Special Populations

Dr. Cooker Perkins and Hannah Dewalt explore training intensity during pregnancy and call on CrossFitters to help them take their research further.

One relatively new territory that has received a lot of attention in recent years is exercising during pregnancy. At this point, we know quite a bit about aerobic activity during pregnancy (e.g., walking, jogging, swimming). The first guidelines about what women can and can’t do with respect to aerobic… Continue Reading

“If you focus on a big idea and a big goal, you can make it happen through small, actionable steps,” says Jessie O’Brien of Westlake CrossFit in Austin, Texas.

Through the help of fundraisers like 500 Burpees for Time, O’Brien and CrossFitters from CrossFit Calgary in Canada traveled to Sri Ram Ashram in Haridwar, India, this past January. The ashram is an orphanage, school, charitable medical clinic and home of CrossFit Sri Ram Ashram, founded by… Continue Reading

Mentally and physically, teenagers are changing daily. Be ready. Bob Guere explains.

There are two essential elements in programming for pre-schoolers, adolescents and teenagers. One is to ensure fun is pre-eminent. The other is to define, recognize and program based on expectations.

Expectations should be glaringly different in each age group and certainly in your adult classes.

Many CrossFit affiliates wrongly lump teen population with adults out of assumed… Continue Reading

Dina Widlake takes a risk and learns how to grab life by the pull-up bars.

That pull-up bar mocks me. I cannot be the only one who experiences it.

Messages pour like party confetti, scrappy little echoes from the distant past as I look up—only I’m not celebrating. I am being mocked.

I hear those words: “Girls aren’t built to do pull-ups. They aren’t designed to have that kind of upper-body strength. It’s… Continue Reading

In Akron, Ohio, 61-year-old Betsy Finley is training for the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. She tied for second overall in the 60-plus category of the Masters division during the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games Open.

Finley says she started working out to be able to sea-kayak with a group of friends.

“I decided I didn’t want to be the granny at the back; I wanted to keep up with the boys,” she says.

When her personal trainer… Continue Reading

“I actually think this demographic is actually a lot more rewarding to work with because although gains are small, they’re huge in the daily lives of these people,” says John Van Every, owner of CrossFit Longevity in Santa Cruz, Calif. He’s offering CrossFit to a specialized segment of the population: athletes 50 years of age and older. In this video, Van Every highlights some of his athletes.

Gary Reece came to CrossFit from a… Continue Reading

“You just have to be patient,” says John Van Every, owner of CrossFit Longevity in Santa Cruz, Calif. CrossFit Longevity specializes in coaching masters athletes, 50 years of age and older. The more complex movements like the overhead squat may take some time because many older athletes lack the strength and flexibility to achieve proper positioning, Van Every says.

His group of athletes is typically new to exercise.

“You have, you know… Continue Reading

“I think the biggest key to programming for this age demographic is letting them recover just enough to be able to … stay focused and go through the next cycle of things,” says John Van Every, owner of CrossFit Longevity in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Van Every found success bringing CrossFit to his father.

“We started thinking that offering CrossFit to his age group would be something that would be very beneficial,” he says. CrossFit Longevity… Continue Reading