What is CrossFit?

What is CrossFit?

 

CrossFit is a unique form of training that is slowly making its way from obscure warehouse style venues into mainstream fitness centers. It involves training the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems simultaneously and is most often performed in a competitive group environment (they even have CrossFit Games!). CrossFit uses only functional compound movements, some of which could be considered highly unconventional and some of which we have been doing in the gym for years.

 

Aim

The aim of CrossFit is to develop a broad, general, and all inclusive level of fitness. It is designed to prepare participants for any physical task, rather than being sport specific. Its developers looked at all sport and physical tasks collectively, and asked what physical skills and adaptations would most lend themselves to an across the board performance advantage. Its specialty is, in short, not specialising.

Prescription

The CrossFit prescription is “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement.” Functional movements are compound (multi-joint) movements that are intended to be natural, efficient and effective at moving resistance, whether of the body or external to it. Devotees believe that there is no aspect of functional movement more important than the capacity to move large loads over long distances, quickly. These three attributes (load, distance, and speed) are believed to make functional movement uniquely qualified for the production of high power or intensity. CrossFit also recognises intensity as the variable most commonly associated with favourable adaptation to exercise, and so their prescription of functionality and intensity is constantly varied. They believe that preparation for random physical challenges, as provided by most sport and physical tasks, is at odds with fixed, predictable, and routine regimens.

 

Methodology

 

The methodology that drives CrossFit is entirely empirical, meaning guided by experience and observation rather than scientific method or theory. It is referred to as “evidence-based fitness”, which depends on full disclosure of methods, results, and criticisms. The Internet (and various intranets) has been used to support these values and the resulting open charter has made co-developers out of participating coaches, athletes, and trainers through a collaborative online community. CrossFit claims to be empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed.

 

Implementation

 

The implementation of CrossFit is done, quite simply, as a sport, the “sport of fitness.” It is believed that harnessing the natural camaraderie, competition, and fun of sport yields an intensity that cannot be matched by other means. The late Col. Jeff Cooper observed that “the fear of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death.” It has also been observed that “men will die for points” and so, using whiteboards as scoreboards, keeping accurate scores and records, running a clock, and precisely defining the rules and standards for performance, is believed to not only motivate participants to unprecedented output levels but produce relative and absolute gains from every workout.

 

Adaptations

 

CrossFit developers claim that their commitment to evidence-based fitness; by publicly posting performance data, co-developing their program in collaboration with other coaches, and their open-source charter in general; has made it easy for them to measure the adaptations elicited by CrossFit programming. They claim that CrossFit increases work capacity beyond the initial aim of building a broad, general, and inclusive fitness program and that participants have experienced performance improvement s in VO₂ max, lactate threshold, body composition, and even strength and flexibility.

 

Conclusions

 

“CrossFit is a community where human performance is measured and publicly recorded against multiple, diverse, and fixed workloads. It is an open-source engine where inputs can be publicly given to demonstrate fitness and fitness programming, and where coaches, trainers, and athletes can collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.”  For us traditionalists the concept of CrossFit may be a little hard to embrace without scepticism, but in true CrossFit style we should perhaps withhold judgment until we have been guided by experience and observation rather than scientific method or theory.