me, it's still good and you will still make progress. Because like pizza, in general all crossfit is good. But our guy likes to "take people out of their comfort zone". And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But it is kind of a "take it or leave it thing". And so as I said, I end up training an extra 30 minutes after every workout to plug in the holes. Because there are a lot of days we are doing things like practicing headstands for 10 minutes, freestyle dancing, playing partner volleyball, swimming, crab soccer, etc....
Is it what most members want? Lots would say no. Is it what we need? I guess that depends on your perspective. But in the business world, consumers are supposed to rule to a point. And when people start complaining, you start to see that customers are not getting what they want.
So what's the solution? I think that if you are a box owner then regular business principles apply. Find out what the customers want and find a way to deliver. No one should be dreading the workout because they feel like its wasting their time. Of course you can't please everyone, but then again a pizza place that only serves one kind of pizza might have a die hard group of customers, but eventually when the place that is more customer driven opens up down the block, then the owner is going to have to re-evaluate.....
