A friend of mine tagged me on this post on Facebook, a video on how Henry Cavill, the new Superman, got in shape for the role.
Not only is Gym Jones responsible for Henry Cavill’s new and improved body…
(Internet file photo.)
(Internet file photo.)
…and, get this, the cast of “300”.
Hello, Sparta. (Internet file photo.)
If that isn’t a testament to what they can do, I don’t know what is.
To train with Gym Jones seemed to me like the Holy Grail of fitness and I was already contemplating a pilgrimage. But the gym looked very much like a CrossFit box, so I did a little research.
It turns out that Gym Jones is a former affiliate of CrossFit.
Ex-military man, Russell Berger, trained with Gym Jones and wrote a very interesting article on it. Of course, CrossFit paid for Berger’s course, and the article was written for The CrossFit Journal. Berger also owns CrossFit Huntsville and, according to the blog entry he contributed to The Huffington Post, he is also “a Head Trainer for CrossFit, Inc.”
It’s all very he-said-she-said and I can’t find a timeline for when Gym Jones ceased being an affiliate of CrossFit, but it was definitely before March 2007 (when Greg Glassman, CrossFit’s founder, discussed it on the company’s website).
It would seem though that the roots of Gym Jones’ training can be definitely traced back to CrossFit. Whether they’ve improved on it or not is subject to debate. And since Berger trained with them, if there was anything CrossFit could have gained from the experience, we should already be reaping the benefits. And a pilgrimage to Utah (where Gym Jones is) is completely unnecessary.
For a more glossy media article on Gym Jones, click here for the feature in The New York Times.