CrossFit Athletic Group

JT did not want to be partners with his mom today. And, I mean... yeah dude, I know what that's like. The last time my mom made me go to church with her I threw a full-blown temper tantrum: cold-shouldering, no-singing, peach-be-with-you-avoiding, didn't-even-go-up-for-Eucharist tantrum... as a 24 year-old. Somehow, my mom in all her grace still thanked me for going with her.

The bottom line is that very few people like being told what to do, and it would seem, based on the stories I hear, that most of holiday drama can be traced back to that. Obligations. Forced get-togethers. Guilt. Whether trying to make it to five different places in a day, or guestimating how much someone spent on your gifts so you can spend at least the same amount on theirs, or those cookies that, in all honesty, probably taste just about the same as the previous event's cookies but they really want you to try one. A few hours ago my poor goddaughter was begging me to postpone our gruelling game of Egyptian Rat Slaps that had lasted from the Sorcerer's Stone scene in the first Harry Potter movie to the Pixie scene in the second, by which time she was hungry, cranky, and violent.

I'm assuming you've been there in your own way: It's that feeling when keeping the peace is more important than keeping your peace... but only by a little. The efforts that ensue are passable if a substitute teacher was in charge of the grades. But at some point, enough is enough: Mary basically let me win just so she could see if there was any ham left on the stove, and Sophia had to admit to Mr. Ron that she didn't really care about Rubix cube algorithms and she just liked it for the pretty colors.

There is definitely a part of me that feels like a hypocrite: I have this "grunch" attitude towards holidays, and yet our biggest workout of the year falls on one; The only thing that makes me more anxious than Ohio State's wide receivers are social settings with lots of people, and yet Christmas is probably my favorite of all our workouts; I don't buy gifts for people and yet I found myself rooting for all the chaos during the White Elephant gift exchange; I take nutrition seriously because I want to set an example for you guys, and yet the gym was filled with waffles and pancakes and cookies and Mrs. Van's bacon-wrapped dates... and I indulged in every one of them.

The difference, I hope, that sets the Christmas Workout (and our gym in general) free of this hypocrisy is that it's completely voluntary. And not voluntary in the sense that the jersey fee for your Vacation Sports team is, but voluntary as in participation is truly at the discretion of the individual. Andy Bernstein taught me that wanting someone to do something they don't want to do is one of the most subtly harmful things that ruin relationships. And Coach T taught me that voluntary/willful divide is the line of demarcation between religion and faith: if I mess up at church I get a detention; if I mess up at my faith today... dang, my bad God, I'll do better next time.

I also realized that another side effect of making the "voluntary" theme an emphasis on my coaching is it really puts a pressure on me to put out a good product, a product so good that you'd give up your left shoe just to do a few hundred lunges.

Well, maybe pressure isn't the right word. Because I don't feel like you'll all leave because of one bad session. But I do feel like all of my focus goes into making sure what you get from us will make you want to come back tomorrow and next Summer and 10 years from now and when you're Mrs. Gloria's age. But this journey doesn't always end with each session feeling well-accomplished; sometimes it means allowing you guys to leave the gym unhappy, knowing you're resilient enough to want to get back on track with the next workout. It also means knowing that if you ever do decided that this isn't the right time for you to be in a place like this, we'll be ready when you are. Once in the Champions Club, always in the Champions Club.

For me to dedicate so much of my life to you guys individually and our family as a whole, it has to be voluntary. And it is. So much so that my default activity after my morning sessions is just waiting for the afternoon sessions. I'm a dog by the window waiting for you guys to come home. My actual family is incredible to me: my relatives, my parents and sister... I'm fortunate that they all understand I have this other family that has voluntarily stuck with me for 15 Christmas Workouts. Mrs. Carey has been there for 14 of them, Bubs and Mr. Carey have been there for 13. I hope the rest of you will be around for that many in the years to come as well... of course, as long as you're on board with it!

Love you guys!

Chris