A stronger family bond with fitness
There comes a point in every father-son relationship when the days of playing catch in the backyard for hours on end come to a halt.
New hobbies form when most physical activities take a back seat as time starts to catch up with everyone.
Bob Caslin and his son, Brendan Caslin, have taken that second statement and put it to bed. Their game of catch has been replaced with barbell snatches. Their father-son bonding involves a lot of chalk, a lot of sweat, plus clean and jerks until their lungs have exerted nearly every breath in their bodies.
The Caslins spend most mornings before the sun comes up together at CrossFit Southie finding new ways to push their bodies to the limit.
“He’s always been a way better athlete than I’ve been,” Brendan said about his dad. “It’s definitely motivating to have him around.”
The Lincoln natives both happen to be pretty good at this workout phenomenon. Brendan, 23, was an alternate on a team from CrossFit Southie that almost qualified for the CrossFit Games in California.
Bob got to the place where Brendan wants to go.
CrossFit athletes compete in an open competition where they complete five workouts in five weeks and post their best score to try to qualify for regionals. From there the top athletes attempt to qualify for the CrossFit Games.
Bob, 60, led the Masters Division (60-plus) through one day of competition in Carson, Calif., at the StubHub Center. He ended up finishing third overall in his age bracket in his first crack at the biggest stage in the sport.
“I never thought I would be there,” Bob said.
Bob stopped his days of marathons and triathlons to focus solely on CrossFit after Brendan introduced it to him. Brendan joked about leaving that first workout wondering if he had to pull the car over for his father to either throw up or get checked out for chest problems.
From there, Bob said he just worked and stuck with it, and was a few workouts from being called the best CrossFit athlete in the world for his age.
Bob said he had major problems with a move called the muscle-up, a pull-up to dip-type workout, and that’s what hurt his chances. But to be on that stage in his first year of attempting to do so was a major motivating factor. The failure was too. “It’s one of those things in my mind where I will never, ever fail these again,” said Bob.
Go to the gym in the morning and Bob will be there stacking weights, figuring out how to get better with every lift. In the same building will be Brendan sweating from head to toe just like his old man.
“I’ve had a lot of guys in their 20s and 30s come up to me and say they wished their dads did this, too,” Bob said.
The goal is to keep getting better and stay healthy enough for a run at another CrossFit Games next year.
Bob and Brendan both want to be in California again when the games go on a year from now.
But they want to be cheering on each other, adding to the bonds of a son and a father.
“It’s just motivating to be around him with how hard he works at it every day,” Brendan said. “It speaks to how motivated he is to do what he wants to do.”