A new banner has been strung across the 1969, sparked when Tacoma police brick wall of an old building at the attempted an arrest in the predominantly southeast edge of Tacoma’s hilltop black neighborhood, causing a crowd to district. It shows the back of a woman on gather to free the arrestee. The crowd a stationary rower, her muscles flexed at grew, property destruction followed and the end of her stroke. Next to this is a a police officer was shot. The event ghost sign, painted sometime last century spawned a moderate black leadership across the brick wall in difficult-to- capable of containing the more radical remove lead paint: “Auto Clearing energies of the neighborhood while House,” it says, presumably indicating a simultaneously ensuring that for the next long-lost autoparts shop from the era twenty or so years it would effectively be before the Autozone apocalypse. The cordoned off from whatever post- juxtaposition of the two makes the industrial development might take shape stationary rower seem like some sort of in a city still reeling from mass factory dismantled piece of industrial equipment, closures. As in many such neighborhoods gears converted into resistance in American cities, the only economic mechanisms with attached pulleys. If growth that did arrive came in the form searched on Google, the phrase “auto of the black market. For years the area clearing house” today only shows results was known mostly as the territory of the for a financial trading network of the Hilltop Crips, and its signature event was same name—an automated clearing a 1989 Ash Street shootout between a house that allows for financial group of Crips and off-duty Army transactions to be stored and processed Rangers-turned-neighborhood vigilantes. at the end of the day so that processing But Crips give way to Capital, and in only has to happen once, allowing more recent years the deindustrialized blue transactions to take place in a shorter collar neighborhood has become one of period of time. Smart-looking, well- many new, hip historic districts in a city dressed people file into the building attempting to ride the boom in under the new banner or into nearby neighboring hi-tech hubs like Seattle and faux-brick condos, designed to mimic the Bellevue. “historical” quality of the neighborhood. Despite these economic shifts, a In the time stretched between the Auto warehouse remains and within it a Clearing House and the condos, newly Crossfit gym. From outside it seems as if “historic” Hilltop had been one of many little has changed from that industrial low-scale warzones that emerged in the era. Bodies of all types enter as early as wake of deindustrialization. This was 5:30AM. The crowd is largely made up of inaugurated by the Mother’s Day riots in 24-34 year olds, mostly white although not entirely. The bodies come in all about more than just lifting weights. shapes and sizes, but like the auto parts Calisthenics and gymnastics were that came before them, they become practiced regularly but, without a widely- conditioned by use. Quadriceps will soon accepted orthodoxy, the origins of many begin to show above the kneecap, along of the physical movements themselves with the trapezius of the upper back and were haphazard. Gymnastics exercises neck that are displayed in the banner were often adopted from the showmen above the entrance. Calluses at the base and strongmen of the circus. The of the fingers from squeezing a pull-up Calisthenics were drawn largely from bar, scars that run vertically up and down military basic training, as many of those the shins from a barbell as it’s pulled off in the Muscle Beach crowd had fought in the ground in a deadlift. One generally one of the World Wars. Trapeze work, shared goal of these bodies is to reinvent back flips, lifting and throwing other their present state. Whether they’ve people, all of these variations were as been through too much stress, or too much demonstration as training. There little, these bodies have flocked here, at was no program or specific workout 5:30AM to be produced and consumed routine to follow, and much of the by exercise. Under the watchful eye of community was built around learning the clock they labor, sweat, use tools, and how to do certain moves and how to then leave. What used to be a warehouse build a good routine. As many as ten for miscellaneous auto parts sold into the thousand people would come down to final marketplace before the junkyard has the pier to watch the athletes perform. now become a warehouse for Muscle Beach turned the sleepy miscellaneous, leftover bodies. retirement town of Santa Monica into the Intensifications of the division of labor center of the 20th century fitness world. under capitalism demand a reciprocal This community was largely made division of bodies, so what do we do with possible by the free availability of the them? What are bodies for? park, as well as the stipends given out to Iron military