What's On My Mind - February 2026
What’s On My Mind
What’s On My Mind
No Bro Culture Here
This Month’s Health Challenge
Know Your Nutritional Status
What’s On My Mind
No Bro Culture Here - By Kyle Ligon
There was a recent testimonial from one of our long-time members, Adam Wilson:
“CFCL is a hidden gem. The coaches are fantastic, supportive, and always positive. The members are a really wonderful community of people of all ages, sizes, and backgrounds. There is no "bro culture" here; just a group of people doing their personal best to stay fit and healthy and supporting each other. The owner/coach, Kyle Ligon is a completely inspirational guide for holistic health and wellbeing. It's an all-around wonderful place, and I can't recommend it more enthusiastically.”
I am extremely grateful to be on the receiving end of such a charitable testimonial. It’s the phrase, “there’s no bro culture here,” that really caught my attention and is going to be the focus of this article. A major priority of mine at CrossFit City Limits has been cultivating a culture that is welcoming, supportive, and friendly without losing the secret sauce of intensity, all within a high quality cross-training program.
I have learned that there are many strategies that can drive workout intensity (like taking scores), but when left unchecked, can also promote bro-culture. Just as important as our approaches to manage high quality training is the game plan our gym and coaches implement to nourish good vibes.
In this article, I am going to explore the motivations and behaviors of a gym bro and what gyms can do to disincentivize bro behavior without compromising on a program’s effectiveness. This last part is extremely important as the priority should always be, first and foremost, providing the best workout program possible.
To some, the term “gym bro” will need more clarification. To start, all you need to know is that a gym bro can be any age and any gender. What really distinguishes bro culture is an intense fixation on how a bro feels like they are being seen by the world. Bros thrive on the admiration of others which leads to distinct, off-putting behaviors that create a gym vibe that is very me vs you, exclusionary, and that many experience as intimidating.
It’s important to identify exactly what these unfavorable behaviors are and what promotes them so 1) we can personally avoid exhibiting these behaviors and 2) strategies can be implemented that disincentivize the negative attributes of a bro.
Let’s dive in…
An Effective Program is a Necessary Condition for Bros
I’ll give it to them, because of bros’ need for outward validation, they have an intense fixation on achieving gains…and they do tend to get results. There’s just no social currency for a bro without results.
Because of this, you will not find bros walking around the neighborhood with 1lbs weights and you will not find them in cheesy bootcamps or programs that pander to those scared of strength training. You will only find bros within programs that provide meaningful performance and aesthetic gains. The most natural bro repellent is just having a program that doesn’t generate meaningful results. This creates an ironic dynamic for those of us providing high quality cross-training programs, which bros love, while simultaneously trying to dissipate bro culture.
Sometimes, when gyms try to deter bros, they choose the wrong battles that can be at the expense of quality training. Only using light weights, no barbells, low intensity, etc., all deter bros at the expense of those who do follow the program.
Less obviously, well intended gym rules can also miss the mark. I think most have experienced someone in the gym trying to draw attention to how much weight they are lifting or how fast they are about to finish a workout with performative bro grunt and noises. Planet Fitness tries to deter bros by not allowing grunting in the gym, but I feel this is entirely missing the point - it’s not what is being done, it’s why it’s being done.
One of my favorite members vocalizes his workout pain often and in no way does it create a bro vibe. Why? Because it’s not done for attention. It’s not done to boost their own ego. The noises are genuine and come off that way. When I hear them grunt, I don’t think they are trying to draw attention to themselves, instead it makes me think, “Awesome, everyone in the class is working hard, let’s go!”
I personally make noises when lifting heavy (hopefully others don’t think I’m a bro who doesn’t know it!). Bracing our core requires holding a lot of air in a tight midsection. We can create even more tightness by slowly exhaling air through pursed lips on the way up in a lift. When that weight is heavy and requires extreme effort, that exhale can definitely make some strange sounds come out of me. I feel like my sounds are more embarrassing for me than they are something that someone would want to artificially emulate for attention. In my opinion, if no one in the gym is ever grunting, there is clearly not enough challenging work going on. It’s not grunting that makes bro culture, it’s whether or not there are performative reasons behind the grunts.
