Basque Country’s “CFHK” Competition Combines CrossFit and Traditional Basque Sports
CrossFit competitions challenge athletes to lift, press, squat, run, pull, and drag. Their bodies are pushed to the limit across a range of time domains as they are tested across the 10 physical skills, including power, speed, coordination, and stamina.
But by adding a few more skills, like patience and poise, and by swapping out barbells and dumbbells for implements like axes, scythes, stones, and hay bales, we wind up with Herri Kirolak or “Basque rural sports.”
In June, Basque rural sports take center stage at the two-day CFHK Txapelketa, which combines a modern competition structure with old-world implements for a truly unique fitness event.
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Some History
Herri Kirolak was born in the Caseríos, or traditional Basque homes, in Spain and France.
Centuries ago, household chores — transporting heavy implements and cutting wood, lifting large stones for building, moving livestock, and carrying sacks of grain — were all daily parts of life.
Jon Causo, CrossFit Level 2 Trainer at CrossFit Gernika in Gernika, Spain, and CFHK Txapelketa organizer, says that these chores gave way to competition amongst friends, which in time, grew into something more.
- “We Basques have always been people of betting and challenging our neighbors, and so these tasks began to become small challenges between neighboring families, which later gave rise to establishing rules and turning these bets into sports competitions,” Causo tells the Morning Chalk Up.
Over the decades, Herri Kirolak has grown to become a core component of Basque culture and tradition. Competitions are held in Basque country and other locations throughout the world that are home to large numbers of Basque people.
The CrossFit Connection
As seen in Rogue’s Levantadores documentary and strongman Martins Licis’ Strength Unknown series, these Basque rural sports naturally overlap with CrossFit, its athletes, and competition.
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Many CrossFit coaches in Basque Country see the parallels between the two sports, Causo included.
- “We saw the connection in movement patterns and especially in the classic CrossFit definition that speaks of functional movements,” Causo says. “If Herri Kirolak’’s movements were the tasks they needed for everyday life, it is obvious that they are functional movements.”
Here are some examples:
- The txinga erute from Basque rural sports is basically a farmer’s carry.
- Atlas stones from strongman have made appearances at CrossFit competitions, including the 2022 Games. Harri jasotzea, or stone lifting, has been an integral part of Basque rural sports for over a century.
- Shuttle runs, or lokotxak, are tested, as are lasto altxatzea, or bale lifting, which has a similar stimulus to a rope climb.
You can look at CrossFit as a cousin of sorts to these long-practiced tests of fitness.
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Enter the CFHK
The first CFHK competition took place in 2019 in the Basque Country as an exhibition combining CrossFit and Herri Kirolak. Competitors were challenged via components of both sports in complementary combinations.
- Imagine a ladder that includes barbell clean and jerks, as well as cylindrical stone, Atlas stone, and irregular stone lifts.
- Or synchro burpees over a worm, worm holds, sandbag runs, ring muscle-ups, and Basque’s ingude jasotze, which is easier to watch than to describe.
This connection with modern-day CrossFit has reignited interest in Herri Kirolak for many young people in Basque Country and throughout Spain.
This year, CFHK Txapelketa, a CrossFit-licensed event, will be held on June 29 and 30 in Barakaldo, Spain.
- Competitors will choose between four categories: RX, Intermediate, and two versions of Scaled. For RX and Intermediate divisions, four-person teams are comprised of three men and one woman.
- For the Scaled division, athletes can opt to register a three men/one woman team, or a two men/two women team.
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While the workouts have not yet been announced, Causo shared that all events will have elements of CrossFit and Herri Kirolak, challenging athletes to be prepared for the unknown and unknowable.
- “This year, we celebrate the largest edition of the competition, where there are already more than 500 athletes registered, some of them coming from outside the national territory,” Causo says.
The Bottom Line
CrossFit was born of men and women training functional movements to be healthier and fitter humans, using it to improve their daily lives.
Herri Kirolak, on the other hand, originated in reverse: we have seen a sport grow over a century of men and women creating challenges and competition out of daily tasks and chores.
As CFHK Txapelketa continues to grow, the organizers hope that this mashup of sports will help the two thrive, inspiring young athletes to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps.
Featured image: @cfhk.txapelketa / Instagram