personnel returning from war. Steve Reeves, the actor and bodybuilder In 1934 Muscle Beach was opened as a best known for his role in Hercules and city park in Santa Monica, California the sequel, Hercules Unchained, was a under the Public Works Administration of regular at Muscle Beach after leaving the the New Deal. What started as just military. He lived off the 52/20, which another public park in line with stood for $20 for 52 weeks that the progressive ideals would soon gain a government provided, and shared a room strong following of war veterans and in what was known as Joy’s muscle house fitness enthusiasts. For these Muscle by the sea. Fleurette Crettaz, known as Beach regulars, physical culture was Joy, was a bodybuilding fan that ran a hearing, the city raided Muscle Beach in communal house in Santa Monica where the middle of the night, bulldozing the gymnasts and weightlifters could live. She gymnastics structures and taking the did all of the cooking, cleaning and weight equipment. With its home shopping, charging $100 a month per destroyed, the fitness scene divided room, so the athletes could dedicate all down a few different paths. Some defied their energy to training.[1] the city and continued to perform and work out on Muscle Beach, others moved But as the era shifted from wartime to a new location in Venice Beach that public works to budding urban crisis this had opened up a few years earlier, and very success was transformed into a sort yet another group of athletes decided to of latent threat. The massing-together of move indoors. Joe Gold, along with Vic bodies—specifically working class bodies Tanny and Jack Lalanne, were some of the —had turned a public health institution first Muscle Beach lifters to open indoor into a site of perceived moral and social gyms for bodybuilding, powerlifting, and decay. Different accounts as to what Olympic weightlifting, with the famous exactly happened range from “anti-social Gold’s Gym opening in 1965. behavior,” to charges of bodybuilders partying with underage girls. In 1959, the Once Muscle Beach had to be moved city of Santa Monica decided to shut indoors, the space limitations and private down Muscle Beach, with a judge location changed the nature of the fitness determining the park endorsed, ‘freakish’, community. Coinciding with the rise of ‘homoerotic’, and ‘unbalanced’ activity. professional bodybuilding, the [2] demonstration of skill and ability shifted toward organized competitions, such as Though couched in the conservative powerlifting and weightlifting, as terms of the 1950s the condemnation of opposed to the more communal, the park also hints at a deeper fear of so entertainment-inspired acrobatic many war-scarred, disciplined proletarian routines. Moving indoors also initially bodies brought together in a reduced the occurrence of men and carnivalesque atmosphere. The carnival women training together—doubtless one as one of the origin-points of Muscle of many sources for the claims that Beach is telling, with its history as a Muscle Beach had been “anti-social” and symbol of semi-permitted transgression “unbalanced.” While most of the Muscle that inverts traditional power relations. In Beach enthusiasts were men, women also a strange twist of history, America’s participated in the weightlifting and weightlifting legacy thereby shares at gymnastics performances. This relation least part of its genesis with May Day, the was by no means equal, with men raucous, riotous communist holiday. commonly having women be the ‘props’ The threat was clear. Shortly after the or assistants that would be lifted and bearing pulley machines. There was thrown around, but this degree of nothing to plug in, except perhaps a fan. interaction between men and women in a Similar to Muscle Beach, there was no fitness setting would not be seen again single workout routine that all the until the rise of female bodybuilding and bodybuilders followed. They learned from health spas in the ‘80s. each other and developed individual training programs that matched their The brick box replaced the beach. Above needs and lifestyle. Lifters like Arnold the door to the tall building, the words were sponsored so they could train twice “Gold’s Gym” are painted directly on the a day, but most of the lifters had day jobs brick. The original has been repainted and adjusted their training accordingly. and preserved as a historical landmark for Venice Beach, the ghost sign of another bygone era resurrected in the name of urban revitalization. Today, the building is clean, its repainted golden sign spotless. But during its heyday, the gym was dirty, dark, and filled with large, muscular bodybuilders, scenes of which can be seen in the film Pumping Iron, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The ground floor was reserved for the weights, with a Anabolic steroids, particularly Dianabol, second story loft that had a bathroom were becoming more commercially