If you’re not cheating you’re not trying. ~ Mark Grace

I was fascinated by this article about cheating in the Scientific American. In a nutshell, a number of recent studies show that men are more likely to bend the rules when their masculinity is challenged.

In that sports are largely a contest of masculinity, it’s no surprise that cheating is rampant amongst male athletes. Scarcely a week goes by without a new allegation of steroid abuse in cycling, MMA, football, etc. But roid monsters represent the extreme edge case of an American male-dom wallowing in the pathos of inadequacy. Much more common are the guys who cheat “a little.” Like say, the fellow who shorts range of motion on a squat. You know who you are.

If you’re a man and you do CrossFit you have to figure out how to be secure in your masculinity without resorting to cheating. Because it doesn’t matter who you are or where you train, there is a woman in your gym who can pound your ass into the pavement.

Incidentally, this is why CrossFitters are so much fun to be around. The system weeds out the douche bags who can’t stand losing to a woman.

I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. ~Sophocles