The fact is pretty apparent that most gym demographics are as follows: there’s the people that go to the gym to get a perfect physique through intense physical exertion and strict diet, there’s the people that go to the gym because the doctor told them they needed to lose weight or maybe they just decided to lose weight on their own. After that, you get the people that go just to hangout at the gym because they feel comfortable in that particular social situation. There is a rare breed though past all these base demographics you’ll see at a gym. They’re not the biggest, they’re not the fastest, they’re not necessarily the strongest at certain lifts. This demographic views their level of complete fitness as a competition.
These people grew tired of not being able to push themselves applicably because of some of the constrains a big gym has. So they started opening up their garages for their fellow fitness enthusiasts and anyone who wanted to join in. The carried sand bags, ran, lifted, and then as some revolutionary form of exercise they decided to put it all together. There was no longer a “cardio day” and a “lifting day”. These became intertwined into a single workout that would encompass every thing your body needs to become fit. The other amazing thing about this new form of exercise is that it could be tailored to any level of fitness. Any workout could be modified to include and challenge anyone. This new and exciting form of exercise was dubbed “Crossfit” and the world of fitness would never be the same.
Pretty soon garages were becoming full and these practitioners of this new “Crossfit” saw that there could be money made because of its idea and fun workout routine. So they started opening up gyms and starting teams and encouraging anyone of any age, race, and fitness level to try them out. As “Crossfit” started gaining more and more popularity more and more people joined various gyms and started to push themselves. After that something surprising happened. Colleges started forming “Crossfit” Clubs dedicated to break the generic mold of how kids in college worked out.
One of the founding members of the University of Pittsburgh’s “Crossfit” club, Zach Miller, took it upon himself to stay late and help train new members on correct lifting techniques. He also lobbied the college to use an unused storage space to transform it into an area they could use for their activities because of ever shrinking space at the university gym. On August 4th however Zach Miller was in a terrible car accident which caused him to be ejected from the car and subsequently be put into a coma. As bleak and sad as this sounds it could have been far worse. The doctors even went on to say that if he had not been in the physical shape he was in because of “Crossfit”, he would of most certainly been killed. His prognosis is good and everyone in the “Crossfit” family is all hoping he will wake up soon.
The point of this is that so many people go to the gym with their health or physique in mind that they never truly grasp the concept that the work they do to better themselves in the gym can really save their life later on down the road. Not even in the context that their health will keep them from heart disease and diabetes and other ailments associated with obesity or poor health, but that being fit can save your life from physical accidents that you will have most likely never seen coming.
