Photo credit: kivitv.com
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Jason George felt helpless. He watched his wife fight and beat breast cancer, but soon after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and there was little he could do.
That’s when George, a biology teacher at Vision Charter School in Caldwell, Idaho, decided to start CrossFit because he thought it would be a “health outlet.”
he was right Not only has his health and fitness improved, but he said that when he was doing CrossFit, “it was so hard that I couldn’t think about the other issues going on in my life.” .
My wife and two daughters started attending 5:30 am CrossFit classes, and CrossFit became a family affair.
- “It was positive for my wife to be able to help control her MS. It’s unusual for children to get up so early, but they wanted to go,” he said.
Seeing the changes CrossFit has made for the whole family, George became a Level 1 coach (now a Level 3 coach) and in 2017 opened an on-site CrossFit gym to offer CrossFit classes to high schools. I consulted with the school administrator about setting it up. student.
- “They didn’t know what CrossFit was. But they were like, ‘Of course,'” said George, who is also the boys’ basketball coach at the school.
where he is today: George runs today vision crossfitis a non-profit affiliate based in Vision Charter School, a 100% donation-dependent affiliate that offers students CrossFit classes as an alternative to traditional physical education.
Specifically, George teaches four CrossFit classes a day and has 80 students, “that’s about a third of the entire high school,” he said.
This program is so popular that there is a waiting list every year. What’s more, Vision Charter School has only one traditional physical education class left, and George said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if CrossFit becomes an entire physical education program soon.”
George explained that despite today’s popularity and success, there was a long way to go to establish what the program had become.
- “When we started[in 2017]there was no real space. We were outdoors most of the time, welding pull-up bars in shipping containers and a lot of the equipment I built,” he said.
Ultimately, George was able to negotiate to use part of an existing gym, but he still had to store and carry all the CrossFit equipment in the science lab.
But three years ago, the school built a new gym, and George persuaded school administrators to provide part of the space for his CrossFit program. At the same time, Rogue was able to secure several grants to purchase his rig and a decent number of barbells and more.
One big thing. Vision Charter School’s CrossFit program has been particularly successful in introducing fitness to teens who weren’t interested in sports.
- In fact, George estimates that 50 percent of kids enroll in his CrossFit classes. The remaining 50% tend to be athletes already in the sport, which “is also a great way to bridge the gap between those two groups,” he said.
Big picture: Seven years later, Vision CrossFit positively impacts the lives of dozens of students each year. This is what parents are constantly repeating to George through verbal feedback and financial donations, and something George is constantly witnessing firsthand.
- “They start changing their eating habits. They’re a little more motivated to come to school…they say, ‘If it wasn’t for this class, they wouldn’t be in school today,'” George said.
- “A child without kinesthetic Someone who doesn’t know what their back looks like when deadlifting will eventually fix it. It’s very cool,” he added.
And George is thrilled to find that what he teaches about health and fitness sticks with them even after they graduate from high school and become adults. Since he uses his Beyond the Whiteboard in class, “I still see kids who were in my class five years ago posting their workouts,” he said.
“It’s the little things like that that move you forward.”
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