16 Sep 2017

CrossFit: a new religion?

From This Way Up, 12:15 pm on 16 September 2017
Rope training

Rope training Photo: (Scott Webb via unsplash.com)

With an estimated 4 million daily practitioners worldwide, this back-to-basics exercise movement is taking the world by storm.

You'll see people doing push-ups and vigorous sprints holding sand bags on many streets across New Zealand and at gyms or 'boxes' where CrossFit devotees meet to train.

With its emphasis on the power of shared experience and community, Casper ter Kuile (who's an Innovation Fellow at Harvard University) thinks CrossFit shows many of the characteristics of an emerging modern religion in an increasingly secular age.

Tableau d'entrainement CrossFit

Tableau d'entrainement CrossFit Photo: (Colby Otero CC BY 2.0)