Banning workout noises would be like banning heavy lifting. Yes, you would get rid of the bros, but you would also stifle results for everyone who stayed. Unfortunately because most people are naturally deterred by bro culture, many wind up exercising in ways that ignore the required workout stimuli for all the non-negotiable fitness goals, dramatically limiting how their efforts in the gym impact their lives.
It’s important to realize that it is not the type of program, the noises, the equipment, or the results that ultimately determine whether or not there’s bro culture, it’s the mindsets behind it all. Although most bros are jacked, being jacked doesn’t make a bro, it’s how that person acts. What really distinguishes a bro is whether or not that person thinks their results or their performance makes them cool.
Bros Constantly Seek Outward Validation
The social currency for bros is how their physique and fitness scores stack up vs those around them. To validate this social ranking, bros look outward, mainly in two places - the leaderboard and verbal confirmation from others.
Outward Validation via Scores:
Bros tend to tie their value up in their personal records in the gym or how they perform in fitness competitions relative to others. Something that some gyms do that reinforces this dynamic are posting gym records and publicly recording and sharing scores on whiteboards or workout apps.
I have to admit, we fell ass backwards into one of our best bro repellants - We only take scores sometimes and when we do, they are not public. We started doing this because we 100% believe that taking scores too often and making them public incentives poor training habits, increases risk, and generates less results (Read: Scoring Workouts Like A Gymnastics Competition). Since we have stopped taking scores on the whiteboard every day, the priority has shifted from only intensity to working out for intent, intensity, and technique (FIIT). It’s not just the vibe that has improved, intensity has been optimized and results have skyrocketed.
In addition to less effective training priorities, daily scores on a whiteboard reinforces the me vs you comparison mentality. With the weights used, times, and how things are scaled all recorded in a public place, there’s incentive to deemphasize the intent of the workout and technique and there’s also incentive to use weights that are too heavy, not scale appropriately, and even cheat reps.
When we do take scores, specifically during Benchmark Week, they are not designed for you to see how you stack up vs me, but instead our yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, and black levels give you a reference point vs yourself with descriptions on how each of the levels may benefit your life.
When public rankings are removed, it is naturally easier to focus on what’s best for you and your goals in the long run as opposed to how you stack up vs the rest of the gym.
Outward Validation via Verbal Confirmation
Along with leaderboard validation, bros tend to be very thirsty for verbal confirmations on whether or not the rest are impressed with them. They know they have all the right clothes and gear, they will see their names ranked high, but they want to know if you see these things too.
Bragging as a way to fish for compliments is a hallmark bro behavior. They tend to share their scores and PRs they are proud of in unsolicited ways. They don’t tend to share that they are simply proud of their improvement, but instead tend to share their specific score, hoping it will impress you.
There are proactive ways our coaches not only generate the best results for you, but disincentivize this behavior - we only compliment our training values: a balance of Intent, Intensity, and Technique. If a bro wants a compliment in our gym, they cannot get it by achieving something vs others, they can only get it by adhering to the process that we know drives the best results.
To be admired in our gym doesn’t take having the best score, instead it takes the right types of efforts. One of the most inspirational things I have ever seen was a beginner taking on Chad 1,000X (1,000 step-ups for time) in their first week. They got crushed. They hung in there. I have no idea what their time was. It was inspirational to watch and be a part of. The compliments from our coaches don’t come from the outcome relative to others, but from the efforts that we know produce the best outcomes vs yourself over time.
It’s important to see just how powerful this distinction is. Notice that having achieved gains is the social currency in bro culture, limiting the socially wealthy to only the more experienced athletes. But, in our culture, the act of doing the things in the way that will produce the best gains is our social currency, allowing anyone in the gym to quickly gain social status.
