Ones to Watch

Clad in a sequined beret, a spaghetti-strap tank top, compression shorts and a pink boa, one member of CrossFit New Haven says you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously.

During the box’s October Barbells for Boobs event, the bearded man decided to “dress it up, booty short it up” all in pink.

“Too many competitions, too much seriousness—gotta bring it back to basics,” he says with a smile.

More than 100 people last year registered for the affiliate’s two-hour event, and… Continue Reading

Mikki Lee Martin and Keegan Lee Martin explain how CrossFit Kids Preteen Class is a bridge between Kids and Teen/Advanced classes.

There is a natural division within the gaggle of children in our CrossFit Kids classes. They generally divide by friendships, which tend to be consistent with age. Given the very broad age range we suggest for a CrossFit Kids program (5 to 12), dividing into groups makes sense as it… Continue Reading

Launching a CrossFit Kids program can seem daunting. Luckily, Seminar Staff members John and Kelly Brown, Aimee Lyons, and Todd Widman—as well as CrossFit New England’s Heather Bergeron—have advice.

Start classes with the age group you’re most comfortable with, Widman says. And only begin with three children whose parents are already CrossFitters.

“You don’t have to sell those parents on anything,” he explains. “They’re like, ‘Sweet. CrossFit Kids class? Do it… Continue Reading

Dan Edelman visits the CrossFit Kids Gauntlet and finds the missing link between fitness and the zombie apocalypse.

My mind zeroed out the moment I was asked to write a piece on the second CrossFit Kids Gauntlet, which went down at the Los Angeles Fitness Expo on Jan. 28 and 29.

I didn’t panic, mostly because I didn’t have the time or energy to spare. See, I consider my prime mission for CrossFit Kids… Continue Reading

CrossFit Santa Cruz’s Laurie Galassi is a gymnast and CrossFit coach. In this instructional video, she breaks down that most challenging CrossFit movement: the muscle-up.

Focusing first on body shapes and hand position, Galassi explains how very small adjustments can make a big difference on the rings.

Of course, the false grip is critical to success, and no, it isn’t very comfortable. For those who tend to get red and raw wrists, Galassi… Continue Reading

Mike Riepenhoff’s CrossFit Story begins with the 2007 movie 300. After he and his wife went to see the film with another couple, his friend began researching the workouts that gave the actors their sculpted physiques.

“Backtracked it all the way to CrossFit,” Riepenhoff says.

The other couple then found CrossFit Atlanta. And thus the addiction began.

“Anything and everything was CrossFit. When we were at dinner, when we were at lunch, when… Continue Reading

In 2008, 32-year-old Rob Orlando was reaching the end of his personal-training career. It was time to find another way to make a living, he says. Then the question came from a client he had been privately training at local gyms: “‘What’s stopping you from just doing this on your own?’”

Orlando’s response: $50,000.

“He just took out his checkbook and wrote me a check. He basically told me to shut up, find some space… Continue Reading

Michael Campi explains how to behave as a stranger in a strange land.

The benefits of belonging to an affiliate are clear: quality coaching, a sense of community and working with a group of people who have a common purpose. But what if an affiliate is not available to you for whatever reason?

There are a couple of routes you can follow: you can start to accumulate your own equipment and build a garage gym, you can… Continue Reading

In 2010, Scott Horton was more than 330 lb. and riddled with health issues.

“My doctor basically told me that if I didn’t start losing some weight, I was going to have some real problems,” he says.

So Horton did some research and ended up being paired with a trainer at a Globo Gym. That trainer—Atom Ziniewicz—introduced him to CrossFit.

“It just made sense,” Horton says. “It was just a really great, balanced workout.”

A few months… Continue Reading

Jeremy Striffler applies the concept of tribal culture to CrossFit and examines the five stages of the CrossFit tribe.

On a crisp, cold Saturday morning in early December, I showed up at TwinTown CrossFit in Minneapolis, Minn., to participate in the preliminary round of the Winter PR Challenge. The sight of 30-plus members of the gym preparing to do the CrossFit Total welcomed me.

