{"id":43173,"date":"2014-09-26T14:54:07","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T19:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=43173"},"modified":"2026-10-28T20:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:43:32","slug":"art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/strength\/fitness\/art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz\/","title":{"rendered":"Art of Manliness Podcast #83: Learning to Breathe Fire With J. C. Herz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode I talk to writer J. C. Herz about her book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385348878\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0385348878&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkId=5QEJZUV7V2Q5EWFO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness<\/em>.<\/a> Unless you&#8217;ve been living under a rock, you&#8217;ve probably heard about CrossFit. I&#8217;ll admit that before I read&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0385348878\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0385348878&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess-20&amp;linkId=5QEJZUV7V2Q5EWFO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Learning to Breathe Fire,<\/em><\/a> I had just a vague idea of how CrossFit worked, and was honestly pretty skeptical of it. My only interaction with the program&nbsp;has been giving the CrossFitters (or &#8220;fire breathers&#8221; as they sometimes call themselves) at my gym the stink eye for taking all the barbells from the squat racks so they could do their hang cleans. So it was interesting to read a book that goes into the history, philosophy, and even anthropology of CrossFit, and why it has become so popular so quickly. While the book didn&#8217;t turn me into a full-on convert, it did really broaden my perspective of the program, and&nbsp;I even tried my first CrossFit workout after reading it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode I talk to writer J. C. Herz about her book, Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness. Unless you&#8217;ve been living under a rock, you&#8217;ve probably heard about CrossFit. I&#8217;ll admit that before I read&nbsp;Learning to Breathe Fire, I had just a vague idea of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,156,42380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-podcast","category-strength"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CrossFit Culture: Learning To Breathe Fire With J. C. Herz | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this podcast Brett talks with author J. C. Herz about CrossFit culture and politics, which she&#039;s outlined in her book, Learning To Breathe Fire.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/strength\/fitness\/art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art of Manliness Podcast #83: Learning to Breathe Fire With J. C. Herz | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this podcast Brett talks with author J. C. Herz about CrossFit culture and politics, which she&#039;s outlined in her book, Learning To Breathe Fire.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/strength\/fitness\/art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-26T19:54:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-29T01:43:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/83.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/strength\\\/fitness\\\/art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/strength\\\/fitness\\\/art-of-manliness-podcast-83-learning-to-breathe-fire-with-j-c-herz\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Art of Manliness Podcast #83: Learning to Breathe Fire With J. 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