What is CrossFit?

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What is CrossFit?

• (And why should you be doing it?)

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• 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.

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• It has long been our contention, our observation,
  that peoples 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

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• What is Fitness?
• Fitness Model 1
• Identification and development of 10 general
  physical skills
• Cardio Vascular and cardio respiratory endurance
  gas exchange
• Stamina muscular endurance
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Each of these four skills are organic, produce
  changes in muscle tissue that can be seen and
  measured, and are improved through training.
• Power
• Speed
• These two are improved through both training and
  practice and need both for proper development.
• Coordination
• Accuracy
• Agility
• 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.

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• 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.

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• "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 cant 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 worlds most
  successful athletes and coaches rely on exercise
  science the way deer hunters rely on the
  accordion."
• -Greg Glassman, CrossFit Founder

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• 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, CJ, 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

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• 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 isnt anyone else
  talking about this?

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• 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

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• Intensity
• We 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.

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• 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.

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• 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 doesnt 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. ?.

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• 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 Allens CrossFit
  Certification Notes from February 2006

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• 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