In between his clean and jerks, I ask Ariel how much longer he needs before our interview. "Now is fine," he says, loading 10-lb plates on each side of the bar. I tell him I can't interrupt. "No, no, no, not a problem," he says, "I could use the company." The 12:30 class has just finished, and on this day, one of the muggiest of the summer, we're alone. Ariel already worked out in the morning, and I watch as he grips the bar, 155 pounds, hoists it to his hips, whips it up to his shoulders, squats, and then presses it above his head. When the weight's back on the ground, I ask him what program he's doing. "I guess I'm always training for the Games," he says a little sheepishly, walking toward the stacks of rubber plates. "Which means I have to train what I'm worst at.

By Spenser Mes Last summer, CrossFit Virtuosity member Ivan Dimov was at a party in his native Bulgaria. "I'm outspoken," Ivan says, "and it became kind of obvious that I'm gay." Later that night a teenager approached him, fumbling, nervous. He said he was gay too, and that he didn't have anyone to talk to. "I was probably the first person he ever told," Ivan says. The moment was pivotal for Ivan, who left Bulgaria after high school to attend Williams College in Massachusetts and has since spent more than 20 years living and working in the United States. “Of course I knew that Bulgaria is not an easy place to be gay,” says Ivan, “but that was when I started to think seriously about what I could do to make things better.”

By Spenser Mes Andrew Bielawski says it was easy to find a squad for the masters division of last year's CrossFit Team Series competition. "We just gathered all the old [sic] people from Virtuosity," he laughs. The CFV team, which included Maibritt Jensen, Lucas Rooney, and Elizabeth Wipff, brought the heat. As Andrew remembers it, their only hiccup was a workout that opened with jump roping: "Rooney and I both struggled. The ladies finished their portion of the entire workout before we had even finished our double-unders." In the end, though, "Old Dawgs, New Trix" placed a very respectable 69th in the world. Encouraged by that success, Andrew and Maibritt decided to compete this year at the Long Island Masters Team Competition in Hauppauge, New York. Andrew is 47, but since the youngest team member determines the age bracket, they competed with the 40-44 year-olds. While the second workout brought back Andrew's old double-under nemesis, thankfully the rules allowed Maibritt to complete most of them. For Andrew, the real struggle came later during the fourth workout of the day, a six-minute max distance sled push, which he described as, "the most brutal thing I've done." "Please Please Please," he posted on Facebook, "NEVER program sled pushes."