For close to three hours, our group… Continue Reading

In the CrossFit Kettlebell Trainer course, Jeff Martone says a good kettlebell swing has four key elements: weight on the heels, neutral neck, straight back and purposeful breathing. He emphasizes kinesthetic drills to help athletes understand the right and wrong ways to move their bodies.

He has course attendees do several reps of kettlebell deadlifts while keeping their weight on their heels, their necks neutral and their backs flat.

What’s often forgotten… Continue Reading

Elite weightlifter Erin Okonek explains how she’s fitter and happier now that she’s doing CrossFit.

What is CrossFit and why is it better than other workout programs?

By definition, CrossFit workouts are constantly varied functional movements performed at a high intensity. More simply stated, “It is hard as fuck!”

Yet these attributes do not sufficiently capture the true meaning of CrossFit and inadequately define CrossFit vs. the copious other workout programs people are… Continue Reading

Fun, quality of movement and the prescription—those are the three elemental pillars part and parcel to the CrossFit Kids program.

“It is imperative that you pair fitness with fun—has to happen,” Todd Widman says during a CrossFit Kids Trainer Course at CrossFit New England. “If they do not have fun, you have ruined them for life.”

Just remember that fun changes as preschoolers become preteens and then teenagers.

Quality of movement is also paramount.

“We’re training children… Continue Reading

We have gingerbread houses for Christmas, barbecued fare on the Fourth of July, turkey for Thanksgiving, chocolate bunnies for Easter and cake on your birthday—but what about Valentine’s Day?

Start a new tradition and serve heart-shaped food! Your kids (and spouse) will get a kick out of these cute eggs.

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to evaluate movement at CrossFit South Bay.

Working on the hip, Starrett delivers a “shaman’s blow” of a test: a three-part quick-and-dirty movement drill designed to instantly assess hip mobility.

The test, of course, is not the be-all and end-all of movement analysis, because it’s staged unlike the natural movements of a squat or deadlift… Continue Reading

St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock embraces the CrossFit Life. Mike Warkentin reports.

Ken Hitchcock is a hockey guy.

He’s coached over 1,000 games behind the benches of four NHL teams, and he’s won over 500 of them. He’s been a coach at three NHL All-Star Games, and he’s been a part of two Canadian teams that won gold medals at the Olympics.

Hitchcock has also hoisted hockey’s Holy Grail, the Stanley Cup, while coaching the Dallas… Continue Reading

HQ Seminar Staff member Todd Widman says everyone should attend a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course—even the person who just heard of the training methodology and has never attended a class.

“It doesn’t matter what seminar you go to; the Level 1 courses are just stocked full of amazing trainers,” he says while at a seminar at CrossFit Oahu.

Widman got hooked on CrossFit several years ago when he was a captain in the Marine Corps. As… Continue Reading

After a few months of working out in a garage gym without heat, Eric O’Brien had enough. So for a year and a half he and his wife, Carla, worked out at CrossFit Milford. But the commute—about 35 minutes each way—wore on them. That’s what led them to the conclusion that their community of New Haven needed its own CrossFit affiliate.

“We decided we were going to do this once,” Eric says. “We were going to open one gym—one big gym—under the… Continue Reading

In this video, CrossFit Endurance founder Brian MacKenzie works on rowing with Rich Airey of CrossFit Counter Culture.

Airey is rounding his shoulders and back, MacKenzie notes.

“What we’ve got here is one broken dude,” he says. “And he doesn’t have to be.”

For a quick fix, MacKenzie takes Airey’s feet out of the straps, sets the damper to 1 and prohibits him from touching the seat to the back of his feet—all while maintaining the integrity of… Continue Reading

J.T. Scott on staying present, qualifying for the CrossFit Games and clothing the homeless.

The CrossFit Journal is pleased to present the next in a series of profiles designed to help you get to know some of the best people in our community.

J.T. Scott is an affiliate owner who trains out of his box, CrossFit Fenway, and CrossFit Somerville.

We are all lucky to meet some real firebreathers, but J.T. is… Continue Reading