and showers. While Gold’s Gym was a available in the mid ‘60s, making formal business technically open to bodybuilders bigger, stronger, and leaner, anyone, it operated more like a private with gyms such as Gold’s acting as their club for the best bodybuilders in Venice informal marketplace. Better training Beach. The front door was kept locked at methods and better drugs created all times to dissuade newcomers, the bodybuilders that looked drastically regulars knew to go around back. different than someone who exercised Clothing was fairly minimal at Gold’s and and lifted weights without steroid use, it was not uncommon to see people leading many people to see them as training in nothing but short shorts or a brutes or monsters. Public shaming was bathing suit. As the fitness industry had common, which helped to intensify the yet to be commercialized on a large scale, anti-social stereotype that plagued most of the equipment was made by Joe Muscle Beach. Iron gyms such as Gold’s Gold himself. Dumbbells and barbells had helped create a strong bodybuilding were common currency, along with community in the United States, but it various types of benches and weight- wasn’t successful at attracting a broader demographic. Most of the gym owners were weightlifters and bodybuilders Machine themselves, without the desire to turn their gyms into business ventures. With One of the catalysts for the development membership priced at $60 a year, Gold’s of the fitness industry was a salesman gym wasn’t making enough money, and named Arthur Jones. Born in the midst of five years later Joe sold his gym for the Great Depression, Jones was an $50,000 and joined the merchant marine. eccentric inventor, pilot, and exotic There was little public awareness about animal enthusiast who spent a large the health benefits of exercise and most chunk of his life hunting and trading of what was being recommended was game in South Africa. If Gold’s Gym is the aerobic exercise that focused on McDonalds of fitness, Arthur Jones is its conditioning the cardiovascular system Henry Ford. It was in South Africa that such as running and walking. Jones started experimenting with different models for what he called the The fitness and gym industry eventually “Nautilus” machine. He was known to be grew in the same way that many other quite protective of his work, and was said industries did: securing investment to have bulldozed all of his original capital, franchising, and globalizing. The Nautilus prototypes in his backyard for first Gold’s Gym franchise (under new fear of people stealing his idea. These ownership) was created in San Francisco machines resembled the common weight in 1980, and today has over 3 million machines found in gyms today, each with total members in 22 countries. With a a slightly different design depending on franchise, businesses have strict quality the targeted muscle group. Each machine control, and attempt to recreate the had a stack of weights connected to a same consumer experience in multiple pulley system that would raise the locations. Along with renting out the right weights as the machine was used. Early to use the company name, each franchise weight machines (as seen in the above is inspected to make sure it’s keeping up photo of Gold’s Gym in 1965) used with prescribed best business practices circular pulley and cam devices that and that its operational infrastructure is looked similar to the pulley system used up to date. The franchise model was to pull a bucket out of a well. Jones’ popularized in the early postwar era by innovation was to replace to circular cam companies like McDonald’s, which were device with one shaped like a nautilus able to apply technology in a standard shell. Unlike a circular cam device that and replicable way that reflected the keep resistance constant, the uneven Fordist assembly line. In the fitness shape of the nautilus cam distributed industry Gold’s Gym has become an weight unequally throughout the range of archetypal franchise, the McDonalds of motion performed by the user. fitness. Jones claimed that his special nautilus cam was more efficient than any free weight or pulley machine because it was the only device that could vary the amount of resistance at different stages of the movement: First, Nautilus takes advantage of the way bodies work. Since limbs rotate in circular motions around joints each machine’s pulling, pushing or lifting bar rotates, via a metal arm, around a central pivot […] Second, Jones didn’t use an ordinary pulley to transfer force from the machine’s hanging weights to the resisting bar. He invented a kidney-shaped pulley similar in design to a nautilus These self-explanatory machines shellfish. As the pulley rotates its provided new gym users with the ability effective radius changes with the angle of the “kidney,” varying the to correctly operate the machine without resistance exerted. Muscles work prior knowledge, thus reducing the