Everyone has a word that makes you cringe. Mine is “methodology”. I hate it. Here’s why.

Back in the nineties I worked for a dot com, a B-to-B exchange for the health care supply chain.

One day in the break room I introduced myself to someone I hadn’t met before.

So what do you do, I asked.

I’m the Chief Methodologist, he replied.

So what do you do?

He looked at me pityingly. I don’t have work product, in the conventional sense. I’m a stakeholder in process.

Uhhhh. How bout them Vikings?

I had a lot of conversations like this. In the software world, there is a tiny fraction of people who do stuff and a bunch of other people who weigh in with opinions about how stuff should be done. If you want to be a successful software consultant, simply spin up some wacky methodology, give it a snappy name, and then market yourself as a “thought-leader.” Soon you’ll be rolling around in a pile of hunnids.

The world of fitness is no better. Lots of trainers use weird terms and theories to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. They are stakeholders in process. Clients are an afterthought.

I like to think of CrossFit as an outcome, rather than a methodology. Are you strong? Are you happy? Do you feel powerful and motivated and energized? Can you do stuff you couldn’t last year? That’s CrossFit.

So when people ask me what my fitness methodology is my answer is, “results”.