Just How Inclusive Is Crossfit Training?

I have moved offices, those who know me will have heard about my "adjustment" issues.  Nothing is permanent, except change itself. But it is all good, honest.  In fact one of the best things is I have now got a whole new audience for Crossfit.  Where I work is full of people who love their training. Broadly speaking you can separate them into two distinct camps.  Weights and aerobic training, usually running.  But despite their narrow field of focus  they do love to challenge themselves, occasionally. So I have been very busy taking classes in the gym and impromptu lectures in my new office.  Some having tasted the Crossfit lollipop come back for more or talk about it to friends who then come and find me.  Others say thanks and you never see them again.

There is one colleague who works on the floor above I have chatted to him a bit and he was keen to train.  He has lost the use of his right arm due to nerve damage after an accident.  But I had seen him in the gym pressing a dumbell above his head and he was a keen runner.  So we agreed to meet for a lunch time session.  I was short on time and had to think on my feet for a good WOD that would challenge and motivate.  I started by reviewing the 10 parameters that Crossfit  targets. I knew he was good at running and enjoyed long aerobic sessions and he was capable of lifting some moderate weights albeit in a typical isolation fashion.

Most people have little core stability from the monostructural world and never practice balance and agility or push them selves into the anaerobic zone. So I decided on 5 rounds for time 21 kettle bell swings, 21 squats, 21 sit ups, 20 alternating pistols and a 40m sprint.  The warm up was all centred on movement instruction. I initially started to teach the KBS as a one arm movement, perfectly legit' but Hux decided he preferred to fix his right arm with his good left to the handle. Worked just fine.  He really struggled with the full sit up and so gripping the KB with his feet was suggested.  His squats were good but his pistols as expected were entertaining. We found a bench of a suitable height to scale the movement. The sprint was no problem I was just intrigued if he would end up treating it as a recovery run, which is very common in the distance runners.

Well I was impressed he attacked the WOD and finished in under 25 minutes never letting up and only stopping during the pistols when he lost his balance.  We talked after and he was full of enthusiasm and talked about coming back for more.  But what really impressed me, he revealed he only had one working lung!  I briefly pondered what his capacity would be if he could use both.  But you know seeing Hux's performance I think that thought was irrelevant.

This was a wonderful lesson in the inclusiveness and scalability of Crossfit and the human capacity to break perceived barriers.