IS STREETLIFTING THE NEW CROSSFIT?

The hyped-up hybrid of calisthenics and weightlifting is about to make all of us rethink what it means to be strong and fit.

- CORI RITCHEY, CSCS

FEW EXERCISES ARE more brutal than the muscle-up. So why is William Santiago trying to make it even harder? That’s the burning question here at Chiseled Life Gym in Columbia, Maryland, as Santiago, clad in a black-and-red bodysuit (an ode to Dragon Ball Z baddie Jiren, if you're curious), approaches the pullup bar. Santiago, who weighs maybe 170 pounds, has a weight belt that says PIONEER around his waist—and a whopping 50 pounds attached to it.

His chalky hands grasp the bar as he inhales deeply. Then comes the jolt of upward energy, driving first his chest and then his hips to bar height. His elbows lock out. He’s just done a weighted muscle-up, a brutal test of strength, power, and coordination. After three judges signal that Santiago’s “lift” is good, he releases a sigh of relief, lowers himself, and lets out a celebratory yell. The small crowd erupts.

Santiago and 33 other athletes are midway through the U.S. championships of a training discipline called streetlifting, which just may land in a gym (or park!) near you. Streetlifting has you add weights to four classic calisthenics exercises. And it’s the antidote to a strength-training status quo that’s spent much of the last two decades pushing guys to pack on size in hope of lifting heavier.