In
my very first
post on 'what is fitness' I mentioned a training program called CrossFit. I
promised that at some stage I would tell you more details about this
program.
This
morning while eating breakfast before going to my (becoming) usual Sunday
CrossFit session, I came across an article on the program in the magazine I was
reading. I took this as a sign it is time to layout the basics of the program
for you so that you can taste and see that it is good/bloody hard.
The
concept was initially developed in 1995 by Greg Glassman when he was hired to
train the Santa Cruz Police Department. Unlike say a 100m sprinter, police
don't have specific areas they have to be good in, they need to be prepared for
pretty much anything. So Glassman developed a program that worked all the
different functional areas of fitness.
Quick
recap for those who didn’t read my first ever post (shame on you) on the ten
elements of physical fitness:
1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to
gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and
utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units,
to apply force.
4. Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to
apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns
into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern
to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of
gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a
given intensity."
The
program has gone on to become popular throughout the services, which is
particularly noticeable with CrossFit's 'hero' workouts. These are set workouts
named after men and women who have died in the line of duty, including police
officers, fire fighters, defence force personnel, etc. I find this rather
touching, and try to remind myself therefore not to swear too much during these
workouts as they tend to be pretty hard.
The
basic concept of the program sounds pretty easy. No two hour long yoga sessions
or 90min spin class. Each workout is usually around 20 mins (excluding warm up
and cool down). They recommend
working out five days a week, in support of your ordinary sport. If I was being paid to keep fit, this
might actually work. As it is, I'm currently trying to go twice a week, and go
to my normal gym three to four other times to do longer cardio sessions. I’m
aiming to work up to doing CrossFit three times a week in the next month or so.
The
biggest appeal of the system (for me) is that the work out is different every
single day. And when I say different, I really mean it. It varies from doing
one rep sets of a maximum weight through to a series of gymnastic moves such as
ring dips and handstand pushups. Some workouts are made to make you focus on
your technique, others are slow and heavy, and others are fast and dynamic. And
they aim to work out your entire body.
The
big thing to note is that all exercises are designed to be scaled. When you
first look at them, they sound insane (and when you keep looking at them, you
realise they are, but they might just be doable). For example, one work
involved 50 chin-ups. What woman, I thought, could do fifty chin-ups? I was
hoping one day to do three, and I thought I had pretty good upper body
strength. But it is possible, someone just has to tell you it is.
Not
quite there yet? Then you can use a resistance band. I had to do them in one of
my first workouts at the CrossFit gym, so they scaled it down for me to do
ring-rows instead (as we had to do 21 reps for 5 sets!) But one day I’ll be up
to doing 10 chin-ups in a row (that’s one of my goals, along with a set of hand
stand pushups – not against the wall).
But
let me tell you how you can actually do it.
First
of all, go to the US CrossFit website. It is set up with so much information that
you really need to spend a good amount of time looking around But the biggest
things I want to point out are the WOD (workout of the day) listed on the main
page, and in the forums they list scaling options. When I first heard about it,
I was living in the country, unemployed and wanting to keep my newly gained
fitness up.
As
I didn’t have access to a gym, I logged onto the website in each day, copied
down the workout and then went to my local park and adapting as best I could.
Luckily they usually have a video of that day’s WOD because a lot of the
exercises I had no idea what they were.
There
were limitations, particularly I couldn’t do the heavy weight workouts, or the
rowing machine exercises (yes, they use ergos!) but by the end of a month of trying
about four days a week to do my own little workout, I was seeing results (of
course, after one day I was feeling them!).
However,
I moved into the city and started doing other things, and would just do about
two CrossFit workouts a month at the gym, whenever I remembered. Surprisingly,
not as effective.
Then
I found out that there was actually a specialised CrossFit gym right near my
house! (Was very excited, this was about two years after I first heard of it).
So only two or three months ago I pottered along to CrossFit South Yarra and
was met by Benjamin. The first workout was free so I joined in. The gym runs
the class for an hour, so you do stretching and a warm up (which might have
previously been my usual workout) and then practice all the moves for the WOD.
Once you have worked out what you are doing, and how you are going to scale
(you get given burpees to do if you scale incorrectly and have to go down
during a work out, the aim is to try and be consistent), the workout starts in
earnest.
Other
than getting the expert advice on scaling and technique, the biggest advantage
I’ve found of going to the group workout (usually 6-8 people) is I just hadn’t
realised the speed with which the exercises were meant to be done. A lot of the
exercises are either trying to do as many rounds in a set time or trying to do
a set number of rounds in the fastest time. Also, the encouragement is pretty awesome.
Do
I recommend the program for everyone? Well, they claim it can be done by
anyone, which is true in that everything can be scaled. However, it takes quite
a lot of grit to keep going in some of them. I think building up grit is an
excellent thing, but if you don’t have it, you might not like the program.
The
other thing I’ve noticed is that if you look at women who do CrossFit, they are
amazingly strong, but haven’t always worked off the layers of fat over that
muscle. Basically what I’m trying to say is that if you are trying to slim down
as well as get strong, CrossFit will definitely help for the high intensity and
weight works out, but you might want to supplement it with longer, slower
workouts that break the 40minute barrier.
But
if you are interested, I recommend starting at a gym so you get proper training
on technique. Affiliated gyms are listed on the US CrossFit website, though you
can also just do a google search. In one way they are a little expensive
(especially if you are only going once or twice a week like me, as they usually
charge a monthly membership). However, for me it’s like having a personal
trainer, and comparative to paying for an hour or even half an hour of personal
training twice a week, it is much more cost effective.
However,
if you don’t have access to a specialised gym and want a varied and challenging
workout, I recommend trying to the WOD from the website yourself. Watch the
videos on technique carefully, and adapt as necessary.
This week’s challenge?
Find a CrossFit gym near you and try their first free session, or try the following WOD and scale appropriately:
Tuesday 121030
"Kelly"
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
For a video of the workout see: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_WOD121030_Kelly.wmv
Big Dawgs
as Rxd
Pack:
“Kelly”
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 Box jump, 24 inch box
15 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
or
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
Puppies:
“Kelly”
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
15 Box jump, 24 inch box
15 Wall ball shots, 14-20 pound ball
Post time to comments.
Buttercups
“Kelly”
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
10 Box jump, 24 inch box
10 Wall ball shots, 14-20 pound ball
Post time to comments.
Sub for wall ball is dumbbell thrusters. 20# for Big Dawgs 10-14# for others.
“CrossFit is not dangerous.
Bad coaching is dangerous, poor movement is dangerous. Ego is dangerous.
CrossFit, properly scaled to the individual is the safest and most efficient program available”
BlueBugofJustice - 18 August 2009
