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The Athlete of the Month and latest guest on The Stronger Revolution Podcast was Cheryl Lowitzer. Cheryl has been CrossFitting for around 10 years, and was the perfect person to question about CrossFitting for longevity.
One of the popular goals we hear during our No Sweat Intros is trying to stay healthy longer in life, i.e. longevity. Multiple studies have shown how to fight chronic disease. You need a healthy diet and exercise. More and more studies are also concluding that high intensity workouts are better than running on a treadmill or using an elliptical. However, high intensity functional fitness is a newer area of fitness. Thus, we don’t have a lot of long term data showing the ability to do high intensity workouts over decades. So, instead, we have to look for individuals who have done it. That’s where Cheryl comes in.
Cheryl is 60 years old and has been CrossFitting for around 10 years. She is a prime example of someone who has been CrossFitting for a longer period of time and started later in life. She’s still going strong and still seeing progress in her fitness. So, can we conclude that it is possible to do high intensity functional fitness over a long period of time without breaking down our bodies? Only if we can duplicate the results. One example of success is not proof.
In this podcast episode, we sat down with Cheryl to ask just that. How did you manage to start CrossFit at 50 years old and do it for 10 years without any serious injuries or setbacks?
We aren’t going to give away all of her secrets here. That’s what the podcast is for. But, we can tell you that scaling, proper form, and sleep are some big ticket items. Scaling is when you modify the workout as written to your ability. Or, as Cheryl likes to say, scale to how you are feeling today. Proper form and proper range of motion will protect your joints and keep your muscles strong. Finally, GO TO BED. Sleep is necessary for recovery. Recovery is necessary for high levels of performance.
To learn more secrets, a little about Cheryl, check out the episode.
