source: Reach for the Rings

Ok. Let me be honest here. I made this movie. Of course I'm going to give it a great review, but what I really want to do is to give you a sense of what it is and why you ought to watch it. This film was the result of a lot of passion, dedication, and precious time. FUNCTIONAL FITNESS is a sport with audacious ambitions to redefine sports entirely, and to change the way people think about fitness and athletic activities. This is a philosophical movement about preparedness and well-roundedness and big questions like, "how do you find out who is the best at everything?" or, "how do you train to be good at EVERYTHING?" I'm not supposed to talk about CrossFit, and I didn't, I didn't mention that company once throughout the entire 2-hour film. However, I was one of the first 100 people in the world to be involved in CrossFit, back when we looked at it more as a cultural movement and not just a big company with huge corporate deals and a massive media presence. I like to think that this film, and the iF3 itself, is kind of like what CrossFit would have looked like by now if I was in charge. This is like CrossFit got together with the Olympics and made a baby. This is the sport of functional fitness in an international competitive showcase that is organized on a country-by-country basis with democratic, not-for-profit, grassroots federations. The film follows members of the Canadian and USA Functional Fitness teams as they travel to Sweden to compete for gold in the World Championships of the International Functional Fitness Federation. IF you follow the sport, you will recognize these athletes from the CrossFit Games, Sanctionals, Regionals, and other comps. The film shows all the events of the weekend (6 tests each for 3 divisions of athletes) and explains how the movements are judged, how the tests are scored, and why the athletes were given the tests they were given. The whole nuts and bolts of the iF3 and their World Championships are laid out in an entertaining way with a hip-hop soundtrack, thousands of on-screen graphics, and some incredible athletes. I hope you like it!

A great introduction into the world of the IF3 as they make strides to becoming an Olympic sport.

Great mixture of action and explanations about the sport and the functional fitness federation, and how it relates to CrossFit as a brand. It would be awesome to see this sport in the olympics! And of course James Fitzgerald is a legend, it's always good to hear him talk about the sport!

Reach for the Rings