“Microplastics, in turn, can break down into even smaller pieces called nano-plastics, which are less than 1 mm in size. Unable to be seen with the naked eye, these are small enough to enter the body’s cells and tissues.” Vickie Contie, NIH In January a new discovery was announced by the NIH, nano-plastics are in the human body and entering our cells undetected by regular screening. The particles are so small the scientists need a specialized way to detect the particles that are floating in the plastic bottles we drink from daily. This is a serious health concern. We know that plastics in our environment can take hundreds of years to decompose but what kind of damage can they cause to our bodies over time if we continuously consume water from plastic bottles such as Poland Spring? Plastic pollution is in our Boston neighborhoods seeping into our water. The NIH...Read more

Every year I look forward to watching the top athletes in the world compete in the CrossFit GAMES. The movements they do are similar to what we teach every day in our CrossFit classes.  Obviously, they vary in degree but I am always amazed at the beauty of the GAMES athletes technique and the enormous amount of weight on the barbell is inspiring. At this year’s CrossFit Games, Dave Castro, the Director of the GAMES, posted an inspiring message “Go ahead. Beat the boys. We love to see it.” The picture showed Emily Rolfe of Canada beating the men’s GAMES winner; I was reminded again I had landed in the right community. I love the message so much I made it into a t-shirt! Over the past 14 years CrossFit has been central to my life and a great experience. Sure, there are movements I can’t do like a muscle...Read more

I continue to do CrossFit at 55 years old because it’s a fun way to challenge myself, stay fit, and if I had to run a mile at full speed, I want to be able to do it. We don’t think about the unknown and unknowable until it happens, for many not having the strength to lift their own body weight or run away from danger is the reality they face physically. As a CrossFitter you are putting in the time and effort and that is enough to get you into the next decade of life with vitality and avidity. Southie Showdown 2013 There is another aspect of aging much murkier to understand. It’s probably not something you will want to talk about, because you may think it’s out of your control. Our cognitive health is important to our overall health. If you experience cognitive decline as you age you...Read more

To live a long healthy life, strength training must be part of the process. We start to lose muscle mass in our 30s and for the sedentary person this happens in their 20s. There is no way around the loss of muscle as we age but to better understand why we must start and continue weight lifting (or what is referred to as resistance training), you must first understand just what exactly you are losing. If you do not do any kind of weight lifting you will lose muscle in 3 ways: Muscle Mass, Muscle Strength and Power. Muscle strength is very important to our independence and we lose muscle strength at a rate of 2-3 times more than muscle mass. Lost strength means we start to head towards frailty sooner in life. Without strength training our muscles will also also lose the ability to generate POWER. These are referred to as...Read more

“Exercise…I consider to be by far the most potent domain in terms of its impact on both lifespan and health-span.”  Dr. Peter Attia The CrossFit methodology has evolved over the past 13 years since I first took the Level 1 exam. The experience we offer in the gym I believe has grown to include the lifespan and health-span long view. The old CrossFit mantra of “Go Hard, Go Heavy or Go Home” we have finally accepted is not a way to help our members and a sure way to send many down the path of injury and sickness. What has not changed is the theory on energy systems (what CrossFit calls metabolic pathways). Let’s start by relabeling “exercise” with a term that better captures the purpose behind our programming here at Iron & Grit — TRAINING. Why training? Our goal is to train the metabolic pathways that maintain our metabolic...Read more