By Michael Craw
(November 5, 2021)
Coaching CrossFit and Aging Populations (4- Part Article Series)
When I decided to commit myself to CrossFit coaches at 55 years of age (2016) there were several considerations but the two most striking were: 1) how can my coaches, impactfully communicate the healthy lifestyle potential for me as part of an aging population using CrossFit (i.e., helping me become a better version of myself), and 2) why will CrossFit help me to reject stereotypical views of aging because of easily accepted assumptions and generalizations about how people at or over a certain age should behave.
The CrossFit experience is daunting but to those that are retired from work, close to retirement, or will retire one day soon they are implicitly primed by stereotypes, which made things intimidating for me! Intimidating because there were elements such as long-term injuries, associated treatments, and balance atrophy to consider. Fortunately, an overwhelming desire to alter my health out motivated labels-driven self-doubt.
My platform for movement improvement learning was (and still is) coaches speaking about “our need to work at a variety of basic functional movements and build on them” -just not always with the same approach to others. To use artists by way of compare/contrast, some CrossFit coaches are “Jackson Pollocks”, incorporating stimulus from others, which is differentiated by a “Mark Rothko” approach of simpler actuated impactful movement for improved mobility. Whatever the approach, the effect for me is a robust transformation in self-fitness relevance as it relates to the impact of stereotypes.
This coming Christmas (2021) marks five (5) years of CrossFit. In my time, coaches have taught me that the magic is in the mastery of the exercise’s movement, which has improved the likelihood for restored fitness behavior and broader health outcomes such as mobility due to greater strength & flexibility.
Given my experience to date, efficacious aging seems to be surrounded in a message of exercise as a positive interaction from/with coaches which manifests into with a greater perception of self. And there’s nothing “righter” than explicitly making older populations feel more favorable about themselves. Every one of the 20 + CrossFit coaches (in the 1500+ workouts invested into my CrossFit journey to date) has taken a personal interest in my improvement. Elements that negatively impacted my early CrossFit days are diminished.
This 4-part article series on Coaching CrossFit and Aging Populations offers three examples that highlight what coaches have done for me. To begin the series a short introduction on CrossFit and Coaching CrossFit is provided
What is Crossfit?
CrossFit started in 2001 because the founder (Greg Glassman) saw a need in the health and wellness business; a need to address kinematic and metabolic fitness as it applies to an entire population (Love, 2020). He focused the need locally at first, on the premise of a grassroots movement started by “crossfitters” that wanted their own local CrossFit-equipped gyms, coaches, and communities (Crossfit.com, 2021; Glassman, 2002). By 2005, thirteen (13) CrossFit Affiliates were in operation. In October 2021, there are over 15,000 (Crossfit.com) affiliates located in 142 countries (Map, 2021).
Coaching Crossfit
CrossFit coaches enable aging populations to improve their physical fitness in a supportive enjoyable workout environment. Physically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually challenging workouts present what’s possible for older athletes’ health and wellbeing. CrossFit coaches are well-positioned to uniquely train aging populations in exercise habits and attitudes toward their holistic health prowess.
The fundamental goal of the CrossFit coach is to construct a loyal population using a unique fitness regimen that consists of constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity in a group environment, across wide-ranging time and modal domains that represent personal health and fitness transformation and accountability (Easter, 2018; Glassman, 2013; Maneker, 2015; Partridge, Knapp, & Massengale, 2014; Thurston & Kuile, 2016). Classes are delivered with evangelical-like intensity on the claims of espoused metabolic beliefs, epidemiological values, and immersion into one person’s stance on experiential health and wellness (Dawson, 2015).
The daily client fitness experience is hard physical labor of about sixty (60) minutes which is represented by:
- movement,
- programming of exercise,
- scientific explanations, and
- having a fun community.
Given the daily client fitness experience, each coach seeks to challenge every known and accepted training technique in the fitness industry and will seek to square libertarianism with activism because of reasons linked to the corruption of health sciences which corrupted the sciences (Mackey, et al. 2016; Craw, Elliot, & Woodroffe, 2021). Fortunately, the coach recognizes the impacts protracted sickness has on populations, and in their capacity are proponents of non-medical health care that heals. Every day, the coach aims to provide well-designed exercise stimuli in the effort to transform peoples’ health thus combating the vexing problem of chronic disease.
The Coaching Stimulus
The CrossFit coaching stimulus of, constantly varied high-intensity functional movement coupled with nutrition elements clients seek to meet the demand for a healthy functional independent life, provides a hedge against chronic disease and incapacity. This stimulus is elegant in the sense of being marked by simplicity and efficacy (Glassman, 2002, 2013; Love, 2020). The elements of this broad, general, and inclusive fitness, in terms of both movement and nutrition, are characterized as CrossFit’s coaching essentials for aging populations.
The typical language of exercise measure & accountability that is used includes:
- WODs’ (Workout of the Day),
- AMRAPs’ (As Many Reps as Possible),
- METCON (Metabolic Conditioning),
- EMOMs’ (Every Minute on the Minute), and
- Scaling of Workouts
to establish that the magic is in the movement, art is in the programming, science is in the explanation and the fun is in the community (Glassman, 2007). It is this coaching language mix that this article series seeks to voice in the hope that others can read about how and why CrossFit coaches change the lives of aging populations for the better. With coaches in mind, the point of this article is to share three (3) CrossFit coaches’ insights into transforming older lives for the better.
Furthermore, it’s hoped that this author’s description of his participant experience with CrossFit coaches will encourage others seeking improved fitness, to find a coach/es that challenges them to:
- increase their strength and mobility,
- capture the benefits of functionally varied movement,
- maintain mobility, and
- enjoy living independently in a longevity context, through the intervention of exercise.
Coaching CrossFit and Aging Populations 4- Part Article Series:
Part 1: Magic is in the Movement
Part 2: Art is in the Programming
Part 3: Science is in the Explanation
Part 4: Fun is in the Community
References
Craw, M., Elliot, J., & Woodroffe, J. (2021). Affiliates and the 60+ age group. Journal of Sports Research. Vol 8, (1), 35-48. DOI: 10.18488/journal.90.2021.81.35.48.
CrossFit.com. (2020). Affiliates.
Easter, M. (2018). CrossFit’s Greg Glassman Disrupted Fitness. Next, He’s Taking on Healthcare. Can CrossFit fix the healthcare industrial complex? Glassman thinks so. Men’s Health.
Glassman, G. (2002). What is fitness? CrossFit Journal. The Business impacts of CrossFit
Glassman, G. (2013). CrossFit Business. Illinois Policy Institute.
Love, J. (2020). Greg Glassman’s easy health care fix: More CrossFit. Outside.
Mackey, T.K., Kohler, J.C., Savedoff, W.D., Vogel, F., Lewis, M., Sale, J., Michaud, J., & Vian, T. (2016). The disease of corruption: views on how to fight corruption to advance 21st century global health goals. BMC Med 14, 149. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-016-0696-1
Maneker, M. (2015). CrossFit’s extremely lucrative business plan is also deceptively simple. Quartz.
Map. (2020). CrossFit.com.
Masters Training Guide. 2020. CrossFit training. https://assets.crossfit.com/pdfs/seminars/sme_masters_trainingguide.pdf
Partridge, J. A., Knapp, B.A., Massengale, B. D. (2014). An Investigation of Motivational Variables in CrossFit Facilities, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: 28 (6), p 1714-1721. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24149755
Thurston, A., & ter Kuile, C. (2015). How we gather. WordPress.com.