need hardest when leverage is optimum; for a community of gym members to they work least hard when it’s not. explain how to use the equipment and The result: Muscle tension is what routine to follow. Jones wrote constant without the sudden jerks that characterise ordinary weight “scientific” exercise routines that training. exclusively used Nautilus equipment and published them in popular fitness For Jones, the goal of his invention was to magazines such as Muscular create a “thinking person’s barbell.” He Development. Each machine was thought the barbell by itself was useful, fashioned with a laminated, instructional but could be developed further to placard that not only guided the user incorporate the anatomical levers of the through the exercise, but also explained human body. The question of optimal which muscles were being worked. While health and fitness was boiled down to the iron gym of the ‘60s had been a social technological invention and efficiency. center for discussing the effectiveness of Jones was able to market his product as multiple training methods and exercises, the least dangerous and most scientific, [3] Jones’ Nautilus machines not only which attracted a new clientele that had removed the need for community, but previously associated resistance training also explicitly tied the exercise routine to with dirty gyms and criminals. the company that made the machine. As management techniques developed in whole. Between 1972 and 1978, the 1970’s and public awareness of the membership in health & fitness clubs benefits of habitual exercise increased, grew from 1.7 million to 13 million in the health and fitness became economically United States, with club sales jumping rationalized as valuable for companies. from $227 million in 1972 to almost $8 With more American workers moving billion in 1997.[5] With the success of the away from physically demanding jobs and Nautilus machines in the ‘70s, Jones into cubicles, workplace health issues moved to Florida and settled on a ranch began to include sedentary lifestyle with one of the largest private collections ailments such as obesity, type 2 Diabetes, of exotic animals in the United States. An and cardiovascular disease. With the avid pilot, Jones also had his own private publishing of more scientific data touting airport on his ranch, now known as the the health benefits of regular exercise, Jumbolair Airport. Later in life he would employers began to see exercise as a spend his money hosting medical and preventative health measure that had the exercise science seminars, personally potential to reduce employee healthcare flying in doctors and scientists from costs and increase productivity. Fortune around the world with his fleet of 707 magazine estimated in 1975 that the lack airplanes. Married six times, Jones’ motto of employee exercise was costing firms was “younger women, faster planes, and $700 million annually, and that exercise bigger crocodiles.” could help increase productivity and reduce absenteeism. [4] Companies began to either subsidize gym memberships for their employees or build gyms in their office. The new Nautilus exercise machines introduced by Arthur Jones made this incorporation with employers possible by reducing the social stigma of gyms, and providing In 1911, Frederick W. Taylor wrote The straightforward instructions on how his Principles of Scientific Management as a product was used. way to increase the productivity of industrial workers and ameliorate Fifteen years after the first Nautilus relations between bosses and laborers. machine was sold, there were over 3,000 His goal was not only to find the most Nautilus fitness centers across the scientifically efficient ways for workers to country with many more gyms, schools, operate machinery, but also how to and sports teams purchasing their own better monitor workers in order to keep machines. Jones’ Nautilus machines also them from what was called “soldiering”, helped the fitness industry grow as a or purposefully working at a low capacity. One of his stated goals was “To try to Gold’s Gyms have become huge, convince the reader that the remedy for suburban, multi-functioning fitness this inefficiency lies in systematic centers with different rooms for cardio, management, rather than in searching for weights, and exercise classes. The lighting some unusual or extraordinary man.”