Crossfit comes to town This week the newspaper spoke to two young Namibians who live at the coast and recently finished training in Crossfit in South Africa. Dietlind Horsthemke and Zaid Ely said Crossfit is a core strength and conditioning program. Their programs are designed to elicit as broad an adaptation response as possible. CrossFit is not a spe-cialised fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimise physical competence in each of ten recognised fitness domains. They are Cardiovas-cular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordi-nation, Agility, Balance and Accuracy. In implementation, the program put simply, is a sport, the sport of fitness. The intensity that is yielded through harnessing the natural camaraderie, competition and fun of sport cannot be matched by other means. Using Crossfit as a sport increases work capacity across broad time modal domains which supports the initial statement to achieve a broad, general and inclusive fitness program. A Crossfit program is developed to enhance an individual’s competency at all physical tasks. Crossfit athletes are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse and randomised challenges. This fitness is demanded of military and police personnel, fire-fighters and many sports requiring total or complete physical prowess. Crossfit has proven effective in these areas. Both of these young inspiring people completely live, breathe, eat and sleep Crossfit. Dietlind described her love for Crossfit. “Crossfit means to me what Beckham means to soccer, Romeo to Juliet, waves to a surfer and protein to Schwar-zenegger. Quite simply, I love it, it makes me happy”. Crossfit is something that comes naturally to her as she is a Sport Science student at the University of Stellenbosch. Her passion and motivation for the fitness industry, sport, health and wellness began at an early age. She has always searched to understand the connection between body and mind, which is why she pursued a degree in the Human Life Sciences (Biology with Psychology) which eventually led her to become a Sport Scientist. She further explained, “Being able to take part in a variety of sports physically and at the same time learn about its related anatomy and physiology encouraged and motivated me to try the sport of Crossfit. For the first time I felt like I could relate, as Crossfit expressed, defined and spun its words so perfectly together in its description and views on what I have been trying to put together myself.” Dietlind strongly agrees that Crossfit has been able to update and expand the fitness industry to new and measurable standards that were long overdue and achieved to bring their methods not only to elite athletes but to herself, her friends and family and the general population. With all of that said it is obvious that Dietlind fully believes in Crossfit as the best training modality and sport to increase health and fitness. Crossfit is more than just a sport, it has become something that Dietlind lives every day of the year. She added that making sense of Crossfit’s nutritional expertise is without question the way to a healthy and improved life. Fuelling it properly so that she can break barriers has evolved as a natural and automatic response. She further shared that there is nothing worse than not being able to push through a workout because you haven’t been eating. If you are a crossfitter, or any athlete for that matter, you will know the impact nutrition has on performance. Zaid is just as strong a believer in Crossfit and shared that it changed his life and has brought him to a level of fitness he has never reached before. He has been a sportsman all his life and has represented his country on numerous occasions in both karate and inline hockey. Zaid started Crossfit at an affiliate in South Africa early last year and since then his levels of strength, speed, power, agility and flexibility have increased and are still rising. Sport has always been a major part of Zaid’s life. He started karate at the tender age of four and was the youngest person to be awarded a black belt in Namibia at the tender age of 13. Around the age of ten he started playing inline hockey and also still trains and competes in both sports. After high school he studied to be a personal trainer and a sport conditioning coach. Zaid has been training and coaching people since 2010. He added, “As a trainer you hear about Crossfit here and there, I read about it and researched it and started training myself. I moved to South Africa early in 2013 to work, and it’s here where I attended my first class at an affiliate early last year, I haven’t looked back since. I got my level 1 in December last year and I’ve been coaching Monday to Friday since then.” These two young people are aiming to affiliate so that they can become a part of the international team of people that coaches the Crossfit methodologies and training program ranging from the physical training to nutrition and then to the functional side of training. They want to bring Crossfit to a community that lacks proper facilities for strength and conditioning training. According to them there is a large number of athletes that can vastly improve their levels with the help of Crossfit, but also the everyday Joe who wants to train but just don’t know how.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:05:39 +0000
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