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The Daily Inter Lake

Strength for the long haul

Trainer advocates a fit way of life

Maintaining the motivation to stay in peak physical condition has never been a struggle for Buford "Buf" Bennett.

Growing up in the Swan Valley, lifting and working out were his passions; as an adult earning his living for many years as a meat cutter, working out became almost a necessity.

"My job was so physical, if I was strong, it would make my job easier," he said.

"If I could lift a lot of weight, then lifting 100 pounds would be no big deal at work."

His belief in a real-world application of fitness led Bennett, 50, to become both an enthusiastic advocate and a business investor in CrossFit, a program emphasizing functional and varied movements done at a high intensity.

"We take the things we do every day in life and help do them better," he said. "It's for everyone from a logger running a chain saw to a housewife picking up groceries and little ones."

After opening the first CrossFit Flathead facility on Montana 35 north of Bigfork in April 2007, Bennett moved to a more spacious site south of Kalispell on U.S. 93 on May 5 this year.

He believes strongly enough in CrossFit to run the business mostly on word of mouth, which is generally how the CrossFit system has worked since founder Greg Glassman first put his customized workout plans on a Web site in 2000.

The headquarters initially were run out of a garage in Santa Cruz, Calif., but CrossFit followers can now be found worldwide, with affiliate facilities found throughout the United States and in England, Australia and Japan.

"If you believe in it, you will sell it for us," Bennett said. "You listen to people talk, and they'll say, 'I'm really sore, but I love it.'"

Investing so heavily in the new facility was frightening, Bennett acknowledged, but he felt like the valley was ready for new and expanded opportunities.

"I felt like I had stepped off a cliff, but knew I had to do this," he said. "In Bigfork, it was more of an introduction to CrossFit, but here you get the full show."

The large warehouse-sized fitness room is equipped with mats, weights, pullup bars and rowing machines, as well as less traditional gym equipment, such as oversized tires, climbing ropes and sandbags.

At CrossFit Flathead, the members get together for classes, offered throughout most weekdays and on Saturday mornings.

There is always a trainer - either Bennett, his partner Todd Widman or new trainer Dave Herron, leading the class and giving personal instruction. New members also get 10 one-on-one sessions with the trainers to learn the nine fundamental movements.

"What we have here is a training facility," Bennett said. "Every time you walk through the door you will have a trainer."

Except rowers, there are no machines used during CrossFit workouts.

"You're the machine," Bennett said.

Instead, CrossFit exercises include a range of physical demands to build strength, speed, balance and flexibility.

The workouts can incorporate aerobic exercises such as running or rowing, Olympic lifts such as the clean and jerk, power lifts such as the squat and deadlift, basic gymnastics with rings and ropes, and then lots of pullups, pushups and squats.

They're thrown together, usually in groupings of two or three, to create the Workout of the Day, which CrossFit headquarters and many affiliates post on their Internet sites daily.

Benchmark workouts help give CrossFit exercisers records of their progress. Bennett said everyone who attends CrossFit is encouraged to keep a journal and personal records are celebrated.

Bennett believes being part of a fitness community is a big benefit to CrossFit. The age range of CrossFit Flathead members is 7 to 86, which is part of why Bennett is such a booster for the program. The trainers scale workouts for each exerciser so no one feels overwhelmed, but is still working up to his or her potential.

His own family is involved in the CrossFit way of life, with his wife, Penelope, working with him at the facility, and his oldest daughter, Tosha, and her two children, Tremayne and Aiden, also working out regularly. His younger daughter Tavonna just moved back to the Flathead Valley from Portland.

Lifting is a big part of the CrossFit curriculum, and Bennett has a long history with weightlifting.

A competitive weightlifter himself for 12 years, Bennett completed a 650-pound squat, 405-pound bench and 600-pound deadlift to win the Inland Northwest Powerlifting Championships in 1996, his last competitive event.

He also is known in the valley as a longtime strength coach for Flathead High School.

In 1991, one of his younger brothers, Grady, currently the head football coach at Glacier High School, had taken a teaching position at Flathead High School and called on his oldest sibling for some assistance in the weight room.

Bennett took on the Flathead strength program as a personal mission, and for more than 15 years he would head over to the high school's weight room after his meat-cutting job ended early in the afternoon.

He was in the weight room until May 2007, working as a volunteer until a paid position was created for him the last few years.

He trained mostly football players and wrestlers.

Bennett was a wrestler himself for Flathead High School, taking second at state his junior and senior years, at 167 and 185 pounds, respectively.

Sports were a lifesaver for Bennett in high school. His father worked for the Forest Service, and Bennett and his three siblings were mostly raised in the Swan Valley, where he grew used to a quiet life with few people around.

It was also where he developed his lifestyle of fitness.

"I had a couple of buddies and all we had was weightlifting," he said. "We became a bit fanatic and worked out three to four times a day - before school, at school, after school."

They moved to the Kalispell area in 1974 while Bennett was in high school, which threw him into a very different environment.

"There were twice as many kids in my class as in the whole school at Seeley Lake," he said. "Sports was my outlet."

Bennett left high school and went to Alaska for a few years before making his way back to the Flathead Valley.

After the creation of Glacier High School, Bennett was planning on following his brother to Glacier when an accident at work left him needing physical therapy.

Mike Close at Bigfork Physical Therapy was interested in CrossFit for his patients. Bennett said he had been incorporating CrossFit into his exercise plan since 2001.

Together they created the first CrossFit affiliate in the Flathead Valley and combined it with Close's physical therapy business, so Bennett decided to take that on as a full-time venture.

Bennett still works with youths, leading CrossFit classes at Summit Preparatory School, a therapeutic boarding school west of Kalispell, since April.

He has enjoyed working with teenagers again, since he misses being in the weight room with high school athletes.

But he finds just as much satisfaction in working with CrossFit adherents, ranging from the top athletes Bennett calls "CrossFit freak shows" to the beginners.

"My goal is when someone walks through that door it doesn't matter what kind of person they are physically, we're going to take care of you," Bennett said. "When they're exercising they have good friends around them and when they leave they feel good. That's what it's all about."

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com