CrossFit enthusiasts are people who enjoy torturing themselves in industrial gym spaces, usually by grunting through multiple rounds of functional exercises (think: box jumps, kettlebell swings, and wall balls), collapsing to the ground, and then posting about it on social media.
Recently, instead of simply taking a photo of the prescribed workout of the day, or “WOD,” written on a whiteboard, it has become customary to post a picture of the sweat marks your spent body has left on the floor. This slick blot is known as a sweat angel, and it is a sign of pride; a testament to strength.
Among the 11,000 Instagram photos tagged #sweatangel, a pattern emerges: Women’s bodies tend to make rectangular patches, while broad-shouldered men create more of an inverted triangle, which looks exactly like a uterus — to women at least. Men think their badges of swoll honor look like longhorn bulls. It’s the Rorschach test of the fitness world and no one has the answer.
