NORFOLK, VA – On a damp football field at dawn, sailors from Personnel Support Detachment – Norfolk perform a high-intensity workout program known as “CrossFit.” Three weeks ago, these sailors were breezing through standard physical training exercises, such as pushups, sit-ups, and a few easy laps around a track. Now they still do all of that, but they’ve turned up the intensity by reducing, or eliminating, rest times. They’ve also added in exercises with funny sounding names, such as “burpees,” “thrusters,” and “farmer’s walks.”

The person behind the change? Petty Officer 2nd Class Jared Fischer, the Assistant Command Fitness Leader for his division and the person responsible for leading PT sessions.

“Well, a couple weeks ago on a Friday night while everyone else was out with their friends,” Fischer says, “I was on the internet and stumbled on the CrossFit website. I drank the Kool-Aid right away. By Monday morning, I was having the division doing a WOD [Workout of the Day] right off the [CrossFit] main page. We did 800 meters of walking lunges, and none of us could walk the next day. It was awesome.”

One of Fischer’s “victims,” as he calls his students, is Petty Officer 3rd Class Tina Martinez, a yeoman and mother of three. “Fischer’s certainly motivated,” Martinez says. “He seems to know what he’s talking about, I guess.”