Team building in Warsaw, the active way: a workout instead of a party
You have to organise a team event, and you know how the next dinner will end: the same people at the same table. You are thinking of something active, but you see two risks. Half the team does not exercise and will feel left out. Someone will get hurt or embarrass themselves, and then it is on you. This piece is for you: it describes how team building works in a CrossFit box when a coach runs it, and why both risks can be taken off the table.
How it works
For the time of your session the club is closed to everyone else. The whole room, all the equipment and the coach belong to your group. The coach runs everything from the warm-up to the end and adapts the exercises to each person: someone who has trained for years and someone who last exercised in school PE do the same workout in different versions. Nobody stands on the sidelines and nobody has to pretend.
The format that works best is a workout in teams of two. Pairs split the work between them, take turns and cheer each other on. The score belongs to the pair, not the person, so nobody is “the weakest”. We build the programme around the group: its size, its level, and whether you want to sweat or mostly laugh. Both fit into the same hour.
If your team works in English, say so when you book. The coach runs the session in English.
You park underground in ALTO, 1.5 hours free, and reception validates your ticket.
An example from last week
Last week a team from a company that makes electrolyte drinks trained with us. It was put together by their boss, who has been a member of our box for years. The workout in pairs was led by Łukasz, the club’s owner. Some of the participants had never held a barbell, and every one of them finished the workout in their own version. Nobody left early, nobody embarrassed themselves, and people who sit in different departments every day worked things out together in pairs.
Why shared effort does something to a team
Two studies are worth knowing, with the caveat that both were done in a lab and did not measure companies.
Wiltermuth and Heath (2009) ran three experiments on what happens to people who act in rhythm with others for a while: walking, singing, moving in sync. After that kind of activity, people cooperated more in later group tasks, even when it meant a personal sacrifice. The authors suggest that synchrony strengthens attachment to the group.
Cohen and colleagues (2010) studied a university rowing crew. After training together, in one rhythm, the rowers had a higher pain threshold than after the same training alone. The pain threshold is used here as a marker of endorphin release, and the authors link the effect to a sense of bonding within the group.
We do not promise that one hour will build your team. We say that a shared workout in pairs does something to people that a dinner does not, and that there are grounds for thinking so.
Step by step
- Call or message reception. Tell us who you are, how many of you there will be and when you are planning the session. The groups page has a ready-made WhatsApp message.
- We agree the format and the date. We choose the coach, the programme and the time. There is no price list on the website, because it depends on the size of the group and the format; we agree it in conversation.
- You turn up. We take care of the rest. The club is yours, and the coach is waiting in the room.
What to bring: sportswear, trainers to change into, water. Before the workout everyone tells the coach about injuries and anything else they should know about their health. It is the same rule as in our regular classes.
If once is not enough
Some companies stay on after the event: a fixed slot every week, the same coach and the club to yourselves. We build the programme around the group, and the coach runs it the way we run every group at the club: technique before weight, and scaling for everyone. We do the same for groups of friends, sports teams and private schools; the details are on the groups page.
Sources
- Wiltermuth S.S., Heath C., Synchrony and cooperation, Psychological Science 2009; 20(1): 1-5
- Cohen E.E., Ejsmond-Frey R., Knight N., Dunbar R.I., Rowers’ high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds, Biology Letters 2010; 6(1): 106-108
- CrossFit Wilanów, The club to yourselves: companies, schools, teams