27, 2014 10 | February Health, Sports & Fitness wives’ biceps can be more jacked than their husbands’ from CrossFitting, and they can carry four times as many grocery bags, too. And yeah, they’re uploading pictures of that happening. What’s the appeal to women? I’ll be the first to admit that all I care about is looking good. And one only needs to review my high-maintenance diet and lifestyle to see how willing I am to torture myself by unfathomable means for the sake of vanity. Recently I joined a small, cross-training, bootcamp-style gym in Clintondale called BareBones with all Level 1-certified CrossFit trainers. At the moment, it’s mostly women. The fellas are mostly husbands, boyfriends or loved ones of regular exercisers. I can sweat like a pig, grunt like a dissatisfied porn star, or giggle and jump rope like a schoolgirl on the playground with my “Sisters of the Barbell.” To be fair, BareBones is not yet affiliated with the corporate CrossFit. Despite similarities in the exercises done there, there are enough differences that they can’t include mention of the brand name in their own name or advertisements. When I walk into the gym, I am often distracted, feeling edgy and wound up from my day, ready to spit nails at a baby. I check out the WOD, cringe
Syndi Acampora of BareBones Gym in Highland.
and look at clock: I can do anything for 30 minutes. I purge my demons with every strict push-up and dead lift. After an hour of going to my personal limits pulling, pushing, jumping, lifting and worse, I walk out softened, peaceful and gentle in heart as a reincarnated Buddhist monk. An amazing transformation.
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ori LaGattuta of Marlboro is a Level 1 CrossFit-certified trainer at BareBones. LaGattuta said, “I always enjoyed lifting weights, which a lot of friends thought was weird for a girl.” LaGattuta said that she thinks women look better with muscles and curves, than the iconic American stick-figure. LaGattuta said that she no longer obsesses with the scale, and focuses on her performance, pushing and competing against herself. BareBones co-owner Syndi Acampora is a fulltime mom, part-time police officer and part-time professional photographer. She is also Level-1 certified CrossFit trainer and has certifications in gymnastics as well. Acampora, who said she was not athletic when she was growing up, now considers herself an athlete. “I like that it’s constantly varied,” Acampora said. “I am not a routine person, even in my life. I like the fact that it’s turned my thinking off stepping on a scale into that of an athlete getting stronger, faster and being competitive. It’s unlike going to the gym to do the same bicep curls that you have been doing forever. It’s not about dieting. It’s about eating to have better performance. The body image was just a plus. After having three kids, I didn’t even look like this in my twenties
when I worked out all the time.” LaGattuta and Acampora feel that nothing is worth an injury, and in addition to paying attention to form rather than heavy weights their mutual philosophy is to modify, modify, modify. “Just like in any sport, you can get injured,” Acampora said. “I have been injured lifting weights at the gym, back in the day, oldschool weight-lifting. That’s why we do warm-ups, mobility stretching. We push our athletes, but not till they hurt themselves. There’s a modification for everything. If you have an injury or something tweaked, we can do something else. The important part is to keep people moving. No one has to follow the WOD, we can change whatever we want. There’s no need to get hurt.” Christene Spiezio, of Rosendale, is a CrossFit junkie. She has been to gyms in the past, and found herself bored. She never pushed herself to the limits. “With CrossFit,” Spiezio explained, “I do [push] because you are in a class environment with a trainer with you the whole time pushing you.” Spiezio, a marathon runner and a triathlete, said that CrossFit makes her an even stronger athlete. She appreciates that there is LAUREN THOMAS trainer there to ensure that she’s always doing everything right so she doesn’t hurt herself. “The fittest people are there cheering on the not-as-fit people, and vice versa,” she said. “Everyone is doing the same thing. No one is there trying to show their muscles are bigger. You are always being encouraged by one another. I guess, as cheesy as it sounds, it’s like a family. At the gym you can workout right next to someone at the same time every day and never speak to them. In CrossFit everyone knows everyone and works together.” Betsy Riege Strohsal, of Saugerties, is a 66-yearold retired elementary school teacher who has been at CrossFit Ulster in Kingston since last September. She said she has never done anything like CrossFit, but was always active. “The coaches at CFU have been wonderful, understanding my age-related endurance and mobility issues. At the same time, they encourage me to keep on going, at my own pokey pace,” Strohsal said. “When I started I couldn’t even do a burpee. I fell flat on my face and stayed there. I had trouble with many of the moves, even at the lowest weights. I still have coordination problems, but am improving, and the weights I can manage are increasing. So is my endurance. I love rowing, I think because I can do it sitting down.” The best part for her is the much-talked-about CrossFit Community. “It’s very real,” she said. Strohsal signed up for CrossFit games for a second year to see where she compared with her fellow seniors. Jennifer Araujo, of Kingston, said she has lost 40 pounds in four months, and has made significant gains in strength and endurance. “My doctor has confirmed that my heart is actually stronger and pumping blood more efficiently,” she said. “Plus, it is super fun and makes you feel like an invincible superhero.”
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