Imagine a warehouse. A big, open space. Hard floors and garage doors. Now imagine a warehouse with a dozen panting, grunting, yelling men and women, all grimacing and sweating from every pore in their bodies. This is CrossFit.

There’s not a bench or squat rack in sight. Dumbbells? No way. Treadmills are nonexistent. Instead, one sees bumper plates, pull-up bars and kettle bells. This is not an ordinary workout. Last winter in advanced physical conditioning (APC), students started doing CrossFit on Fridays. Ryan Moriarty, football player and senior, said APC was the first time he had ever done CrossFit.

“It was difficult, but after (I) completed it I felt accomplished and proud of myself.”

In the exercise community, Moriarty is just one of the increasing number of people including CrossFit-style exercise into their workout regimen. Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, opened the first CrossFit affiliated gym in Santa Cruz, CA in 1995. There are now over 5,500 affiliated gyms worldwide, according to crossfit.com.

Just what is CrossFit?

According to crossfitvirtuosity.com, CrossFit is “the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies, tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.”

As opposed to strength-focused workouts, “CrossFit’s workouts are frequently referred to as WODs (workout of the day) because, although you will see workouts repeated over time, every day is a different routine.” For example, the WOD named “Kelly” is as follows: in as little time as possible, complete five rounds of a 400-meter run, 30 box jumps on a 24-inch box, and 30 wall ball shots with a 20-pound ball.

CrossFit is based on 10 fitness domains: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination and accuracy.

Troy Torrence, co-owner of CrossFit Fishers, said the first words that come to mind when he hears “CrossFit” are “constantly varied, functional movement, high intensity.”

“CrossFit focuses on full-joint movement; (there’s) not as much accessory work, but (the athlete uses the) full body as one,” Torrence said.

Carmel Involvement
Previously, students began doing CrossFit on Fridays in APC, during which a CrossFit trainer would come and give a traditional CrossFit workout for interested students. ‘

Aaron Boskett, strength and conditioning coach at Carmel, said he likes the competitiveness of CrossFit.

As APC continues this year, he said, “I would like to see different variations of (CrossFit.) You can throw different things together similar to a CrossFit workout.”

Boskett said he thinks CrossFit has many applications to student-athletes in a general sense and that CrossFit style workouts are a good change-up to add to a preseason workout regimen.

“If you were to break up your training, I think it has a lot of good application in an offseason phase,” he said.

A competitive atmosphere

According to Torrence, a unique aspect about CrossFit is the “infinite scalability” of the CrossFit workouts. He said that any person, whether 8 or 80 years old can participate in the same workout, and that one can just use different weights and number of repititions.

Boskett said he likes the competitive atmosphere in CrossFit.

Cameron Birch, football player and junior, said, “I like the competition of it and seeing how well I do compared to others.”

Potential Concerns

Despite CrossFit’s increasing popularity, Torrence mentioned some hesitations people have regarding CrossFit. He said some people see it as a “cult” attitude.

Yet what some people see a cult, Boskett said he sees a strong community atmosphere.

“I see the word ‘community’ used a lot in CrossFit,” Boskett said. He said when one goes to a typical CrossFit gym, everyone does the same type of workout. On the other hand, he said at a conventional gym, where people are doing all sorts of different workouts, one does not usually get to know the people at the same gym.

Along with doubt over the “cult” attitude, Torrence said some people are hesitant because they feel like they have to be in shape in order to start CrossFit, which he said is not true.

What are the benefits?

Moriarty said doing CrossFit will have benefits for the football season.

“I think it will build cardio-vascular endurance. It builds muscular endurance to hit for a long time and take more hits,” he said.“CrossFit separates the men from the boys…it challenges every athlete physically and mentally.”Birch said, “It’ll help me with endurance…being able to go in practice longer and sustain how well I do for an extended period of time. (It will) affect how long and hard I can go during practice.”

Moriarty said, “It depends on (the) sport, but generally (I) think it’s one of the better things because it encompasses a variety of physical activity that can help really any sport because of the different movements.”

Torrence said CrossFit helps athletes be more aware of themselves conditioning-wise and helps athletes train under fatigue.
As for Moriarty, he said CrossFit is something he would be interested in pursuing outside of APC with a group of friends or family members.

On the other hand, Birch said he would not choose to do CrossFit outside of the realm of APC.

“Outside of APC there are not as many people to compete with and CrossFit is something to do with other people to make it more competitive.”

All in all, Moriarty summed up CrossFit succinctly.

“It helps your mental stability when the going gets tough.”