CrossFit: Making Fitness Fun for all Ages

Thanks to a Thatcher grant I had the opportunity to merge my passions for teaching and coaching with my hobby of CrossFit while attending two CrossFit certificate courses. These intensive two-day training sessions were an amazing opportunity to meet fellow CrossFitters from around the country and to learn techniques for teaching children and adults how to pursue an active and healthy lifestyle.

Across all age groups CrossFit is defined as “constantly varied functional movements at high intensity.” This includes Olympic lifts, gymnastics skills, and cardiovascular exercises such as running and rowing. I think back to three examples from my classes that really made me buy into the ideology of CrossFit.

 

First, Crossfit is a great form of exercise for everyone. Much like differentiated learning in a classroom, a CrossFit WOD (workout of the day) can also be varied so all athletes are successful. For example, squatting can be accomplished with no weights, a kettlebell, a set of dumbbells, or a weighted bar depending on an athletes skill level.

 

A second major point of emphasis in CrossFit is that the exercises are all based on the core movements of life –for example, squatting to pick up an object or pressing a load overhead.  One can safely begin to teach these functional movements to young school age children without using weights and working continuously on perfecting their movement. This contrasts with movements performed in a typical gym on a machine such as a hamstring curl or a pec dec.  These isolated movements are never solely performed in daily life.

 

Lastly, CrossFit creates an atmosphere where adults and children can develop a healthy lifestyle, achieve goals, and, most importantly, have fun. This will look very different in an adult verses a kid’s class, but it’s paramount to a successful program.  Having fun in an adult class could be achieving a PR (personal record) in a squat clean. In a kid’s class, a coach will want to see smiling faces and engagement.

One of my favorite memories from the weekend at the kid’s course was playing CrossFit baseball. Hitting the ball was replaced with a forward roll, then you galloped to first base where you performed 10 split jumps, then you bear-crawled to second base, where you performed 10 air- thrusters and so on until you “scored” back at home plate. The thirty adults in the class were not only competitive, but they were having a great time – smiles and laughter filled the room.

Through an iPeriod and the after school program I have since played CrossFit baseball with Darlington’s elementary, middle, and high school students with varying skill appropriate exercises.  I look forward to continuing to share my knowledge and experience in CrossFit with the Darlington community.