This post is a conversation between owner Jonce and a new member. The new member’s wife works out in a CrossFit gym and he was curious about the differences between the two.
JONCE: CrossFit claims to appeal or apply to all kinds of people—overweight people, obese people, people who have never worked out, people who want to work out at higher levels, and athletes who actually compete in CrossFit games and competitions.
I don’t think this is the case. I don’t think that CrossFit can really train all levels of people. I think that they (and most gyms) are missing the most important aspect of training: the psychological aspect. That’s what most people, most personal trainers, and most facilities that call themselves CrossFit or gyms are missing.
Think about it. How can a gym with thousands of members take care of the mental or psychological state of a new member? There is no way. Plus, the personal trainers at these gyms are not very experienced. Most of them are young people. Maybe I am being presumptuous, but I don’t think so. I’ve been in a lot of gyms; I’ve been around for many, many years. The new generation of personal trainers is a very young generation. They are usually between 18 and 26 years old. Most of them eventually realize that they can’t support a family as a trainer, so they end up getting a different degree or trying something that makes more money.
You cannot build a family with the income of a LA Fitness or Lifetime Fitness personal trainer. Those facilities and chains are exploiting personal trainers. So you have this range of 18 to 26 year-old trainers (those are young pups) who just don’t have the experience to tap into the psychological aspect of a member. That’s just how it is.
It’s like comparing your psychiatrist to a psychiatry student who just graduated. Let’s say you are schizophrenic, or you have some really deep mental issues that have accumulated over the past 20 or 30 years. You won’t go to a pup who just graduated in psychology or psychiatry. I would be scared to go to a person like that for help. I’m not saying I wouldn’t give them a chance to treat me, but if my problems were very severe, it wouldn’t be likely. I would prefer someone who has been practicing for 20 or 30 years, who has much more life experience. You can’t compare that with someone who just started.
Fitness professionals are the same. I might go to a rookie fitness professional if I had a base knowledge about working out—maybe I would go for motivation or accountability—but if I have never been in a gym, or I’m obese or overweight, or if I have diabetes or arthritis, or if I have any kind of physical issues, I would rather go to someone who has been training people for an extensive number of years.
That’s one problem with CrossFit gyms. The young trainers are convinced that, since their particular philosophy works for them, it will work for everyone. They are young and don’t have the experience to know that different methods work for different people.
I divide the journey of wellness into three segments. It starts with health; if you are obese, if you have arthritis, if you have diabetes, or if you have high blood pressure, wellness starts with taking care of your health. You’ve got to work on health first, with your fitness professional. Once you’re taking care of your health by losing weight, changing your lifestyle, and eating right, you come to the second stage. I call this the “fitness” stage, and this is where most people are.
I would say probably 60 percent of people in the gyms are at this level. They have a normal weight, they work out 2-3 times a week, they feel good about themselves, and they eat okay.
Then you have the third level. This is what I call the “performance” level. Most CrossFit gyms are actually starting their members at this level. They’re skipping the health level, they’re skipping the fitness level, and they’re starting at the performance level. Well, I’m sorry; if you’re 100 pounds overweight, if you have problems with joint inflammation, if you have diabetes, if you’ve never lifted a weight in your life—and they start making you do assisted pull-ups, running up and down the gym on that artificial turf and pulling something behind you, or even crawling around the gym (a “primal” workout, they call it, because it mimics animal movements)…
INTERVIEWER: I haven’t seen that. Really?
JONCE: It’s a great workout, but not for beginners. You can’t just skip the two levels of health and fitness and move to the performance level. I’m not saying these trainers don’t want the best for their clients; they just lack experience. They feel great about what they’re doing and they want to convey this to their members.
That’s where it’s going to fail. Regardless of the fancy exercises you have and the great strategist you are, if you don’t “feel” your client, you’re going to fail. You have to feel your client. That’s what fitness professionals are missing, and that’s one of the biggest differences between IMS and CrossFit.
