Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness
Description
<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>
Story Behind The Book
In the 70's while watching my wife storytell to young children I decided that I had to allow my intuition out or I had to become more intuitive. Within months incredible things began to happen. In Feb '79 at a week long festival in Pasedena California I witnessed my one and only manifistation, that along with an incredible hour speaking with Dr David Davies from Wales inspired me to study the Druids. Five days later and 1500 miles from this event I was handed 120 year old writings on beautiful old parchment paper, the top one read 'Chief Festivals of the Druids' and the second 'The Gaelcerth or Bonfire at Halloween', my birthday. These were given to me by mother who inherited them from someone outside our family. She passed them on to me and for the last 28 years I have explored intuitively these writings referred to by the author, John Hugh Roberts, as the Stone Book of Knowledge, in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Peru and Mexico following up connections he makes in these writings. He spent the later part of his life writing down the stories and discoveries he made from the 1830's and 40's in Cornwall and Wales. A second publication 'The Stone Book of Knowledge' , a 256 handwritten document will be published shortly in 2010.
