The CrossFit Adventure

Please take the time to read “The CrossFit Adevneture” written by RAW member Bory Kowalsky.   This well written article explains Borys’ personal journey with CrossFit and why it has become such an important part of his life.  Enjoy!

The CrossFit Adventure

Back in September of 2009, after listening with keen interest to Jeff Atwood sing its praises, my son, Will, and I joined RAW CrossFit in Penetangusihene. Am I ever glad we did!

Crossfit training is a relatively new, exciting approach to exercise. A key objective of this approach is to stay abreast of advances in sports science. One of CrossFit’s scientifically supported principles is functional integrated full-body movement. Don’t let these big words intimidate you. The basic meaning is easy to grasp. In a typical weight-lifting program, you work different parts of the body separately. In CrossFit, by contrast, you work the whole body, even if in any given exercise certain body parts are emphasized.

For example, instead of just lifting a weight over our heads while standing, in CrossFit we often do “squat-thrusters.” In this exercise, you go quickly from a deep-squat position, with the barbell sitting in your hands at chin-level, to an erect stance, with the barbell above your head, your arms fully extended, then back down into the deep-squat position, for a number of repetitions. Trust me, when doing squat-thrusters you can feel your whole body working.

Naturally, you do such exercises with weights that are appropriate for you. Although in any class we all do the same workout, we perform it at a level of difficulty that may vary a lot from individual to individual, to ensure that we are improving our overall health and physical fitness and not hurting ourselves. Devin Glage (owner-manager of RAW) and the other instructors work closely with us to figure out the appropriate level of difficulty for each of us. I’m lucky if I can ever go with 60% of the weight “Boneman” Larmand or “Watty” Watson usually uses, but, hey, that’s what works for me!

There’s more to it. Besides warm-ups, cool-downs, and mobility exercises to help you limber up the muscles, a sizable chunk of class-time is devoted to learning proper technique and good form in each exercise. The benefit is two-fold. You minimize the chances of injury. And you actually become more adept in the use of your body.

Take chin-ups. You wrap your hands around the bar and pull straight up, till your chin touches the bar, then drop down, and repeat, right? Well, in crossfit we do sometimes do it that way, to build upper-body strength. But you also learn other, more exciting ways. One is the “butterfly” – a fluid, graceful circular motion, beautiful to behold when done right, as, say, Kaylee “KaySlay” Heath does it. This way you get many more reps in, your whole body is much more actively involved, and besides increasing your strength, you acquire greater physical versatility and skill.

Another key principle: every day a different workout. The idea here is to ‘surprise’ your muscles, so they’re always adapting to the ever changing demands being placed on them, instead of ‘getting used to’ routinized movements and thus not being fully tested – which is apparently what happens when the same exercises are done day in, day out. A third principle is workouts of relatively short duration but high intensity. These strategies too make for more rapid increase in physical strength, versatility, and stamina.

Sure, there are days when we go home from RAW feeling pretty sore. Sometimes we come to the next class complaining of muscle aches, groaning and moaning laughingly, and jokingly flinging little verbal jibes at our seemingly hard, merciless taskmasters. “That’s good pain, part of the process,” we are gently reminded by our instructors. “Those aches are signs of muscle-rebuilding, which translates into increases in strength.” Though I’m no expert in such scientific matters, I believe this claim to be true, because it’s borne out by the progress I see the regulars making in the strength department.

Strength, stamina, agility, versatility, adeptness, gracefulness – these are some of the buzzwords of CrossFit training. I for one have no doubt of its overall effectiveness. In his last year of high school, Will did not play school basketball. So the amount of ball he was playing before OBA kicked in dropped sharply, down to one match a week in the local men’s league. Yet within a few short months the level of his play had risen dramatically, maybe by 10-15%. The only possible explanation was CrossFit. It rapidly made him stronger, faster, fitter, more agile and versatile, qualities indispensable to excellence in basketball, as in any sport. I’m totally convinced Will’s CrossFit training was a major reason he could make an ACAA university basketball team and then contribute significantly to its successes from the outset. For that matter this year his team, the STU Tommies, won first place in the ACAA Regionals and a bronze medal in the CCAA Nationals, and Will’s sterling performance in both championships was definitely a factor.

As for me, I can shovel the snow on my drive and rake the leaves front and back a lot faster than I could in the pre-CrossFit era of my life.  Joining RAW CrossFit is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. And not only for my own sake.

Borys Kowalsky                                                        May, 2012

Borys M. Kowalsky holds a Ph.D. in political science from University of Toronto. Formerly a teacher at private schools in Toronto and Oakville, he is now an independent scholar-lecturer. He resides with his family in Tiny.