CrossFit is not just another fitness program. Yes, there are many high intensity cardiovascular workouts that promote breaking a sweat, raising endorphins, feeling better, losing weight, gaining muscle and meeting friends. Yes, there are numerous programs that are typically performed in an hour’s time in a group fitness setting with a coach or Best Personal trainer DC.
However, once you attend your first CrossFit class you quickly realize that it is not just another fitness program. There is something unique! Something that makes you want to come back even though the drive to the gym has your anxiety high and the workout itself makes you sweat more than you knew possible. Once you are done with your workout you are beyond grateful that you showed up that day. So what makes CrossFit unique? Is it the people around you? Is it how quickly you see results? Is it trainers pushing and encouraging you? Is it personal goals that suddenly seem achievable; within your grasp? What makes you say “Yes” to all the questions above? What makes it different? Many athletes recognize the difference through how they feel but it wasn’t until I started to learn about the history and methodology of CrossFit that I started to really understand and buy-in. Every aspect of the methodology behind CrossFit just makes sense. It is simple, yet so powerful.
CrossFit is designed to aid ALL people with holistic fitness over time. In fact, the way Coach Glassman (Founder of CrossFit) defines health is “work capacity across broad time and modal domains throughout life.” (The CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide) More plainly said, it is the ability to move as the body was designed at any age. The prescription for achieving this definition of CrossFit is health through movements that “mimic motor recruitment patterns that are found in everyday life.” (The CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide) It is important for people at any age to be able to pick something up off the floor, lift something overhead or stand up from a squatted position. But the other important part of these movements is that they are performed at high intensities and are constantly varied.
Movement variety is what sets CrossFit apart from other sports or fitness programs. Let’s take an Olympic athlete. They are obviously experts in their sport and are likely in the best physical shape to outperform other athletes in that sport. They have spent years perfecting a handful of specific movements to promote excellence in that specific sport. This is not something to be dismissed or be taken lightly; however, it is a different type of training than a CrossFitter because in CrossFit there is never an end to the possibilities of challenges an athlete can face. Constantly Varied! The ability to become an expert in everything is impossible, so the focus of CrossFit is to gain such a variety of muscle stimulus that a CrossFitter can, on average, be more successful in a broader range of challenges overall. Or, at least, a CrossFitter can always be prepared for the unknown.
Due to the vast variety of movements used to train, a CrossFitter should be more successful in a wider variety of movements and “perform well at all tasks, even unfamiliar tasks and tasks combined in infinitely varying combinations.” (The CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide) Rich Froning is deemed the fittest man on earth by the CrossFit community (he has won four individual 1st place finishes at the CrossFit Games and led his team to a championship in 2015). What makes CrossFit athletes “the fittest on earth” versus professional Gymnasts, Olympic weightlifters or marathoners? While a Crossfitter may not finish the race before the marathoner, lift as much as the weightlifter or score a perfect 10 on the rings, when competing with these athletes; on average the CrossFitter should be the most successful. It is not often that an Olympic weightlifter can run distance or a marathoner can muscle up on the rings. A CrossFitter can, as well as snatch, press and deadlift with heavy weight and good form.
So, to get all of this in just one hour a day of training makes CrossFit not just another fitness program. It makes CrossFit an elite, holistic way of life.
