Overview of Crossfit Fitness

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Introduction
Obesity is a growing issue across the United States. A study in 2009 showed that 35% of Americans were obese (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). Those within 35% are not the ones only suffering the effects related to obesity. In 1998, the medical costs of obesity were approximately 78.5 billion dollars. That number had risen to 147 billion as of 2006, and half of the costs were paid by Medicare and Medicaid (Finkelstein, Trogdon, Cohen, & Dietz, 2013). Obesity is defined as a weight higher than a healthy weight for a certain height. Obesity is determined by body mass index, which is calculated using height and weight, which is directly tied to the amount of body fat. A total BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese (Center for Disease Control, 2012). Proper Crossfit training promotes overall health and fitness, and could be a solution to the growing issue of obesity.
History
Crossfit was founded by former gymnast Greg Glassman in Santa Cruz, California in 1995 (Reinink, 2013). A short five years later, a company was born in 2000 known as Crossfit. Crossfit was originally popular among firefighters, police officers, first responders, and military members looking to improve their fitness (Sullivan, n.d.). Crossfit quickly began to gain popularity through the social media, causing gyms to begin to pop up across the United States and around the world. The number of gyms across the globe grew from 12 in 2005 to over 5,000 gyms in 2012 (Reinink, 2013). Crossfit eventually held its first Reebok Crossfit Games in 2007, featuring 70 of the worlds’ most physically fit athletes competing for a grand prize of 500 dollars. In the most recent Crossfit games, there were 70,000 athletes competing for 250,000 dollars (Sullivan, 2013...

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... Attributable To Obesity: Payer- and Service- Specific Estimates. E-
Journal of Health Affairs, Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/5/w822.full.pdf+html Ogden, C.L., Carroll, M.D., Kit, B.K., Flegal, K.M.(2012). Prevalence of Obesity in the
United States, 2009-2010. E-Journal of cdc.gov, Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf Reinink, A. (2013). The Cult of Crossfit. Retrieved November 25, 2013, from http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/January-February-2013/The-Cult-of-CrossFit/ Sullivan, D. (n.d.). A Brief History of Crossfit. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.vpxsports.com/article-detail/industry-news/a-brief-history-of-crossfit Zelman, K.M. (n.d.). Diet Review: The Caveman (Paleo) Diet. Retrieved November 12,
2013, from www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-review-the-caveman-paleo-diet

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