We also understand that keeping our focus on what is in our control is not just great life advice, but is extremely effective sports psychology in the gym. If I am attempting a new 1 rep max, I cannot control if I get it or not. I can control my technique and the amount of effort I put into the lift. It is an entirely different experience if I need the weight to go up for me to feel like the rep was successful vs just needing commitment to effort and technique. A heavy failed rep with high effort and really good technique is celebrated by our coaches. This in turn produces the best training result and highest future lifts. Compare this to a heavy successful rep with poor technique which is not celebrated by our coaches. This makes all of our coaches’ outward validation reinforce our training values, which drive people to do what is best for them...and squashes bro culture.
Outward Validation from Coaching Corrections
The source of the most outward validation people get in the gym comes from coaches providing technique feedback. Want to get rid of bro behavior? Provide quality coaching.
Because bros tend to have a fixed mindset, every piece of critical feedback on technique from a coach can feel like an attack on who they are - an advanced athlete. In their mind, they are either an advanced athlete or not and anything they do incorrectly, to them, is a mark on the wrong side of the ledger.
To truly unlock our potential, we need a growth mindset where people believe that failure or being wrong does not determine what is possible in the future, but simply provides feedback about the results of their past efforts and experiences.
Quality coaching will typically either help a bro evolve, make them find different coaches who won’t challenge them to improve, or tend towards only working out in open gym where they don’t have to interact with coaches.
In keeping with the theme of the growth mindset, I think it is important to note that because what makes a bro a bro is their perspective, bros can evolve, especially when surrounded with the right community.
Outward Validation by Who They Hang out With
Cool people only want to hang out with cool people, and because bros think “cool” comes from physique and scores, you’re only cool if you're advanced, separating the bros from the newbies. Being friends with a newbie feels like social suicide to a bro.
But, when a gym purposefully does not reinforce what bros are seeking, those who tend to be open, welcoming, supportive, and friendly while putting in the right types of high effort rise to the top of the social chain, regardless of current fitness level.
To any of us who have grown out or opted out of the trying to be cool mentality, it’s blatantly obvious how much insecurity is behind the effort that goes into trying to be viewed as cool and just how fragile that is. Here’s an interesting statistic. Even with the best physiques in the world, some studies suggest that upwards of 54% of professional bodybuilders exhibit significant symptoms of body dysmorphia which can be compared to the 0.5% of everyday people. To me, this shows the insatiability of outward validation and comparison vs others.
Our coaches are encouraged to be themselves, to be genuine, and to not hide their flaws. This cultivates an “it’s cool to be yourself” vibe. I feel like a parent giving advice to their child who’s having trouble at school, but bro cool is working really hard to be viewed as cool. Real cool is not caring what anyone else thinks.
Because our workouts are designed to maximize results that are applicable to our real lives:
Functional Performance,
Aesthetics & Body Composition,
Tissue & Joint Health, and
Overall Health & Wellness,
our gym is an accidental bro-magnet. We attract all types of people looking for these results regardless of how superficial or holistic their root reasons may be.
Bros have an admirable willingness to work hard for results, it’s just their superficial motivations that drive the personality traits that turn us off. Our goal is to understand that our high quality training program will and should attract bros. It is then the job of our culture to either force them to evolve their perspectives or repel them.
At our gym, bros are welcome, but they are not welcome to act like bros.
This Month’s Health Challenge
Know Your Nutritional Status: Symptoms, Tests, and Preventing Insufficiencies - By Kelly Dodds
We often associate nutrient deficiencies with undernourished populations or restrictive diets… but the reality is that even health-conscious adults and athletes can have nutritional gaps without realizing it. Many symptoms we blame on stress, aging, or a busy lifestyle – like fatigue, brain fog, poor recovery, or poor mood – could actually be your body’s way of signaling a deficiency.
Nutritional testing can be a powerful tool in some cases, but it’s not perfect. Understanding which nutrients can be tested accurately, recognizing the signs of suboptimal levels, and implementing smart dietary strategies can go a long way toward preventing problems before they start or correcting them once they’re apparent.
