Residents lose weight with CrossFit
CrossFit Invigorate instructor Lindsey Hanlon watches Christina Vizza and Brian Szupinka perform pullups to make sure their form is correct during a WOD. Hanlon and her husband, Mike, own the gym, and both are certified level one CrossFit coaches.
Crossfitter Eric Beiswenger gets in one last pull-up during the minute time slot before switching to jumping rope during a workout. CrossFit workouts use high-intensity interval training with exercises like burpees, pushups, box jumps and wall balls to mix things up and keep it interesting while still getting a good workout.
Andrew Hartman does a kettlebell press during the CrossFit WOD (workout of the day). The workout included kettlebell presses, jump rope, pull-ups and tri-cep dips.
Above, CrossFit member Joe Lewis cranks out another pull-up during a workout. At left, Andrew Hartman does a kettlebell press during the CrossFit WOD (workout of the day).
When Joshua Pawlowski went for dinner with friends he hadn’t seen for a year, they walked right by him. It wasn’t because they didn’t see him, but because they didn’t recognize him since he had lost 65 pounds in nine months’ time.
Pawloski, of Pittsburgh, attributes his weight loss to good nutrition and CrossFit. He believes that the gym not only changed his physical well-being but also made him more of a confident, outgoing person.
“I am completely 100 percent a totally different person because of CrossFit,” Pawlowski said.
CrossFit is a workout focuses on high-intensity interval training with weightlifting, cardio and some gymnastics. Classes are held in a box (the gym) and members complete the WOD (workout of the day) under the watchful eye of a clock. Workouts are timed so members can keep track of their results and compete with others in the class.
The first time Pawlowski walked into the gym, he was doing pushups and jumping rope. Out of breath and sweat-soaked, he thought it was the workout’s end until the coach declared the end of the warm-up and time to start the WOD.
“I almost laughed,” Pawlowski said. “But I kept showing up and it got better.”
The workout was created by a former gymnast, Greg Glassman, with the first CrossFit gym opening in 1995 in Santa Cruz, Calif. It took awhile for it to catch on, but 18 years later there are more than 5,500 affiliated gyms. To use the name CrossFit, a gym must pay a fee to be affiliated and have a coach with a Level 1 Certification.
Although CrossFit has been around for a while, in recent years it has been gaining in popularity. The exact reason for the onslaught of the new CrossFit culture can’t be pinpointed but could be due to the televized CrossFit Games or the short workout time frame, as Canonsburg’s CrossFit Invigorate owner and coach Lindsey Hanlon suggests.
“Some workouts are five minutes to a half-hour at the longest,” Hanlon said. “That’s what people need. Quick, fast, in and out. Nobody has two hours to spend at a gym anymore.”
“It’s not like going to the gym and kicking around for an hour. You can get in and get out,” Andrew Hartman said.
Hartman, of Cecil, has attended CrossFit Invigorate in Canonsburg since shortly after it opened in November. Hartman said he has lost some weight but is more encouraged by the energy, flexibility, endurance and muscle mass increases.
“It allows real people to come, not feel intimidated, get maximum results for where they are,” Hartman said. “Then they encourage us to keep pushing and keep coming.”
Throughout the workout, members shout words of encouragement as CrossFitters try to beat their personal best on any given move like pull-ups, jump rope or kettlebell presses.
“If somebody gets their first double under, it’s the happiest thing for them. That’s what sticks,” Hanlon said.
Friendships are built through camaraderie, as members compete against themselves and the group. The box even organizes social events outside of the gym for members.
Although the moves might seem intimidating to someone looking in on the outside, they can be done at the person’s own pace.
“Every time somebody comes in here, I make sure they know what they’re doing. If it’s something they can’t do, I just scale it down for them and we adjust the workout accordingly,” Hanlon said.
CrossFit Invigorate is the only affiliated box in Washington County, although 84 Fitness is beginning the process of affiliation. The gym currently features an Extreme Fit program with high-intensity training.
Instructor and CrossFit-certified coach Dia Walsh of 84 Fitness said she thinks CrossFit is so successful because it feeds off encouragement and motivation from the members, which helps keep people plugged in and consistent in their exercise.
“There are lots of results and it’s never going to get stale,” Walsh said.
Because it only takes a weekend to get the Level 1 Certification, CrossFit has received negative attention with concerns that coaches don’t have enough training.
Hanlon’s suggestion is to watch the instructors’ attentiveness to members and to make sure they don’t push anyone too hard.
“There are going to be some trainers, like any other exercise program, that might not have experience,” Hanlon said. “But for the most part you are going to get people that love athletics, love fitness and are there to help you.”
To Hanlon, who has been involved in fitness all her life and is a past Division 1 NCAA national qualifier in the breaststroke, studying how to get the most out of a workout and how to do the exercises properly has been second nature.
“You don’t have to be a superstar going to the CrossFit Games to do this,” Hanlon said. “I think if you want to live a long life and be active, then doing these functional movements through CrossFit is going to strengthen you and help you get through life.”