[6] is bright, the equipment is organized and Taylor advocated for the hiring of shop clean, and some even have pools, spas, floor managers to monitor and teach and juice bars. The subsumption of workers the most efficient production fitness into work, exercise machines, and techniques, instead of having workers the rise in popularity of aerobics, opened rely on other workers to teach them their up the gym to more than just job. The idea behind the Nautilus exercise bodybuilders. The image of the hulking machine was fairly similar. No longer brute was replaced with a more “normal” would exercise routines be learned image of someone wanting to add more through doing on the gym floor, but muscular tone, lose weight, or improve rather they would be prescribed. The their mood. scientific rationality was inviting to the novice gym user and it helped dispel the myth that those who went to the gym did so because they were already strong. The machines helped remove the human element from exercise and added a perceived predictability in outcome, Crossfit which was great for companies trying to calculate how much the investment in a During Silicon Valley’s first dot-com boom gym would save them in overhead costs. in the ‘90s, a man named Greg Glassman was developing the training methodology With the introduction of new tech- of Crossfit in his garage in Santa Cruz, nologies, the gym began to take on a California. Glassman redefined what different role in social life. Iron gyms such fitness meant, moving it beyond one’s as the original Gold’s Gym continued to physical appearance or sports proficiency exist, but they were no longer in the and into the realm of “increased work public spotlight. Corporate fitness was capacity across broad time and modal taking over, and this changed the look of domains”. Being fit no longer meant just the gym, and its patrons. In 1980, 10 jogging to stay in shape, but instead years after Joe Gold sold his gym, it had being proficient at a wide array of tasks begun to franchise and transform into such as rope climbing, gymnastics, something drastically different from the Olympic weightlifting, and calisthenics–a Venice Beach original. Instead of being diversity of exercise backgrounds housed in a small, urban, retail space, ironically similar to those found on the beaches of Santa Monica fifty years prior. fitness industry.[7] As stated on the Crossfit website: “We In many cases, there is no open gym, and have sought to build a program that will the facility can only be used during class best prepare trainees for any physical time with a coach present. The control of contingency — not only for the unknown, the gym experience is invaluable for but for the unknowable.” In Crossfit, Crossfit, because it takes the decision workouts are changed on a daily basis, making out of the hands of the user, known as the WOD (workout of the day), increasing efficiency and productivity in and are taught by a Crossfit coach in class the gym. The varied exercise choice form. Due to the high intensity of each creates a standard of complexity that WOD, anaerobic and aerobic energy seems to demand a coach. Crossfit boxes systems can be taxed in a short amount share a similar aesthetic: open space, of time. Each workout is scaled by bare-bones industrialism, chalk, metal, intensity level so that each participant sweat, and pristine, renovated can do the workout at an appropriate bathrooms. Composite black mats cover level of difficulty. the floor, giving each Crossfit box a Perhaps the biggest difference between familiar smell of rubber. Hung upon the the Crossfit gym, known as a “box”, and a walls are dry erase boards listing the big commercial gym is the lack of weight WOD, sometimes with a section reserved machines. No more Nautilus machines to for each member’s personal records. isolate muscle groups, no more self- Bright red digital clocks blare out the start instruction. Crossfit prides itself in basing of the WOD as people begin to frantically its fitness philosophy around full-body pick up barbells and swing around on movements that require minimal pull-up bars. The coach patrols the gym equipment. These movements are billed floor, with shouts of encouragement as more natural than machines, providing interspersed with cues and form tips to a more comprehensive way to induce help the participants better execute the muscular fatigue. Along with a turn to movements. The workouts themselves more traditional barbell movements, are relatively short and intense, some Crossfit has also adopted the Paleolithic only 15 minutes long. After the WOD, diet trend as its go-to for nutritional time may be spent working on stretching advice. The diet consists of large and mobility exercises that aid in injury quantities of meat and vegetables with prevention and fixing bad postural habits. moderate fruit intake and very little Selfies and instagram pictures are taken, processed foods. Supposedly modeled deliberately showing off a new pair of after our primal hunter gatherer minimalist Reebok shoes designed ancestors, this diet is the second wave of specifically for Crossfit, or flyknit Nikes, high fat, low carbohydrate diets to hit the hashtagging allegiance to #crossfit [8]. new exercise philosophy. This proved to be one of the defining factors in Crossfit’s success. With a keen understanding of how to do business in the internet era, Glassman was quick to register a trademark for the Crossfit brand, and Greg Glassman is the same mix of various slogans, while simultaneously