I’ve been doing this relatively new and innovative workout program for a little over a year now and I have seen so many improvements in my life from it that I decided to become a certified trainer in its methods. The workout program is called CrossFit and I became a CrossFit trainer a little over a month ago. In a few short words CrossFit is: constantly varied, functional movements, performed at a high intensity. I’ll break down each of these for you.
The first tenet of CrossFit is constantly varied movements. This is contrary to what you see in most gyms today. Most gyms will suggest something like chest and back work on Monday, legs on Wednesday, shoulders and arms on Friday, and sprinkle in some cardio on your days off. CrossFit, on the other hand, mixes up the workout every day you come in the gym. For example, my workout today was 100 shoulder presses with 95 pounds for time. But, the workout tomorrow is 5 rounds for time, each round consists of rowing 250 meters, 7 thrusters (essentially pushing the bar overhead) at 135 pounds, and 10 pushups. With these constantly varied workouts it doesn’t allow your body to get in a routine and always keeps it guessing, which helps you see maximum gains.
The second component of CrossFit is functional movements. Notice in the workouts I described above you didn’t see curls or shrugs or bench press, because those movements aren’t functional. Functional movements are movements that you are more likely to see in a real life setting. Things like pushing something over your head or pushing yourself off the ground, these are functional movements. Also, functional movements tend to utilize what things that you already have, like sandbag carries or body weight lifts like pull ups.
The final piece of CrossFit is combining these constantly varied functional movements and performing them at a high intensity. You may be asking what is considered high intensity? Well, scientifically speaking intensity is always equal to power output. Power is equal to weight moved times distance moved all divided by the time it took to move that. I won’t get too technical and go into the mathematical equations behind this. But just know that the workout I did today was done in 15:36, and the power output from that is much greater than a typical day in the gym doing three sets of bench, three sets of curls, and so on.
If none of this make sense to you then look at the results. My brother has lost 20 pounds since doing CrossFit and is in great shape. I have lost 10 pounds and am in the best shape of my life, even better than when I was playing high school football. I can recount countless stories of people at my gym who have had the same or better results from following the CrossFit methodology. If this sounds like anything you would like to know more about let me know, I would love to take you through the basics of CrossFit. If this sounds too hard or too “intense” for you, keep in mind that everything can be scaled to your fitness level. I guarantee if you were to try CrossFit and stick with it for just a few months you would never go back to your old workouts.
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Wow! Your blog is very interesting and informative! I have heard of CrossFit training in the past but i never really knew that much about it. I myself am pretty into working out and now especially since i did not do so much of it while i was abroad. I usually stick to routine workouts at the gym (cardio every day and then legs and arms every other day). I really liked your explanation of the 3 different parts of the CrossFit program. By having these varied constant movements i think it would be much more beneficial. Seeing that you and your brother have both had great results i think it is proof for those who want to give it a try. I may even see the next time i'm at the gym if i can try it out! Thanks for the info :)
ReplyDeleteMan Caleb, Sounds like you are pretty darn serious about this!! I think working out is one of the best things you can do for the mind and body! I work out every day at the gym. I always do 30 to 45 minutes of cardio and lift a little for the rest of the time. I can tell you one thing, after getting done with a workout you just feel like such a different person! I wish our society realized how important it is for your body to work out! Well stick with it. It's always so much easier to after you get your body in a routine! Good luck MAN
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting in shape. I know i could use a little workout. I have heard about the crossfit program and think its lots better than just going to the gym and doing the same thing every day. Its important to keep up with your excersises. Good luck for the workout programs and keeping up with the workouts.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, you have found the holy grail of training.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I haven't done CrossFit specifically, the concepts you mentions are very similar to a program I just started doing about a month ago. The main concept of the program is to always lift the weight with maximum force/effort. From what you wrote, it sounds like CrossFit works around the same principle.
Lifting this way, I have seen tremendous gains in body mass and the amount I can lift. The gains I've made in a month would have taken me 2-3 before.
Keep it up man. I don't know about you, but training this way is also more fun than anything I've tried before.
This sounds like an intense workout. I know that a lot of this stuff is put into some of our workouts for ball. I have never heard of Crossfit until now but it kinda sounds like a P90X type of workout. I wonder if there is a relation. Anywho this sounds really good and I am glad that you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWow that sounds pretty intense, I think I saw something on TV about this not too long ago. My room mate is trying to get in better shape and is trying similar workouts where there is almost constant movement of the whole body, the work out gets more intense as it goes, he does it with a video tape. Not something I would do for myself, but I prefer to just workout on my iron gym. Its a very interesting idea for working out, good luck!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting, Caleb - I've heard of crossfit, but didn't know what it was. It's interesting bc with 3 little ones, my gym time (well, pretty much any organized workout) is nonexistent, yet I am actually thinner and stronger than I've ever been - definitely more cut - I really attribute it to the "real life" workout I get everyday - lifting my boys constantly, carrying the baby, chasing them around the house and the yard - even running is different b/c I'm pushing 80 lbs of children in a triple jogger - this kind of supports the crossfit theory about real life motions. Very interesting!
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