Saugus Fire captain opts for intense workouts

SAUGUS – The gym inside CrossFit Route 1 looks more like a warehouse than a normal fitness center.Outside the open garage door, four giant dump truck tires sit in a pile. Inside the gym, three sets of Olympic rings hang from the ceiling above some of the CrossFit equipment: wooden boxes, car tires, and a rack of chains, ropes and thick rubber exercise bands. Metal pullup bars are also spread throughout the gym along with some more common equipment like free weights and jump ropes.It?s here that Saugus Fire Capt. Christopher Rizza has been coming six days a week for more than two years.?A big part of it is classes and the workouts change every day,” said Rizza. “You never know what it?s going to be ? It?s functional movements with varying intensity. It?s basically a combination of Olympic lifting and gymnastics and body movements.”CrossFit has been gaining in popularity over the years and Rizza, who teaches fitness at the state fire academy, said once he tried a class, there was no turning back.?It?s a whole different experience as far as working out with a class and with people who are cheering you on and encouraging you,” said Rizza. “Going to the gym, you?re working out by yourself and everyone has those days where you?re not motivated. If you show up here and you?re not motivated, by the time you walk in the door you?re motivated.”On Tuesday, Rizza and about a dozen other members started off their hour-long workout with a squat hold warmup, where you squat all the way down and hold it for a minute.?It seems easy, but your legs start burning after 10 or 20 seconds,” said Rizza.From there the group warmed up with jump squats, where you squat as low as possible and then jump as high as possible.Then it was on to squats, where Rizza squatted 235 pounds on a barbell across his chest.Rizza also demonstrated some of the other intense workouts, such as the “toes to bar” workout, where you hang from a pullup bar and then touch your toes to the bar.Some of the workouts, which are written in dry erase marker on a wall-sized white board, are named after military personnel killed in the line of duty.One workout, called “The Karen,” has the person do 150 wall balls, where you take a 20-pound medicine ball, squat all the way down, jump up and then throw the ball up at least 10 feet.This one is one of the more grueling exercises, said Rizza.?You have to do it 150 times,” said Rizza. “Every single one of them has to hit the wall. The coaches are walking around making sure I go all the way. If I do a half squat, they don?t count.”And the penalty for dropping the ball is a wall walk, where you get into a pushup position with your feet planted against the wall and then walk up the wall until your doing a handstand.?Now you?re already tired, you have to do a pushup and walk all the way up the wall and touch your chin to the wall and then walk back down,” said Rizza.But for any participants who may not be able to pull off the full exercise, Rizza said they can be modified to make them easier.Because he never knows what workouts he?ll be doing on any given day, Rizza said it?s the perfect routine for a firefighter.?I never know what I?m going to go to, so it prepares me for any aspect of the job,” said Rizza. “I?ve brought a couple of the guys here and a couple of the guys I teach with at the academy. In other communities there are a whole bunch that are doing it.”CrossFit also has a strict set of 20 rules written above the gym which include, “learn everyone?s name,” “don?t clean up until everyone is done” and “puke in the bucket.”But while a monthly membership starts at $125, Rizza said the extreme workout he gets is well worth the cost.?If you pay $10 a month at a gym you?re going to get $10 results,” said Rizza. “If you come here and pay $150 a month, you?re going to get $150 results. People here lose a ton of weight and whatever they?re trying to excel in they usually accomplish. Most of the people that come here can?t go back to a regular gy