Understanding CrossFit
The aims, prescription, methodology, implementation, and adaptions of CrossFit are collectively unique, defining of CrossFit, and instrumental in our program’s successes in diverse applications.
AIMS
From the beginning, the aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. we sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency-prepare them no tonly for the unknown but for the unknowable. Looking at all sport and physical tasks collectively, we asked what physical skills and adaptions would most universally lend themselves to performance advantage. Capacity culled from the intersection of all sports demands would quite logically lend itself well to all sport. In sum, our specialty is not specializing. The second issue (“What is fitness?”) of the CrossFit Journal details this perspective.
PRESCRIPTION
The CrossFit prescription is “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.” Functional movements are universal motor recruitment patterns, they are performed in a wave of contraction from core to extremity, and they are compound movement-i.e., they are multi-joint. They are natural, effective, and efficient locomotors of body and external objects. But no aspect of functional movements is more important than their capacity to move large loads over long distances, and to do it quickly. Collectively, these three attributes (load, distance, and speed) uniquely qualify functional movements for the production of high power. Intensity is defined exactly as power, and intensity is the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing favorable adaptation to exercise. Recognizing that the breadth and depth of a program’s stimulus will determine the breadth and depth of the adaptation it elicts, our prescription of functionality and intensity is constantly varied. We believe that preparation for random physical challenges-i.e., unknown and knowable events-is at odds with fixed, predictable, and routine regimens.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology that drives CrossFit is entirely empirical. We believe that meaningful statements about safety, efficacy, and efficiency, the three most important and interdependent facets of any fitness program, can be supported only by measurable, observable, repeatable fact, i.e., data. the CrossFit methodology depends on full disclosure of methods, results, and criticisms, and we’ve employed the Internet (and various intranets) to support thses values. Our charter is open source, making co-developers out of participating coaches, athletes, and trainers through a spontaneous and collaborative online community. CrossFit is empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed.
IMPLEMENTATION
In implementation, CrossFit is, quite simply, a sport, the “sport of fitness.” We’ve learned that harnessing the natural camaraderie, competition, and fun of sport or game yields an intensity that cannot be matched by other means. The late Col. Jeff Cooper observed that “the fear of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death.” It is our observation that men will die for points. Using whiteboards as scorecards, keeping accurate scores and records, running a clock, and precisely defining the rules and standards for performance, we not only motivate unprecedented output but derive both relative and absolute metrics at every workout; this data has important value well beyond motivation.
ADAPTATIONS
Our commitment to evidence-based fitness, publicly posting perfromance data, co-developing our program in collaboration with other coaches, and our open-source charter in general has well positioned us to garner important lessons form our program-to learn precisely and accurately, that is, about the adaptations elicited by CrossFit programming. What we’ve discovered is that CrossFit increases work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This is a discovery of great import and has come to motivate our programming and refocus our efforts. This far-reaching increase in work capacity supports initially stated aims of building a broad, general, and inclusive fitness program. It also explains the wide variety of sport demands met by CrossFit as evidenced by our deep penetration among diverse sports and endeavors. We’ve come to see increased work capacity as the holy grail of performance improvement and all other common metrics like VO2 max, lactate threshold, body composition, and even strength and flexibility as being correlates-derivatives, even. We’d not trade improvements in any other fitness metric for a decrease in work capacity.
WHAT IS THE CROSSFIT METHOD?
The CrossFit method i sto establish a hierarchy of effort and concern that builds as follows:
DIET- Lays the molecular foundations for fitness and health.
METABOLIC CONDITIONING- Builds capacity in each of the three metabolic pathways, begining with areobic, then lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways.
GYMNASTICS- Establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion.
WEIGHTLIFTING and THROWING- Develop ability to control external objects and produce power.
SPORT- Applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with more randomized movements and skill mastery.
All of the information listed above is provided by CrossFit and the CrossFit journal.
