Just when you thought things could not get any fitter, they did.
There is the Australian Army Reserve training camp in Kapooka, Western Australia, the Tough Mudder obstacle course, Biggest Loser and weight loss, the thousand-and-one Boot Camps that really do give you the boot, and now…the ‘CrossFit Games’ The Biggest Loser, Australian TV series .
This story on CrossFit was in its draft stages and was looking complete at the time, until a few vehicles passed by on the roads in Sydney with bumper stickers mentioning CrossFit. It is remarkable how your environment responds when you are thinking about or concentrating on something.
CrossFit, and the CrossFit Games, has taken exercise and fitness to the next level, and it is spreading like wildfire. There is even an Australian Regional area of CrossFit in Australia.
A sport-loving nation like Australia should also have a piece of the crazy fitness trend taking the world by storm that is CrossFit CrossFit Games, ‘Australia Regional’, Facebook.
When someone sees and finds out about CrossFit for the first time, a common reaction is that they are onto something big. There are few environments around that allow an athlete to take part in so many sporting, exercise and fitness disciplines at a high intensity like CrossFit and the CrossFit Games.
The participants of the CrossFit Games really do push themselves hard and beyond at a high intensity most moderate-to-top athletes and sports people are in awe of. My second brother, who is into fitness in a fairly big way, was instantly interested in CrossFit, but was impressed with the intensity of the sport. One can observe how CrossFit athletes need considerable energy, fitness, persistence and perseverance, passion and plenty of heart and spirit.
My brother and I, and I’m sure others in Australia, would have caught a glimpse of CrossFit for the first time on Foxtel cable television in late 2013.
In fact, CrossFit has become the undercover next gym or gym-like initiative to open in Australia and throughout the world to rival the likes of Fitness First and others. Jarosky wrote in his story article, many people have not heard about CrossFit or the CrossFit Games.
But the intensity may have to be watered down a tad for the global public who would find it a bit hard keeping up. A watered down version of the CrossFit Games would suit a number of endurance and contact sports, if not most sports, providing a perfect, one-stop-shop for fitness and strengthening, from grass roots to elite, before and during an actual competition. But they would definitely have their work cut out for them.
Who knows what level of fitness and exercise and sporting achievement initiatives like CrossFit can bring out of participants. There may be unheard of fitness splendours for people to experience and talk about for years to come.
Finding out about CrossFit can be a bit unfair and disheartening for some people because they Some individuals may be past their former glory days of sport, and health, exercise and fitness, still go to the local gym or have fitness equipment ready to go at home in case they need it; so they might be semi-prepared for what CrossFit has to offer. The question remains whether their minds, bodies and spirits can take it all.
According to Jarosky, CrossFit is now “an official sports event”, with the CrossFit Games, sponsored by Reebok. There are “four days of hill runs, swimming, handstand push ups, box jumps and 70kg overhead squats” Jarosky, M. July 18, 2012 . Workouts of the Day, or WOD, are either handed down by CrossFit Headquarters in California or by the local personal trainer. The Australian Regional camp would experience this WOD-set up too Jarosky, M. July 18, 2012 . Even the Biggest Loser Personal Trainers from Australia, Steve, Michelle and Shannon, are getting into it too.
CrossFit was the brainchild of Greg Glassman in 2000 in America, “who designed a strength and conditioning program where exercises are performed at a high intensity via functional movements” Jarosky, M. July 18, 2012 .
Bibliography
- Biggest Loser (Australian TV series), Wikipedia
- CrossFit Games, ‘Australia Regional’, Facebook
- CrossFit Games, ‘About the Games’ and ‘Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)’
- Jarosky, Michael (July 18, 2012) ‘CrossFit is not just a fad’, Sydney Morning Herald
