Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.
My name is Ben Garves and today is Friday, the 6th of December, 2019.
CrossFit for the Elderly
Collingwood, Ontario is a town, population 20,000, about two hours north of Toronto. It popped up in the news yesterday because of the efforts of Bonnie Campbell, a CrossFit Level 1 coach and functional aging specialist. Campbell helped run a study, taking on 34 older adults with ages ranging into their 80s and putting them through something we’re all familiar with: high intensity interval training. Yes, older adults doing CrossFit. And she was very successful. Contrary to CrossFit’s (we can now say ‘falsified’) reputation, the study saw no injuries and all 34 members completed the full study to great results. Now, Campbell runs ProjectStrong, training more than 70 older adults in CrossFit. This is cool stuff, y’all.
CrossFit’s NSCA Lawsuit
Speaking of CrossFit’s falsified reputation, our story yesterday on CrossFit’s nearly $4 million award in legal fees in their lawsuit against the NSCA was a big hit, getting sunshine from Law360 and Bloomberg. If you missed it, the ruling likely set the tone for protecting the future of CrossFit from organizations with ill-intent. Go to my show notes at WODDITY.com to read or listen to yesterday’s episode. It’s a deep dive into the incredible language coming out of the legal findings, which is damning of the NSCA, to say the least.
Sara Sigmundsdottir’s 2020 CrossFit Season
Mark Agnew at the South China Morning Post wrote an article looking into the likelihood of Sara Sugmundsdottir translating her third CrossFit Open win into success at the CrossFit Games. In the past, Sigmundsdottir has excelled in environments where she controlled the variables but has not been able to translate it into success at actual events. We’ve seen glimpses of greatness, like her win at Filthy150 a few weeks ago and her domination at Strength in Depth last season. It looks more and more like Sigmundsdottir is getting into a groove and getting comfortable under the lights of competition.
Chicago Affiliate’s Noise Complaints
Another CrossFit affiliate is under fire for noise complaints after residents in a Chicago condominium building have taken issue with the sound of dropping weights. I talked about this with another gym a few weeks ago, but these noise complaints can be dangerous for these small businesses. Last year, the City Council in Hermosa Beach ruled against CrossFit Horsepower and eventually resulted in the affiliate shutting its doors permanently. These gyms provide a valuable service to the community and these noise complaint problems represent a growing problem in many neighborhoods where gyms have been opened close to residential areas. As always when a gym is under threat, I want to read you their mission statement to remind the world how much impact these affiliates have on people’s lives. In this case, the gym is The Foundry.
Founder Justin Quandt writes:
“The Foundry is more than a Gym. We believe in helping you forge your best self through sustainable health and fitness. I set about creating something that would be fun, effective, and sustainable. I started the gym in 2011 in the back room of my apartment with a handful of weights, two friends as clients and a lot of passion.
Today, we operate a 6,000 square-foot facility in downtown Chicago, work with hundreds of busy professionals and have been voted one of Chicago’s best gyms.”
Don’t forget that the second and third Sanctionals of the 2020 CrossFit Games season are running this weekend. Taking time zones into account, the Southfit CrossFit Challenge will run during daylight hours today through Sunday, along with the Pandaland CrossFit Championship running overnight today and tomorrow. WODDITY will not be live streaming these events, but keep an eye on our YouTube channel for event updates through the weekend. Morning Chalk Up plans to syndicate these feeds as much as possible, so keep an eye on their homepage.
And that’s it for news about CrossFit for Friday, December 6th. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. We’ll chat tomorrow.
