CrossFit in the The New York Times
Viriginia Heffernan has followed up her recent blog post about CrossFit with a two page article in this Sunday's NY Times Magazine.
CrossFit has 450 chapters in 43 states (and several other countries). The network has a message for the merely healthy: "Your workout is our warm-up." Every day, its members consult CrossFit.com like a Book of Common Prayer, receiving instructions for their workout rites and periods of rest. Performing caveman feats like hauling, clambering, trudging, snatching, hurling and deadlifting, CrossFitters deliberately overwhelm and distress their bodies, executing near-impossible stunts with as much weight as they can bear. A Workout of the Day, or W.O.D., might include 50 kettlebell swings, 3 800-yard dashes in rapid succession and 10 pull-ups. Then repeat. No breaks. No weight machines. All you need is a body built for discipline and a mind that can justify so much apparent self-abuse.
It seems she can't seem to make up her mind whether she admires CrossFit for its demanding nature, or condemns it for the same. Of course, it doesn't matter much either way, but...not to pick a nit, but wouldn't it be nice if, along with making disparaging remarks about how Crossfit calls for "caveman feats" and "circus strongman stunts," she also noted that the program is easily modified, depending on a given athlete's level of ability, to efforts as simple as hoisting a broomstick overhead?
To Virginia I say: don't be afraid. You've penned two articles about CrossFit now, with nary a word about your own, first-hand experience. I know the Black Box, CrossFit's Manhattan affiliate, has extended an open-ended invitation to you: please, before you smear us again, go try it out. See if the people you meet there are frothing-at-the-mouth cultists. I think you'll find instead a community of individuals who've discovered what a difference striving for athletic excellence makes, in every aspect of their lives.
Some great responses posted by readers:
Read more...To correct some misconceptions perpetuated here: Crossfit posts WODs, but also offers suggestions for how to scale each workout to your own fitness level. If you read the forum comments carefully, you'll notice that XFitters routinely make substitutions for the "prescribed" movements.
Emphatically, XF is NOT a dangerous workout. I'm a mild-mannered middle school teacher by day, but at night I crossfit. I'm wary of any type of extreme sport. Heck, I don't even downhill ski anymore after tearing a knee ligament. And I quit my two-year practice of Ashtanga Yoga after an overly-aggressive instructor pushed me into a pose that caused a long-term hamstring injury. But I love to push myself *safely* to reach my physical limits in the gym, and nothing has worked better and kept me injury-free better than crossfit. And I never get bored; in fact, most days I can't wait to get to the gym! I am stronger and faster at 41 than I have ever been in a lifetime of athletic activity. (Thanks, Coach.) -- Posted by mirulhi