You might walk into an IMS gym and see the same equipment you see at a CrossFit gym, but let me tell you something: I was using this kind of equipment many, many years ago—just a much older version. I was even making (and you can ask people who have trained with me 10 years) my clients mimic animal movements! We would go to the forest and they would carry a log on their shoulder, running up and down hills.
INTERVIEWER: That’s cool!
JONCE: I would take a rope, put it around a branch, tie a rock on it, and make them pull that rock around…up and down and up and down. I’ve been doing these kind of exercises way before there was “CrossFit” or “calisthenics” or “primal workouts.” I just didn’t know what to call them; I didn’t have the name for them. I’ve been doing that for many, many years. I’ve been in the fitness business for 23 years, and have trained myself for nearly 30 years.
If you walk into an IMS gym and see the equipment, you’ll see a much newer version of what I used to do. I’ve stayed true to my philosophy of training, with the same exercises and the same tools. I just have more modern equipment now.
INTERVIEWER: I’m picturing a gym in the woods. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a gym called something like “Primal Gym,” with an actual indoor facility like yours, but also with some woods where there was this stuff you’re talking about?
JONCE: There is.
INTERVIEWER: Is there?! Really?!
JONCE: There is. Another fitness professional who I admire, Erwan Le Corre (I think he’s in his early 40’s), has that kind of “gym.” I think he calls it “NatMove” (Natural Movement).
INTERVIEWER: That would sell. I’m telling you, I would sign up for that.
JONCE: Well, let me tell you this: My goal is to take my clients (whenever weather permits or whenever their fitness level permits) to the park and to the forest and make them climb trees, carry logs, and run up and down those muddy hills!
INTERVIEWER: That’s so cool.
JONCE: Let me tell you a story. A very long time ago, when I first came to America, I trained my first client. She passed the health and fitness level, so she was ready for the performance level. Up to that point, she couldn’t find a personal trainer or fitness professional who could train her at that level. So we went to a stony creek, and I made her climb up and down all sorts of branches and trees. I was using the trees as a rig.
INTERVIEWER: That’s really cool. It feels so much more natural…like you have a goal. When you’re in the gym, you have these bars. It feels so much like a machine; it’s so structured. But when you’re in nature, you feel like you’re actually trying to climb and get…
JONCE: Being one with nature. Being one with nature. You try to be one with nature, you know?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah.
JONCE: And again, that’s intrinsic in us. Those are intrinsic motions. That’s what our ancestors used to do.
INTERVIEWER: You should call it Jurassic Gym.
JONCE: Something like that, yeah.
INTERVIEWER: And have giant wooden gates that open up to go in, and torches that light at night. Ha ha!
JONCE: Right, right.
INTERVIEWER: That would be so cool!
JONCE: You can ask my clients. I used to do that.
INTERVIEWER: That is awesome!
JONCE: So opening my IMS with a similar concept to CrossFit is not a coincidence. If I can be a little arrogant, I’ve done these exercises way before the name CrossFit was established.
INTERVIEWER: But without the kipping.
JONCE: Without injuring people. Yeah, without injuring people.
INTERVIEWER: Because that just looks dangerous. It looks horrible for your joints!
JONCE: Yeah, it is dangerous.
INTERVIEWER: How can that be good for you?
JONCE: It can’t. It’s not.
INTERVIEWER: It’s no coincidence there’s a chiropractor in every one of those CrossFit gyms.
JONCE: Really?! I didn’t even know that. Are you serious?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. They’re members and somehow they’re part of the foundation. The owner of the CrossFit gym my wife goes to is a chiropractor, and the last CrossFit gym she went to also had an owner who was a chiropractor.
JONCE: I wouldn’t call that a coincidence anymore. I would call that a strategy, haha!
INTERVIEWER: A strategy-strategy-strategy-strategy.
JONCE: I wanted to talk more about nutrition today, but we’ll continue that next time. The only resemblance between CrossFit and IMS is the actual equipment; everything else—the concept, the strategy, and the philosophy, is diametrically opposite.
INTERVIEWER: Awesome.
JONCE: That’s it for today.
INTERVIEWER: Yay! I don’t mean, “Yay, that’s it,” I mean, “Yay, good information!”
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