Crossfit Gym

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.

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