What Happened?

When did we all get so serious?

Once upon a time, CrossFit was simple balls-out fun, as my grandmother would say. (Or, I never met either of my grandmothers and I just made that up.)

We would go hard in our workouts, do goofy stuff, hang around the gym too much, drink cheap beer out of cans, and let dogs run everywhere.

We'd also eat clean in those days, but we weren't neurotic or preachy. Nobody made a living by being a CrossFit athlete. The gyms were in back alleys with few signs, and our mothers worried about us getting home okay. Our clothing rarely matched, and we had yet to discover knee wraps or wrist wraps.

Back then, there were pretty much two pairs of lifting shoes available: ugly and uglier.

Our post-WOD recovery drink was chocolate milk. And few of us had ever heard of a hashtag.

Now? It's different.

Some would say better, some would say worse. But it's changed, that's for sure.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not going all "Get off my lawn" on you here. I'm just sincerely interested in your opinions.

What have we gained? What have we lost? 

Individually? Collectively?

And is there merit in discussing and analyzing where we all are at this moment in time?