professional and wingnut as most keeping his content free. Glassman was corporate CEOs, but with a heavy dose of able to take advantage of the logistical California Ideology. He has the shaggy, capabilities of the internet to better dirty blond hair and sun-worn skin of a collect, quantify, and analyze the various seasoned surfer, while his manner of forms of productive exercise that speech hints at ample time in cumulatively make up Crossfit. This focus boardrooms. As Glassman was on “open source fitness” allowed each developing the philosophy and gym to have its own individualized programming of Crossfit he was also self- program that could be developed via testing the early workouts. Not only did communication with other gyms on the they make him a better overall athlete, Crossfit website’s forum. Social media but they also made him puke. Glassman platforms became the vehicle of free loved that they made him puke. This was advertising, which further reduced the secret sauce, the “hack” (for lack of a overhead costs. more horrible term) that would change the fitness industry. Crossfit began as a The end of the 1970’s began to see new private training service for athletes and forms of decentralized management, professionals such as those working for flexible labor schedules, and fire, police, and military agencies. technological advances that were better Glassman’s first public contract was with able to capitalize on rapidly shifting the Santa Cruz Police Department. market trends. The alienation of being relegated to single, repetitive tasks may As Crossfit became more popular, it have been efficient in terms of volume of began to spread past the borders of its production, but it also lead to small college-town home. The allure of disengagement and absenteeism in the Crossfit moved beyond the athlete and worker. By demanding broader problem- emergency medical services communities solving skillsets from employees, and and started attracting weekend warriors granting low-level management teams and old high school sports stars. Instead more autonomy, a work culture of opening up more gyms right away, developed where employees provided Glassman took to the internet. more labor for lesser wages, and a Crossfit.com started in 2003 and began logistical system that adapted to posting free workouts and introducing his increased mechanization. It’s often with Reebok in 2011, many of the die- claimed that this led to a sort of hard Crossfit fans were worried that “revolution” in management as Crossfit would go down the same path as advancing past Taylorism, but, in reality, Gold’s Gym and become the corporate, the same guiding principles were merely sterilized environment that reflected the being applied to new conditions. Crossfit workplace they desperately wished to successfully adopted these decentralized avoid. Much to the pleasure of the management techniques, both concerned customers, the spirit and structurally and socially, which have led aesthetic didn’t change much, because to its rapid growth over the past decade. they were recognized by Crossfit and On the structural level, Crossfit uses an Reebok as the essential components of affiliate program instead of franchising, the operation’s success. As Crossfit and on a social level they stress the need affiliates grew around the world, there for a strong community as a way to retain was no need to standardize style or members and increase the efficacy of equipment, because Crossfit was already their workouts. so well connected via the internet that desirable and similar gym configurations took on the guise of spontaneous will. The large factory of a Gold’s Gym, built in the center of a strip-mall and sharing a parking lot with the adjacent Albertsons, files exercisers through a prearranged line of machines that sculpt a malleable final product. Crossfit is the smaller, leaner, decentralized site that produces the body Affiliates of Crossfit pay up to $3000 a through different means but toward the year to use the name and all coaches are same ends—maybe more accurately it required to pay a one-time fee of $1000 produces bodies intended for different for their Crossfit Level 1 certification.[9] sites. Located next to the lumberyard, or The equipment, the size of the classes, machine shops, or whatever industrial the membership rates, the workouts, leftovers are available, the Crossfit box these are all up to the affiliates applies a highly flexible scheme of widely themselves. Like many Silicon Valley start- varied exercises that chisels away at their ups, Crossfit rejects the idea of being product in hopes of revealing its true, “corporate.” Crossfit serves as the primal, primal being. For the commercial gym to libidinal release for those who work drab, maximize profits with their large facilities “corporate” jobs and an affirmation of and overhead costs they must sell low- “lifestyle” for those who work for start- cost memberships to patrons that