june-2011

he says. Rogers adds that the chances
of CrossFit causing rhabdomyolysis
are slim. “We don’t see it very o en in
exercise programs,” he says.
Preischel owns CrossFit Hell’s Kitchen,
just off Times Square, part of an evergrowing
network of CrossFit affi liates
all around the world. His students, he
says, are mostly people bored with their
gym routines, though there are some
like me—I reached my physical peak at
16 and have been on a doughnut-fueled
descent into chubbiness ever since. Jared
Knowles started CrossFit on the same
day I did and has a similarly unimpressive
résumé. “I was a member of three
gyms at the same time and I hardly
ever went,” Knowles told me. He was
hooked a er three weeks, and now he’s
going fi ve or six times a week (CrossFit
recommends a three-day-on, one-dayoff
schedule).
“When I finish the workouts and
realize that I’ve just done 60 squats in
six minutes, I think, ‘Wow. I just did a lot
of exercising!’” Knowles says. A er the
same workout, I think, “Wow. I can’t walk!”
Knowles likes that feeling, too. “I don’t
mind the soreness because it’s a reminder
that I’m doing something good,” he says.
JUNE CROSSWORD ANSWERS
That’s what brings CrossFit students
together: Like soldiers in a foxhole,
they’re united by the pain. “There’s a
level of bonding achieved through suffering,”
Preischel says. “It builds a sense
of community around that shared experience
and that shared common goal.”
That community, along with the
unwavering devotion to the workouts
handed down from the CrossFit gods,
has led to one of the more bizarre criticisms
of the program: It’s a cult. A er
four weeks of classes and no sign of
white robes or Kool-Aid, I ask Preischel
about it. “Depends on how you defi ne
cult,” he says. Merriam-Webster provides
this, “Great devotion to a person, idea,
object, movement or work.” In that
sense, it qualifies, since devotion to
Glassman’s idea is the key to success.
Though cultish by defi nition, CrossFit
isn’t so diff erent from endurance running
or many other sports that require
almost servile dedication and an ability
to push past physical discomfort.
Four weeks a er my fi rst class, I have
to decide if I’ll buy another month. I
start to think about the positive changes
CrossFit has made in me—I eat be er,
I’m down a notch on my belt, and if I lean
to the le at just the right angle, in just
the right light, the top of my ab muscles
peek out from under the gobs of melted
cheese layered on my midsection. These
are good things. But then I think about
the constant soreness, the time I almost
tossed my cookies on 42nd Street during
a WOD, and the time I almost fainted on
the subway a er class. With three pros
and three cons I needed a tie breaker.
That’s when I remembered how much
I love a doughnut in the morning. I quit.
Contributor ADAM K. RAYMOND is hoping to
have better luck with the Jane Fonda Collection:
Complete Personal Trainer Series.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM • JUNE 2011 65
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