Some of us at Thermal are what’s known as “OG” CrossFitters, meaning that we’ve been doing this stuff since 2010 or 2011, not sure many of us go back much further. In the early days, there was no WODIFY, and when you were done a workout, you had to yell “TIME” to let the coach know that you were done and your workout time could be recorded on the whiteboard. With WODIFY, and similar platforms making their way into our gyms, this is no longer necessary and athletes are responsible for capturing their own times after a workout. This is a great benefit because coaches can coach for the entire class and not worry about administrative tasks such as writing on the board and constantly listening for “time” to be yelled.
That being said there was more to yelling “time” than that. It was done as an exclamation, a way of saying “I finished”, and it did a couple great things for Thermal as a community. It let fellow class members know who was done, and as result who was ready to gather up and discuss the WOD, fist bump, high five etc. Once that happens, it leads to small groups (who have now congregated around each other as a result of knowing that they were done the WOD) making their way to other athletes still working and cheering them on. Which if many of you don’t know, is a tell tale sign of a great gym and community.
Yelling time was never about being competitive or saying “I beat you”, but it was fun for some of us in that light. I remember doing “Elizabeth” head to head with Ray Ray a few weeks ago and our backs were to each other. We had no idea that we were only about 5 seconds apart until one of us yelled “Time” (ehem, it was me). we were pushing each other and didn’t even know it, yelling time helped in that case. He immediately knew I was done and he pushed out the last few reps to stay right on my heals. It’s great for WODs where you trying to keep up with someone.
That being said there has been a culture shift at Thermal and its an amazing one. We’ve gone away from a gym that comes in and throws down everyday trying to move the needle of fitness day after to day. What we’re becoming is a gym that “TRAINS”, each day. Aiming to improve movement patterns , understand where our bodies are in space and have the best range of motion and integrity in movement physically possible. It matters less if you PR by 10 seconds than it does if you improve HOW you move. How you move will ultimately be the limiting factor in your fitness, so based on that we want you to move at your absolute best.
What does this all mean? It means on a day to day basis, we don’t want you chasing the clock to yell time, we want you focusing on movement. We still want you to create an amazing feeling for the rest of the athletes once you’ve finished though. So be sure to find someone still working and help get them through it. Once a week or when we have a benchmark, or Open WOD, we’ll put yelling “TIME”as a requirement on the board, but for day to day WODs, we’re not going to get on you guys about it. That being said for some of us, its in our blood at this point, so you might still hear it here and there.