The sense of community at crossfit is unique. Everyone know one another, there is always someone to help with technique, you compare WOD results, discuss competitions etc. This doesn’t happen in the regular gyms. Now one speaks to one another except to occasionally ask “are you using this?” At CrossFit you know names, life stories…..you know the people, they become your friends. But why is this community so important?
How often have you encouraged others that haven’t finished the WOD yet or even been cheered on yourself? Often people stay behind after they have finished their workout just to provide moral and verbal support to another crossfitter. The importance of social support is that it provides motivation. When we are tired and struggling to complete a workout we begin to doubt our ability 
to finish Having people encourage us gives us the belief that we can do it!! Crossfitters always come together when facing tough workouts. We push each other to perform better and faster than ever before. The support of the crossfit community even affects us physiologically, changing the hormones in our bodies. Research at Oxford University found that working out in a group resulted in a greater release of endorphins that when working-out alone, even when the same amount of work was done. Endorphins are chemicals in the brain that create a sense of excitement, exhilaration and happiness. The release of endorphins is what causes that high you feel when you finish a workout.
The crossfit community is also special because it is full of likeminded people who think it is acceptable to give an all-out effort and train as hard as you want. In a traditional gym, if you carry out a 2km row with 20 air squats you would get a lot of funny looks as you jump off and on the rower. Especially when you collapse to the floor afterwards tying to gulp in air for 5min after you completed your workout! At crossfit the community welcomes and encourages you to really test your ability to go all out. We can scream and grunt as we lift heavy weights, we can fall to the floor in a sweaty heap after using the assult bike, we can cry with frustrations, even laugh at disasters. This is a special environment filled with incredible people who think it is all to do what you want and will even try and help you achieve your goals.
The sense of community, sometimes known as a ‘Cult’ outside of the box, is one of the special features of crossfit. Working out within our crossfit community makes us feel good and encourages us to push ourselves to new limits that we didn’t think were possible. It is a special thing that we can develop further by welcoming new members and making them feel that they accepted as part of that international family.