What is CrossFit?

CrossFit is something I stumbled across in the latter half of last year.  As I've said in earlier posts, my old next door neighbor is a CrossFit instructor who used to train out of a local gym until he turned his garage into a gym and started training from there.  I knew he was a trainer of some sort and would see people run from his garage, down my street, past my house, and occasionally run that loop intermittently.  I used to wonder why in the world people would pay him money to run on HIS pavement instead of their own!  Then I found out what they were actually doing and that he actually trained CrossFit.

I received a free CrossFit workout coupon at a local race I ran last year and when Dean, my neighbor, personally invited me to use it, I figured I had nothing to lose.  I did lose, pant sizes, that is.  I only lost 2 pounds, but I dropped 3 pant sizes in 5 weeks!  I knew I was building lean strong muscle because my ability to do things like push-ups and pull-ups increased rapidly.  I had to quickly re-evaluate my diet so I would stop shrinking, but be able to do the work outs.  The work outs were SHORT.  But they were intense.  We lifted weight/ran/did body weight exercises in intervals as fast as we could without jeopardising form.  It was FUN.  The environment was a garage, yet it was anything but dreary and dull.  Nothing but energizing, encouraging, intense, and fun.  In short, I was smitten with CrossFit. 

The majority of CrossFit's workouts are generally set up to complete a certain amount of rounds of certain tasks for time, or to do those tasks for a set amount of time and see how many rounds you can do in that time.  (Glycolytic conditioning)  Both create the need for speed.  Then, the more weight you can manage while holding the correct form, the more intense the work out becomes.  I love the element of racing.  Not to compete with others, but with myself.  Just like in triathlons.  There's no chance I'd ever win a triathlon, but I love to race against myself and my own expectations in each race.  In CrossFit, you race against your time from when you last did that workout.  You record your times or rounds accomplished with the date. 

The workouts are different from day to day.  Some workouts are repeated after several months, some in over a year.  Using constantly varied workouts not only promotes muscle confusion, but as CrossFit intends, it prepares the athlete for the unknown or unknowable.  They can be conditioned to do whatever life requires and do it well.  Where a marathon winner or an olympic weightlifting champion are specialized in their sport, CrossFit specializes in NOT specializing.  They perscribe a broad, general, and inclusive fitness using constantly varied, functional movements at a high intensity.
 
Again, the workouts are not repeated often.  But when they are, you go back and find the time to race against it.  It's a way of challenging yourself to always be better and better and break your last record.  It's a way of measuring fitness that I really really like.  Elite athletes do compete with each other by recording and comparing their times on CrossFit's website. 

I thought I'd give the "encyclopedia" version of what CrossFit is:

CrossFit is a brand of strength and conditioning. It is considered a sport- the "sport of fitness".  CrossFit combines weightlifting, cardio (running/rowing/biking, etc.), and gymnastics. It trains for proficiency in each of ten fitness domains: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. It defines fitness as increased work capacity across broad time (varying lengths of time doing exercise) and modal domains (a wide variety of tasks/exercises). Its program achieves this by provoking neurological and hormonal adaptations across all metabolic pathways.

CrossFit athletes train as a group in a class-like setting.  Classes at affiliated gyms typically include a warm-up, stretching, a skill development segment, and a high-intensity workout that on averages lasts 5 to 20 minutes. They run, row, jump rope, climb rope, carry odd objects, move large loads quickly over long distances, use power lifting and Olympic weightlifting techniques.  Among their equipments used are dumbbells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars, kettle bells, sleds, plyometric boxes, over-sized tires, and medicine balls.  They use many body weight exercises such as pull ups, push ups, sit ups, squats, burpees, etc.  CrossFit emphasizes the importance of functional movements and exercises- doing things that mimic something we do in daily life.  These movements are natural, safe, effective, and efficient.  ie:  lifting something overhead (push press), sitting down to a sofa/toilet and standing up from it (squat), bending over to pick something up off the floor (dead lift).

CrossFit is used in nearly 2,000 gyms worldwide and by many fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and military organizations.

These are a couple of my favorite CrossFit videos:

This is an Adidas commercial with my favorite male and female CrossFit athletes;

Chris Spealler and Heather Bergeron.

So that's CrossFit.  I've gotten a little bit of slack for it because I'm already a small person.  No, I'm not trying to lose weight.  No, I'm not a body builder.  CrossFit cares very little about either of those things.  They are all about having ultimate fitness by being able to DO great things.  Today's society tends to think exercise is for people who need to lose weight, or people who are obsessed with their muscles being huge.  I met my weight and size goals a while ago.  So why would I still be exercising?  Because it's supposed to be a life-long lifestyle.  And to me, strenth is a journey not a destination.  My size isn't changing, but I'm getting stronger.  More and more every day.  I don't want to just complete a triathlon, I want to really put my all into it and BE an athlete.  

One of the things I really like about CrossFit is that it doesn't try to make women conform to a mold of what society says women "should" look like.  Today's media would have every woman feel pressure to look one way- even at the expense of true health.  And typically that's very thin and not very muscular.  But we all have unique bodies.

Women in CrossFit break the mold of trying to look like woman are pressured to look.  They accept their body how it is built.  And appreciate what their body is capable of achieving in terms of performance.  It's very refreshing to walk into a gym environment where everyone's body is acceptable.  They're just trying to DO something more than they did the time before. 

Inevitably, CrossFit will make a person lean.  CrossFit workouts are metabolicly affective such that they continue burning calories, not just during the workout, but for up to 48 hours afterward.  Someone wanting to get lean from CrossFit will get lean.  And most women doing CrossFit get to a healthy kind of lean.  But that is not the primary objective for being there.

Anyway, if anyone thinks this is something they would be interested in, go to crossfit.com, and look up an affiliate instructor in your area.  CrossFit is modified for all ages and fitness levels.  If you can't do a single pull-up or push-up, they modify them for you.  It's always simply about getting better and better each time.  It's a blast and you'll love it.