Like any other society, small community, tribe, secret society, or cult, being a member of a CrossFit box involves learning the CrossFit language and understanding the social norms of your environment.

It takes time, of course, but the sooner you learn, the easier it will be to avoid being “That Guy” (“That Guy” is the guy coaches talk about after a personal training session or a group class. FYI - He’s the guy you don’t want to be).

Introducing the Magnificent Seven "Don't be That Guys"

I have a handful of intelligent, educated friends. People who believe in their nutritional theories. Wholeheartedly.

I have a friend who is a Registered Dietician and promotes Canada’s Food Guide, which tells us sandwiches and pasta are great energy sources. I have a friend who drinks only rainwater, and a friend who owns a raw food restaurant. I have a vegan friend who believes a whey-gluten-corn dog is “a great protein blast.” And Lucas Parker sits around pounding quarter pounders from McDonald’s.

The vegan swears it’s the healthiest way to eat, and he has science to prove it. The vegetarian and the carnivore point to contrasting scientific evidence. And I even have a friend who showed me the science that shows that eating just one meal a day is the optimal way to live. He has lost a lot of weight eating this way in the last year, and he says his energy levels have skyrocketed.

I never understood why there’s so much fighting in the NHL. It always made me laugh when I watched spontaneous on-ice brawls. I simply didn’t understand how a person’s instinct in the middle of a game was to latch out and punch someone else.

I do now.

If you've never competed in a CrossFit competition, let me tell you there's always a new lesson to learn with each workout, each day of each competition.

I confess, at the last competition I was at, I almost fought my judge. Luckily, I avoided an altercation and learned a huge lesson in the process, a lesson I can use to turn into a positive in the future, a lesson I'd never learn in training.

Meet Kate Richardson:

Kate learned about hand rips at a young age. The two-time Canadian Olympic gymnast was already going through multiple rolls of athletic tape per week at the age of eight.

Although gymnasts wear grips when they perform on the bars, rips sometimes still happen, making bar routines painful, not to mention psychologically daunting....