Are you fed up with CrossFitters?
Mar 13, 2015, 3:31 PM | Updated: 4:56 pm
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
CrossFit gyms seem to be popping up in near every neighborhood, but not all the neighbors are happy about it.
From groups of people sprinting down sidewalks to the sounds of medicine balls crashing on the floor, the workout spaces are hard to miss.
“The reason I know there’s one in my neighborhood,” said KIRO Radio Tom & Curley Show host Tom Tangney, “is because as I’m waiting for the bus at like 5:50 in the morning all of a sudden there are like 7 or 8 people that come out of the dark they come running past me. At first, I go, ‘Oh my God what are they doing?’ Until I realize, oh yeah they just opened a CrossFit gym down the street.”
A report from KING 5 said people who live next door to a CrossFit in Belltown are calling the constant bangs and vibrations noise torture.
“Your windows rattle,” resident Amanda Chavez told KING 5. “The floor shakes.”
Co-host John Curley, who is a CrossFitter himself, acknowledged there is a good deal of noise associated with the workouts.
“When you pick up a big 25 pound medicine ball and you do ball slams, it can make some noise,” Curley said.
Tom, unfamiliar with the practice, asked why they have to do ball slams if they’re so noisy.
“Because Tom, you’re using your abductors, you’re using your core, you’ve got your traps involved,” Curley said. “It’s great.”
“The greatest feeling in the world is picking up a bunch of weight and dropping it,” he added.
“And boom goes the fourth floor of the next building over,” noted Tom.
Supposed CrossFit offenses also happen outside the gym, in parks and other public spaces, said producer Bryan Buckalew.
“I’m sitting there enjoying a sunny afternoon, maybe reading my book in the park, and all of a sudden about six dopes stand right next to me grunting, box jumping and basically just looking like goof balls,” said Buckalew. “I have some guy right next to me sweating, panting, then it’s, oh I should take my shirt off.”
But Curley said it’s a great workout. If it’s bringing better health to people, is it right to complain?
What do you think? Should we ask CrossFitters to tone it down or let them run free?