What is CrossFit?(And why should you be doing it?)

What is CrossFit?A strength and conditioning program built upon

constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity.

Who uses this stuff?• Military Special Ops units

• Firefighters• Police

• Professional and Collegiate Athletes• Mixed Martial Artists

• Hopefully you, your kids, and your parents.

It has long been our contention, our observation, that people’s needs differ by degree, not kind.

Olympic athletes and our grandparents both need to fulfill their potentials for cardio-respiratory endurance,

stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination, accuracy, balance, and agility. One is looking for

functional dominance; the other is looking for functional competence. Competence and dominance manifest and

optimize through identical physiological mechanisms. We scale our program by altering rest, load, intensity,

etc. while utilizing the same exercises for everyone whenever possible.

-Greg Glassman

CrossFit Founder

What is Fitness?Fitness Model 1

Identification and development of 10 general physical skills:

1. Cardio Vascular and cardio respiratory endurance –gas exchange2. Stamina –muscular endurance3. Strength4. Flexibility

Each of these four skills are organic, produce changes in muscle tissue that can be seen and measured, and are improved through training.

5. Power6. Speed

These two are improved through both training and practice and need both for proper development.

7. Coordination8. Accuracy9. Agility10. Balance

The last four are neurological and are improved through practice. The degree to which a training program addresses each of these physical adaptations to training is expressive of its efficacy. 1.

Fitness Model 2

The second model is statistical and is a measure of an athlete performing well at any physical test thrown his or her way. Load a hopper with athletic tasks and the better athlete is able to do more of them better than the inferior athlete. CrossFit is designed for this type of general physical preparation. Life, on average, punishes the specialist. The more specialized you are, the less cross-adapted you are likely to be in other measures of physical prowess.

Elite endurance athletes are often looked upon as the prototypes of elite fitness. Models 1 and 2 clearly debunk that prototype. Elite endurance athletes exhibit few of the physical skills of the first model and would fare poorly against the hopper. 1.

"CrossFit is in large part derived from several simple observations garnered through hanging out with athletes for thirty years and willingness, if not eagerness, to experiment coupled with a total disregard for conventional wisdom. Let me share some of the more formative of these observations:

1. Gymnasts learn new sports faster than other athletes. 2. Olympic lifters can apply more useful power to more activities

than other athletes. 3. Powerlifters are stronger than other athletes. 4. Sprinters can match the cardiovascular performance of endurance athletes even at extended efforts. 5. Endurance athletes are woefully lacking in total physical capacity. 6. With high carb diets you either get fat or weak. 7. Bodybuilders can’t punch, jump, run, or throw like athletes can. 8. Segmenting training efforts delivers a segmented capacity. 9. Optimizing physical capacity requires training at unsustainable

intensities. 10. The world’s most successful athletes and coaches rely on exercise science the way deer hunters rely on the accordion."

-Greg Glassman, CrossFit Founder

World Class Fitness in 100 Words

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

-From www.CrossFit.com

How We Do It

• Functional Movement– Common Universal Recruitment Patterns.

– Universally Scalable.

• Constant Variation– Routine is the enemy.

• High Intensity– Uncomfortable

• Quantifiable Outputs– Horsepower, Watts, etc. Why isn’t anyone else talking about

this?

Quantifiable Outputs

Diane: 21-15-9 reps of 225# Deadlift followed by Handstand Pushups-Mark stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about 210 pounds. His best time for ‘Diane’ is just over 2.5 minutes.

225# + 105# x 2 feet x 45 reps = 29,700 foot-pounds of work

210# x 1 foot x 45 reps = 9,450 foot pounds of work.29,700 + 9,450 = 39,150 foot pounds of work.

-divide that by 2.5 minutes = 354 watts

Bench Press: 3 sets x 10 reps x 225# x 1.5 feet = 10,125 foot-pounds

- divide that by 2.5 minutes = 92 watts

IntensityWe can measure intensity because we can measure power. Power is a function of Force and Distance over Time (M x D / T). It is undeniable that an increase in power results in an increase in intensity. To increase power, you can increase mass and/or distance, or decrease time. Manipulating any one of these factors to increase power must result in an increase in intensity.

Intensity is all about hard and fast. Power is an issue wherever velocity is important. Exercise success is based on intensity. INTENSITY IS WHERE THE RESULTS ARE. Functional movements move from core to extremity and can tolerate high loads and move them long distances in a short amount of time.

The movements are powerful in that they allow a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. In this discussion, power = intensity. Without power and intensity, the neuro-endocrine response is blunted. There is a potent neuro-endocrine response to each of the movements that we do in CrossFit. This hormonal response is systemic and effects the entire body through a cascade of biochemical products that are released as the result of the compound, functional movements executed at high intensity. 1.

Movement Pool

• Weightlifting/Power Lifting– Dead lifts, clean, squat, presses, jerks,

snatch.

• Gymnastics– Pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups,

handstands.

• Monostructural Cardio– Run, bike, row, swim, jump rope.

The Magic is in the Movements!

Unlike the pec deck, leg extensions, curls, and lateral raises which you never see in the real world, the athletic field, or combat, functional movements are not the exclusive property of the gym. If the only place you do a particular movement is at the gym, it probably doesn’t have particularly potent transfer to the challenges of sport and life outside the gym. Functional movements are universal motor patterns that you find your every day life. Putting the heavy dog food bag on the shelf over the washing machine is every bit the clean and jerk as doing the movement with a barbell.

Proper muscle recruitment is like a symphony. Training in segmented fashion develops a segmented capacity. You must not try to develop your muscles separately but rather in the fashion in which they are designed to be used.

Functional movements are common, universal motor recruitment patterns, the things you see and use all the time. Functional movements are efficient and effective. They are not single-joint movements but rather multi-joint movements. They are safe, develop very powerful and useful core strength, provide tremendous neuro-endocrine response, and are the best cardio and best rehab training you can do. .

Progression

• Mechanical Competency– Virtuosity. Doing the common, uncommonly well

• Consistency• Intensity

– This is where the results are hidden! If your workouts are producing little or no results then your dose response curve is

flat.

We fail at the margin of our experiences. –Greg Glassman

. Adapted from Eugene Allen’s CrossFit Certification Notes from February 2006

Can You Keep or Gain Muscle Mass with CrossFit?

If you train the WODs hard, and eat right and get lots of sleep, you will definitely gain lean mass, lose fat, and yes, you can build muscle mass with the CrossFit protocol. More specifically, according to Coach,Here is a hierarchy of training for mass from greater to lesser efficacy:

1. Bodybuilding on steroids 2. CrossFitting on steroids 3. CrossFitting without steroids 4. Bodybuilding without steroids

The bodybuilding model is designed around, requires, steroids for significant hypertrophy. The neuro-endocrine response of bodybuilding protocols is so blunted that without "exogenous hormonal therapy" little happens. The CrossFit protocol is designed to elicit a substantial neuro-endocrine whollop and hence packs an anabolic punch that puts on impressive amounts of muscle though that is not our concern. Strength is. Natural bodybuilders (the natural ones that are not on steroids) never approach the mass that our athletes do. They don't come close. Those athletes who train for function end up with better form than those who value form over function. This is one of the beautiful ironies of training. 2.

2. From www.CrossFit.com