Greg Glassman, who developed the CrossFit system in the early 1970s, defines it as “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.” Interesting descriptors, to be sure, but they do little to evoke the passion and insanity that accompanies the workouts, which feature a dizzying variety of brief but agonizing circuits that incorporate bodyweight, kettlebell and gymnastics exercises, cardio routines and Olympic lifts. Instead of standing in front of a mirror and pumping up your glory muscles, it’s all about excelling along the broad spectrum. That means strength, aerobics and endurance. The workouts are short but extremely intense, and they challenge your body to extremes you’ve rarely felt before.
It was 2009 when Rich Froning Jr. learned about this emerging phenomenon from a professor at Tennessee Tech University, where he was taking a degree in exercise science. After checking out some video clips of the CrossFit exercise circuits, Froning decided to try it out, setting up a workout area in the barn at his father’s farm in Tennessee, about 80 miles east of Nashville. The first workout beat him up, but it turned out Froning was right — he could do it. And could he ever. Two years later, the 23-year-old farmboy with no experience in traditional strength training would be crowned the “Fittest Man on Earth,” winning the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games.
Froning graduated with a degree in exercise science and until recently worked full time as a strength-and-conditioning coach for his alma mater, Tennessee Tech University. He can speak eloquently about block periodization, overtraining syndrome and glycogen replenishment — though the concepts just don’t apply to him. Even before he found CrossFit, when he was studying for his physical education classes, he remembers thinking that he didn’t fit any of the conventional training wisdom he was reading about. Most world-class athletes are on a periodized plan that meticulously lays out their workouts at least several weeks in advance. Froning, who does not have a coach and prefers a team of dedicated training partners, only has the barest of ideas on how he will train each day when he wakes up. The met-cons in particular are a blank slate. He goes purely by instinct, waiting to see how he feels on a certain day before programming his sessions. He is an enigma even to himself.
The CrossFit main site programs workouts with a rest day between every three WODs. If Rich Froning Jr. followed this plan, he would be due for a day off every afternoon around 4 p.m. By midafternoon, he has usually finished his third Workout of the Day, and he’s not done yet. For the 2011 CrossFit Games champion, five workouts a day is business as usual, overtraining is an urban legend and rest days are nonexistent. The best explanation Froning can give for being such an athletic aberration is to point to a combination of nature and nurture, genetics and upbringing. His mother’s parents were farmers, and both sides of the family placed a high value on hard work. His father used to invent chores for his children rather than see them be idle. Competition came easily to him. He is one of 30 first cousins on his mother’s side, 25 of whom are boys, and more than one went on to get athletic scholarships to Division 1 schools. His 21-year-old cousin, Darren Hunsucker, recently started CrossFit and is one of the only athletes who can keep up with Froning’s volume.
Once he started practicing CrossFit, Froning began training to qualify for the Reebok CrossFit Games, an annual competition in California, where 100 finalists (50 men and 50 women) are chosen from a starting pool of tens of thousands of CrossFitters who enter the open tryouts. At the games, which have been held since 2007, the finalists face a series of challenges that remain a secret until just before the event. At 5´9˝ and 195 pounds, Froning packs more muscle than some of the other top CrossFitters, but he immediately made a name for himself with his ability to haul big weights at a lightning-fast pace, and for scoring high in every type of exercise, from kipping pull-ups to deadlifts, and even in his most dreaded discipline: long-distance running.
In 2010, Froning finished second to Graham Holmberg at the games — safe bet to speculate that he didn’t like his placing — and then, after much anticipation through the open sectionals and team regionals, Rich once again forged through the fierce competition in the men’s individual finals to take first place in the 2011 CrossFit Games, earning him the title “Fittest Man on Earth.” In 2012 Rich successfully defended his title, becoming the first man ever to win the Games twice and cementing his place as the top CrossFit athlete in the world.
