Culture - Thursday, October 1st, 2026
Culture
I saw a reel yesterday from a woman who said she has been doing CrossFit for 18 years. She no longer trains at an affiliate, but has coached at multiple affiliates over the years. The entire reel was about what she described as the toxic culture of CrossFit. A total bash on CrossFit. Cliques, drama, people being excluded, spouses cheating on one another. Her experience over those 18 years had clearly left her with a pretty negative view of CrossFit affiliate culture. Or it was click bait.
Let me tell you, it took everything in me not to comment. Not because I wanted to tell her that her experience wasn't real. I don’t know that. If that's what she experienced, then that's what she experienced. But because that has absolutely not been our experience of what a CrossFit affiliate is.
But really, what good would commenting on her reel do? I'm not going to change her experience, and she's not going to change mine. So instead of adding another comment to all the comments already there, I figured I'd get my thoughts out the way I usually do and share them here on the blog.
Plus one of the comments on her reel was from Wes Piatt, a former CrossFit Games athlete, CrossFit Seminar Staff member and affiliate owner. He told her he was sorry that had been her experience, but that his affiliate wasn't like that. He then said something I’ve heard before, but it always resonates: the culture of an affiliate is either created or tolerated from the affiliate owners down.
This is 100% the truth.
Sometimes we get questions or comments about the etiquette at CrossFit Indestri.
Why do we ask you to gather around the whiteboard?
Why do we discourage people from sitting in little closed off circles before class?
Why do we care if someone is standing by themselves while everyone else is chatting? Why don't we have open gym?
Why do we care about things that, from the outside, might seem pretty insignificant?
Because those little things aren't insignificant. They're culture.
The culture at CrossFit Indestri didn't start with us. It was created by CFI's founder, Scott Thornton, and it's something we have worked incredibly hard to continue to honour. He created a place where people could come together to train. A place where you could walk through the doors regardless of your fitness level, age, ability or what you could put on the leaderboard and be part of the group. A place to work hard without judgement and a place where people support one another.
Maintaining that doesn't just happen. We have to work at it, and sometimes that means having rules or expectations that people might not completely understand at first.
It's why we'll tell you not to sit in a closed circle before class and instead gather around the whiteboard where someone else can easily walk up and join the conversation. It's honestly one of the reasons we don't have open gym. We had it, and over time we felt it was pulling apart the community. There were people doing their own workouts, at their own times, in their own little groups while a class was happening around them. We could see what it was doing to the culture of the facility, and that wasn't what we wanted CFI to be.
It's also why we don't put a huge emphasis on the leaderboard or constantly highlight who had the fastest time or lifted the most weight. We want to celebrate effort and progress. We want to celebrate someone doing something today that they couldn't do six months ago. And we try really hard to get rid of the "Yeah, but I scaled" mentality. You didn't "but" anything. You trained. You worked at the level that was right for you that day, and that effort matters.
Of course friendships are going to form inside a gym. Some of our members have become incredibly close friends. People travel together, have dinner together, celebrate birthdays together and become part of one another's lives. That's one of the most beautiful things that can come out of a community like ours, and we would never want that to change.
But when you're at the facility, make that circle bigger.
If you're standing with three of your closest friends, keep the circle open to make room. If someone is standing alone, consider bringing them into the conversation. If you see someone new, introduce yourself. If you normally train with the same people every day and someone different ends up beside you, get to know them. You don't have to be best friends with everyone, and the reality is that not everyone is going to naturally click with everyone else. But everyone should feel like they are welcome in the room.
That's where owners, coaches and athletes all play a role. As owners, we can create the culture we want. We can set expectations, have uncomfortable conversations when we need to and refuse to tolerate behaviour that works against the community we're trying to build. Our coaches can reinforce it every day. But ultimately, every single person who walks through the doors contributes to what CrossFit Indestri feels like.
Sixteen years after Scott founded CFI, we hope the culture inside these walls still reflects what he set out to create. A place to train hard, be coached, be supported and be surrounded by people who want to see you succeed. A place where effort matters more than a leaderboard and where you don't have to earn your way into the group.
A place where the circle is always big enough for one more person.
A place where no one would ever create a reel like I saw yesterday.
Thursday, October 1st, 2026
Focus:
For Quality
1 min each area x 3 rounds
Crossover Step Ups (not weighted)
High Box Step Ups
Banded Rig Hip Ext.
Plate Good Mornings
SLDL w/ KB
WOD:
For Time:
22 - 16 - 10
Cals
Weighted DB Step Overs 35/20
Check back each night at 8pm for the next days WOD .
Contact us: Address: 200 Mountain Rd #3, Collingwood, ON L9Y 4V5 Phone: (705) 444-0006 Follow us on Instagram @crossfit_indestri