Common Signs of Nutritional Insufficiencies
While true clinical deficiencies are less common in well-fed populations like the US, subclinical insufficiencies (levels too low to support optimal function) are widespread and often overlooked. Here are some of the most common nutrient shortfalls and what to watch for:
Nutrient - Common Signs & Symptoms - Extra Notes:
Iron
Fatigue, pale skin, brittle nails, shortness of breath, cold hands/feet, poor focus
Especially common in women; often due to menstruation or low intake of heme iron
Vitamin B12
Tingling/numbness, fatigue, memory issues, balance problems, smooth tongue, mood swings
Deficiency common in vegans/vegetarians, older adults, with certain medications, or people with gut malabsorption
Vitamin D
Fatigue, low mood, frequent illness, bone/muscle pain, poor recovery
Prevalent in winter, dark pigmented skin, or those with little sun exposure
Magnesium
Muscle cramps/twitches, poor sleep, headaches, irritability, constipation
Often low in athletes, stressed individuals, or people with GI disorders
Zinc
Frequent colds, poor wound healing, low appetite, skin issues, reduced taste/smell
Vegan diets high in phytates may inhibit absorption
Omega-3s
Dry skin, joint stiffness, low mood, trouble concentrating, brittle nails
Often insufficient in Western diets lacking fatty fish
Calcium
Muscle spasms, brittle nails, tooth decay, numbness/tingling, frequent fractures
Often when dairy or fortified alternatives are limited
Vitamin C
Easy bruising, slow wound healing, bleeding gums, fatigue, dry skin
Smoking and high stress deplete vitamin C stores
Vitamin A
Dry skin, poor night vision, frequent infections, rough/bumpy skin
Fat-free diets may reduce intake/absorption
Iodine
Fatigue, cold intolerance, weight gain, goiter (neck swelling), dry skin
Risk increases without iodized salt or seaweed/seafood intake
Folate (B9)
Fatigue, mouth sores, irritability, poor concentration, anemia
Important for pregnant individuals; depleted by alcohol
Protein
Edema (fluid retention), slow recovery, brittle hair/nails, hunger/ poor satiety, slower recovery, or difficulty maintaining muscle mass
Often low in older adults or restrictive eaters
Sodium/
Potassium
Headaches, fatigue, dizziness, muscle cramps, irregular heartbeat
Imbalance common in dehydration, athletes, or low-carb diets
These symptoms can have many causes, but they often overlap with nutritional insufficiencies, especially when multiple systems (mood, energy, digestion) are affected.
General Red Flags That May Signal Nutrient Insufficiencies
Chronic low energy
Poor skin, hair, or nail health
Frequent infections or slow healing
Brain fog or trouble concentrating
Mood swings or low motivation
Cravings (especially for salt, ice, or sugar)
Digestive issues like bloating or constipation
How to Test for Nutrient Insufficiencies (and What to Keep in Mind)
If you suspect a nutrient insufficiency or just want to optimize your health, testing can be a helpful tool. However, not all nutrients can be accurately measured with standard lab tests. Some reflect short-term intake, while others don't reflect tissue stores or functional status very well at all.
