More and more seniors are using CrossFit to ensure the golden years are rich with vitality. Marty Cej reports.
First, Lu Quast talks about about the cancer and the knee surgeries. Then she talks about about the back injury, which happened first but so long ago the accident can be told with a smile slipping into her voice.
She fell from a ladder when painting a ceiling. She picked herself up and carried on but was left with chronic back pain for years afterwards.
She can’t remember exactly when she fell because it was more than 40 years ago, and since she began focusing on her deadlift, squat and kettlebell swing, the pain is a memory, too. Quast, who turns 78 on Feb. 19, is almost certain she’s the oldest athlete at Bayou City Crossfit in Houston, Texas.
“Being physical is just part of being well,” she says. “I do CrossFit because it makes me feel better. Not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well.”
Quast is just one of many seniors who are discovering something perhaps best summarized by Aaron Carr in the CrossFit Journal article A Brief Letter From a Representative of the Silent Masses:
“CrossFit will likely add years to my life from the health and fitness perspective, but in the here and now, CrossFit is adding life to my years as I have the physical capacity to perform and compete to my heart’s desire.”