by Michael Plank
I wrote recently about how one of our Core Values at Underwood Park CrossFit is community. There are a lot of reasons for that and there are a lot of things we do to support it. We greet people by name, we make introductions at the beginning of classes anytime there’s a new face, we help people make connections, and we let them know in a whole lot of ways that we’re glad to see them.
But there’s one other thing that we used to be great at that’s fallen by the wayside a little that we’re bringing back: we don’t clean up our workout equipment until everyone is finished.
That might seem small. And cleaning up early is always well-intentioned.
What happens is that when we have 12 people doing 6 rounds of a few different movements for time, inevitably a few people will finish faster than others. And then a few more. Until there are only one or two people left. The time gap usually isn’t long here… a couple of minutes, maybe. But sometimes folks who finish early will put away their weights, wipe down their equipment, and maybe even start helping to put away other equipment that’s not in use anymore.
The borderline obsessive neat freak part of me loves this. It’s kind and generous and makes wrap-up at the end of class faster.
But every once in a while it also unintentionally sends a message to those people who are finishing their workout. The message is: hurry up and finish.
It’s like sitting down at a family dinner and having everyone get up and clear the table before you’re done… kind of a bummer if you still have some mashed potatoes on your plate that you were saving for the end.
When we talk about Community as a Core Value, we mean that we want you to feel welcomed, and like you belong. And maybe the least we can do, is to make sure that you feel like we are here with you all the way to the end of that workout, no matter how brutal it is. We haven’t moved on to our own things. We aren’t starting to plan our grocery trips for later. We’re in it together. And we’re not finished until you’re finished.
That can be nice when you’re doing a workout. It can make you feel like you’ve got time, like you’re not holding anyone back, and like you’ve got people in your corner.
But it’s also a way to practice on a small scale what that looks like on a big scale. Over the last 10 years we’ve had people face and come through massive disruptions, tragedies, and times of difficulty – things like divorce, loss, death, and abuse – and so many have come through because there were people they met at the gym who were there for them through the darkest parts of their experience. They didn’t have to face it alone, and their friends were by their side all the way to the very end of those difficult days. And that’s not small or insignificant at all. It’s huge. Sometimes it’s literally life-saving.
But it starts small. Because how you do anything is how you do everything.
And when we can show up for each other, even for 12 minutes at a time, a couple of times per week, it lays the foundation to show up for each other when it really matters. And as great as fitness is, showing up for each other when it matters – in other words, being a community of meaning and belonging – that is what we’re really here for.
So moving forward, that’s the plan: we give each other time, we stick with each other to the end, and we’re not all done until we’re all done.