Nutrients That Can Be More Reliably Tested:
Vitamin D (25(OH)D blood test)
The most commonly tested nutrient
Optimal range: 40–60 ng/mL for general health
Deficiency: <20 ng/mL; Insufficiency: 20–30 ng/mL
Iron (Best when tested with a full iron panel)
Serum ferritin (iron stores) – low levels suggest deficiency, but it’s also affected by inflammation
Serum iron, TIBC, and transferrin saturation complete the picture
Especially important test for menstruating women and endurance athletes
Vitamin B12
Measured as serum B12 (deficiency <200 pg/mL)
Methylmalonic acid (MMA) and homocysteine levels may be better functional indicators if B12 levels are borderline
Folate
Serum folate reflects recent intake
Red blood cell (RBC) folate may show longer-term status
Omega-3 Index
A blood test measuring EPA + DHA levels in red blood cell (RBC) membranes
A level >8% is considered optimal for heart and brain health
Nutrients That Are Less Reliable or Difficult to Accurately Assess with Standard Labs:
Magnesium (RBC magnesium)
Serum magnesium often remains normal even when total body stores are low
Red blood cell (RBC) magnesium gives a better picture of intracellular levels
Zinc and Copper
Can be tested via serum or plasma
Not always reflective of total body stores, but useful when interpreted with symptoms or food log
Calcium
Serum calcium is tightly regulated by the body and doesn’t reflect dietary intake or bone status
Better assessed through dietary analysis and bone density scans (for long-term issues)
Vitamin K
Serum levels are not routinely tested; status is often inferred from dietary intake or clotting function
Vitamin E and A
Fat-soluble and stored in tissues—serum levels don’t always correlate with status
Functional signs or intake review may be more informative
Vitamin B6
Harder to interpret and less often clinically relevant unless symptoms or disease state suggest a problem
Other Testing Approaches Available:
Comprehensive micronutrient panels (e.g., SpectraCell, Genova Diagnostics, InsideTracker)
Offer insight into functional nutrient status but can be expensive and are not always standardized
Hair analysis, urine tests, or functional medicine panels
May offer clues for complex cases, such as heavy metal exposures, but lack consistent validation for many nutrients
Practical Tip: Use Testing + Food Logs
Even basic tracking of your weekly food intake (via apps like Cronometer) alongside blood work can help you:
Identify consistent gaps or excesses
Adjust your diet before deficiencies develop
Supplement only when needed
Proven Strategies to Minimize Nutrient Deficiency Risk
Even without testing, there are proactive ways to support nutrient sufficiency and overall health.
Eat a Wide Variety of Whole Foods From All Food Groups
Rotate your food choices: vary proteins, grains, and vegetables weekly
Include many colorful fruits and vegetables to diversify antioxidant & phytonutrient intake
Don’t rely on the same ‘ol “healthy” meals every week. Food monotony can lead to subtle nutrient gaps and inadvertent deficiencies
Pair Foods to Improve Absorption
Iron + Vitamin C: Add citrus or bell peppers to meals with beans or spinach
Fat-soluble vitamins + healthy fats: Drizzle olive oil over veggies, or include avocado with leafy greens
Avoid tea/coffee with iron-rich meals: Tannins inhibit iron absorption
Separate high-calcium and high-iron meals when optimizing for both
Feed Your Gut
Support digestion with fermented foods (e.g., kefir, yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut)
Address chronic bloating, reflux, or constipation early
Be cautious with long-term use of antacids and acid blockers (PPIs), which reduce absorption of B12, calcium, and magnesium
Supplement Smart, Based on Need
Use supplements strategically if intake is low or labs confirm a deficiency
Reassess after 8–12 weeks; more is not always better
Avoid megadoses unless medically prescribed, it’s possible to accumulate toxic levels of supplements
Get Sunlight, Sleep, and Movement
Morning and mid-day sun supports vitamin D synthesis and circadian rhythm
Sleep regulates hormones related to appetite, stress, and nutrient balance
Exercise improves digestion, circulation, and metabolic health
You don’t need to be a lab and supplement junkie to stay on top of your nutritional status, but paying attention to your body’s signals, eating with variety, and testing when appropriate can help you catch issues before they spiral into bigger problems. If you’re feeling off and you’re doing “everything right,” it could be your nutrient status. Don’t overlook the basics. Stay well-informed, aware, and give your cells what they need to thrive.
This Month’s Challenge:
Eat 30+ different whole foods per week from all the food groups - Fruits, veggies, proteins, grains, nuts… the more variety the better!
Add one absorption upgrade per day - Pair vitamin C with iron-rich foods, healthy fat with veggies, or spacing coffee away from meals
Get outside daily - Aim for 10–20 minutes of daylight exposure when possible
Notice patterns, not problems - Track energy, mood, sleep, cravings, and recovery from workouts
Want to make it easy? Work directly with a MovementLink Coach!