they ups. When Crossfit decided to partner hope will not all show up at once. These performed at high intensity (@HI) commercial gyms rely on absenteeism to in a communal environment leads stay in business. Crossfit’s affiliate to health and fitness. program, on the other hand, allows for The inclusion of communal environment boxes to regulate size based on local is key because it encourages the potential demand. High membership costs means client to join a Crossfit gym, instead of the majority of people with a doing the workouts on their own, or at a membership are showing up, allowing the bigger commercial gym. The transition Crossfit box to better build “community” from iron gym to commercial gym amongst its constituents and cater to rendered community unnecessary by their needs accordingly. expanding the size of the gym and To contrast the seemingly random introducing equipment that was largely assortment of exercises, Glassman self-explanatory. While many commercial employed strict modes of evaluation in gym members acknowledge that going to order to track and quantify health and the gym gives them more energy and fitness improvements. A mix of historical makes them better workers, it adds very revisionism and third person bravado, little social or communal value to their this section on the “What is Crossfit” lives.[10] Crossfit acts like it’s revealing its page demonstrates the degree to which secrets for free by uploading the WOD Crossfit attempts to define itself as online, but in order to complete the scientific: equation, you end up paying for the one part you thought didn’t have a price tag: CrossFit is many things. Primarily, it’s a fitness regimen developed by the communal environment. Coach Greg Glassman over several The bond through which the decades. He was the first person in manufactured Crossfit community pushes history to define fitness in a meaningful, measurable way its participants to achieve higher levels of (increased work capacity across fitness is also the bond of a shared broad time and modal domains) economic class. Forty percent of Crossfit […]From this simple blog and a single members have postgraduate degrees and gym in Santa Cruz, Calif., there half of them have an annual income of sprung an immense community of fitness enthusiasts who have learned $150,000 or more. The high monthly the movements, tested the theory membership price homogenizes the and accumulated a huge amount of group, which facilitates networking and data supporting Glassman’s equation: social bonding: CVFM @ HI + Communal ‘People ask me, how do you Environment = Health network to find engineers?’ Kim says. ‘CrossFit’s one of the best A regimen of constantly varied ways to meet engineers because it (CV), functional movements (FM) attracts a certain type of person.’ Bodies Tim Dymmel, the founder of CrossFit Palo Alto, has seen more Despite the claims that Crossfit has than one startup founded by revolutionized fitness, this can only be sweaty, chalk-dusted techies at his true if we define revolution as the gym, and pitched to investors using the same set of barbells. constant return to the same. Crossfit revived the barbell from its rust-filled Crossfit’s community is no mistake. It’s a home in iron gyms, but left behind the key part of their ability to turn a profit. bodybuilder physique. It took the For the tech worker in Palo Alto this scientific rationality from the Jones era, means roleplaying the factory worker, but updated the management techniques physically abused by their labor, and changed the equipment. This can be commiserating with their equally seen in the example of the airdyne bike. exhausted WOD partner and reveling in Built by Schwinn in 1978, the Airdyne was an enlightened understanding of one of the first generation exercise bikes humanity. In one of Crossfit’s official to have a giant fan as the front wheel, introductory videos, a Crossfitter propelled by foot pedals and arm levers. exclaims, “Even though I was sore, I was Due to how loud the fan is when getting a little discouraged, I felt propelled, these bikes fell out of fashion, accountable to my community, or I felt replaced with treadmills and other forms accountable to my class. They were of recumbent bikes. Crossfit has recently looking for me there.” The nostalgia- taken interest in the Airdyne bike due to driven, industrially-crafted form of its full body engagement and the “organic” community evoked in Crossfit exponential resistance offered by the fan. ends up missing the mark not because it’s The harder you push and pedal the more trying to abuse the idea of community as resistance is added. Rogue, the leading a means to an end, but because it relies fitness equipment supplier for Crossfit, on a pure version of past community that has now developed its own version, never existed. Communities meet needs, named the Assault Airbike. Without and if a gym is set up where human altering the bike in any significant