What Is Cropfit?
Subway’s new “Cropfit” commercial satirizes “Crossfit,” but Strongman training with manual labor based on nineteenth-century farming practices can actually work to get you fit fast. Get-Fit Guy explains.
Ben Greenfield
Subway recently released a pretty hilarious commercial about a new form of exercise called “Cropfit,” in which you exercise the same way as a farmer would. “Cropfit,” as the commercial calls it in a bit of a Crossfit parody, is “hardcore fitness based on nineteenth-century farming practices.”
The commercial satirizes the idea of “Cropfit,” but as you learned in my episode on Strongman Training For Fitness, this kind of manual labor can actually work to get you fit fast in a very functional way.
Just think about it, a nineteenth-century farmer would be pushing, pulling, lifting, hoisting, bending, twisting, and moving all day long. While you may not have a farm, and you may not have a desire to build a giant wooden barn, you can certainly inject a little extra fitness in your daily routine with activities such as
- Going to your local hardware store, buying a rope, attaching it to a tire or cinder block, and practicing dragging an object in your driveway or backyard,
- Planting a small patio garden and going outside (moving!) to water, pick, plant and care for your plants,
- Going to a park that has a safe and sturdy wooden fence and climbing over fences, under fences, or even balancing on top of fences,
- Finding a heavy river rock and carrying it up or down a hill, or (more practically) building a wall, firepit, gardening area, etc. in your backyard with large rocks.
I’m sure you may have more ideas. Do you have more questions about how to keep yourself by exercising like a farmer, or your own ideas to share? Then join the conversation over at Facebook GetFitGuy!
Manual labor in agriculture image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.