way, interaction is unnecessary, there will be Rogue’s Assault Airbike sells for $1000, relatively little interaction. nearly double the price of a Schwinn Airdyne. These benign revolutions of the belt drive on the stationary bike take us from barbell-machine-barbell, money- commodity-money. again, old auto clearing houses and factories are prime locations for Crossfit boxes, and the loft condos that house many of their customers. Crossfit promises a physique that matches the aesthetic of new city wealth. The body as repository for the ghost signs of production reflects the social relations of labor and leisure presented by the Crossfit has adopted a visual and economy. You can get strong, but not too ideological aesthetic that fits the upper- big. The workouts are quantifiable and middle class, white collar worker. scalable, but never boring. Companion to Culturally, Crossfit harnesses a nostalgia the rise of beards, tattoos, “work” boots, for a simpler past, and combines it with and lumbersexuality, Crossfit sculpts a the romanticization of the natural in body that appears to have labored. order to craft a comprehensible view of Reminding us that physical labor was the present that embraces precarity by done at one point, the shell of industry being prepared for everything. This is not now has a core of chiseled abdominal simply a pre-lapsarian fantasy, though. muscles. Crossfit reverses the traditional The idyllic and savage “primal” is coupled relation of labor to the body in that the with modern science in an attempt to bodies appearing to have labored the recreate a born-again human that most now reflect the highest material specializes in the unspecialized. As lean conditions of leisure. Similar to the way management forces all employees to be that new technology introduced into the flexible in their working hours and production process is embedded with the expertise, Crossfit demands the same value of past labor, the Crossfit body is from their consumers. Crossfit is the also imbued with the surplus value of figurative and literal lean production of past generations. In Scientific the body. To avoid precarity, one must Management, Taylor remarked, “In the embrace precarity. Do a little of past man has been first; in the future the everything, and then do more of it. The system must be first.” Today is the future, fragmented sense of progress in lifting a and the Crossfit box offers a concise heavier weight or beating an old WOD summary of our post-industrial time creates a fleeting autonomy in a predicament. “People walk through the managed subject. Through Crossfit, door and say, ‘Hey, where are all the despair and uncertainty are replaced by machines?’” To which Crossfit boldly trust in the primal, one simulated replies: “We’re the machines!” shoveling exercise at a time. —Kyle Kubler As capital flows back into the city once Notes

[1] Chaline, Eric. The Temple of Perfection : A History of the Gym. (London: Reaktion Books, 2015): 144.

[2] Ibid., 147.

[3] While magazines such as Health and Fitness had been printing various workout routines since the 1950’s, they were not widely available, and mostly sold via mail order or at the gym.

[4] Ibid., 3-4.

[5] Stern, Marc. “The Fitness Movement and the Fitness Center Industry, 1960-2000.” Business History Conference. Business and Economic History On-line : Papers Presented at the BHC Annual Meeting 6 (2008): 1-26.

[6] Frederick W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (New York: Harper Bros., 1911): 5.

[7] The first low carbohydrate wave came in 1972 with the Atkins diet. This was followed by a turn toward high carbohydrate and low fat diets of the late 80’s and 90’s. Atkins came back in the early 2000’s along with the paleo diet. Predictably enough, over the past few years many high level Crossfit athletes are moving away from strictly paleo and low carb diets to one that includes less fat and more carbs. The balance of macronutrients has not swung all the way over to the high carb, low fat era of the 90’s, but it does seem to be headed back in that direction.

[8] For the select athletes looking to compete in Crossfit and hopefully qualify for the Crossfit games, Instagram has become a vital platform. Posting pictures and videos with the appropriate hashtags and brands is the best way to reach a large amount of people, with the hope of getting more followers. The numbers of one’s followers increases the chance of a sponsorship by nutrition, apparel, or lifestyle brands through which athletes can receive advertising royalties or have the ability to be an independent seller of merchandise on commission.

[9] Some Crossfit coaches and owners refer to the level 1 certification as the “$1000 t-shirt”, in regards to the “free” t-shirt they give you after your days-worth of mediocre instruction.

[10] Stewart, Bob, Aaron Smith, and Brian Moroney. “Capital Building through Gym Work.” Leisure Studies 32, no. 5 (2013): 549-550.