The CrossFit Journal recently published an article on whether affiliates should do their own programming or get programming from outside. But on closer inspection, it incidentally ends up forcing one to question whether there is such a thing as “CrossFit programming” at all.
The article starts off with details about pricing:
The CrossFit Journal recently published an article on whether affiliates should do their own programming or get programming from outside. But on closer inspection, it incidentally ends up forcing one to question whether there is such a thing as “CrossFit programming” at all.
The article starts off with details about pricing:
Before I opened my own martial arts school, I used to practice martial arts at a local elementary school on weekends. I would bring my training weapons and other equipment and choose a secluded area of the school where I thought I could practice without interruption. I would usually go to the middle of the soccer field.
Tracking the amount of food you eat is key to accomplishing health, performance or aesthetic goals. While the Zone has been a staple in CrossFit, macronutrient (macro) tracking has become increasingly popular. Both programs require eating a prescribed amount of food every day, but caloric totals rarely match when the exact same meals are evaluated in each system.
This brief neither criticizes nor applauds either system, nor does it discuss how much of each macronutrient someone should eat. Instead, this brief demonstrates and explains the differences in caloric measurement between the two systems so athletes can optimize their approaches.
A while ago I was talking to a friend about a diet she was trying. She was going on week five, and though she had seen some results in the beginning, her progress was starting to slow and she was pretty much miserable.
Shane Upchurch explains what he learned about CrossFit training and coaching while recovering from a 2015 motorcycle accident.
On Aug. 8, 2015, I was hit on my motorcycle by a box truck that ran a red light. I suffered degloving of my lower left leg, three displaced ribs, a bruised lung and swelling of the brain. I spent one month in a hospital and underwent a free flap transplant to my lower left leg, a crainiotomy and a few other smaller operations.
After I was released from the hospital, I spent about five weeks on a couch resting. I finally began working with a physical therapist, and in the beginning I mostly rode the Airdyne before doing my therapy homework. After being cleared by my doctors for all activity, I began working my way back to CrossFit-style training. After all, it was arguably this fit lifestyle that helped me bounce back in the first place.
In dealing with my return to CrossFit, I've learned a few things I think would be beneficial to other coaches and athletes who are coming back from an injury or even just a lot of time off CrossFit. I narrowed my experiences down to five concepts that have helped me the most.
USA Weightlifting released an official statement last week confirming the USOC's decision to close the USAW residency program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Many high-profile American weightlifters, including all three of the female athletes going to Rio, had active residencies at the Center. They will all be forced to find a new program from September 30, 2016.
A recent CrossFit Journal editorial on bariatric surgery for weight loss set off a lively debate on Facebook.
The discussion below the June 14 post included a number of comments, including several from an athlete who had bariatric surgery several years ago and uses CrossFit to keep the weight off.
Jen Dawson was offended by the article but later in the thread added a comment that confirms our point: “(Surgery) is just a tool, and if you don't address the emotional reasons, most people won't have long term success.”
Quite simply, surgery is the last tool you want to use. It's not about fat shaming, nor is it about shaming the medical community. It's about exhausting all other options before cutting someone open.
Diet and exercise can be used to manage obesity and reduce the risk of chronic disease. We know this, and it's not debatable.
We also know that some people don't want to change their diets and recoil from exercise. They simply won't take any steps to improve their health despite the fact that these steps would keep them out of the hospital or grave. They'd actually prefer a shortcut through the operating room.
The original article we discussed-“D.J. Doctor Dré Is Waging a Public Battle With Diabetes”-highlighted a hip-hop artist's decision to get bariatric surgery to alleviate the symptoms of diabetes.
In some cases, invasive surgery for Type 2 diabetics might be warranted: 45 medical and scientific bodies have endorsed recommendations made in a June 2016 joint statement on bariatric surgery as treatment for Type 2 diabetes. But a closer look at the guidelines reveals the procedure is indeed a last-ditch measure.
Surgery is recommended for Type 2 diabetics with a body-mass index (BMI) above 40 kg/m2 (6 ft., 300 lb., for example) and for those with BMIs between 35 and 39.9 “when hyperglycemia is inadequately controlled by lifestyle and optimal medical therapy.” Surgery should be considered for patients in the 30.0-34.9 range “if hyperglycemia is inadequately controlled despite optimal treatment with either oral or injectable medications.”
In this case, you have significantly overweight diseased population whose condition isn't improved by lifestyle or medication. These people are at the extreme end of the spectrum and might need an extreme response.
But treating surgery as something other than an emergency measure simply ignores the dramatic effects lifestyle changes have on health. And it encourages completely unnatural procedures that are more nonsensical than therapeutic.
Take, for example, the FDA's recent approval of the AspireAssist, a stomach-draining pump that allows people to leak 30 percent of the contents of their stomach into the toilet before the body has a chance to absorb the calories.
Forget for an instant that the number of calories is not as significant as the source of the calories. Also forget that the Aspire website says “there are no specific foods that are off-limits.” And never mind the list of possible side effects.
Note only this: The product exists to pump food out of the body because someone ate too much.
The problem could have been solved many different ways without drilling a valve into a stomach. The existence of products such as the AspireAssist is proof that shortcuts are often preferred to common sense.
The reasons for obesity, of course, are numerous and complex. Recall Dawson's advice to address underlying emotional issues.
But that doesn't change the fact that diet and exercise can reduce obesity and risk for chronic disease. We have a problem of adherence, not a problem of prescription. We know we can adjust a person's diet and increase his or her activity level and get great results. But we ultimately can't prevent that person from eating unhealthy food, quitting the fitness program or choosing a shortcut. Shortcuts-like a stomach drain-are merely bandages that fail to address the root of the problem.
As for fat shaming, it doesn't exist in CrossFit. We'd never shame overweight people we want to help. We want the obese to walk into our affiliates because we know with certainty their lives and health will change for the better. CrossFit trainers will do everything they can to improve health with diet and exercise. They'll provide motivation and community. They'll challenge athletes and hold them accountable so they reach their health and fitness goals.
Does that approach work? Ask Ivan Garcia, who decided to forego gastric-bypass surgery in favor of using diet and exercise to drop more than 100 lb.
Bariatric surgery and stomach drains might be options, but they're certainly not preferred options.
The first option is addressing your lifestyle, and CrossFit trainers everywhere want to help.
Additional reading: Cheryl Blythe passes on a gastric band and loses almost 200 lb. through diet and exercise.
Recently the ACSM released its annual American Fitness Report for 2016. The report assesses fifty metropolitan areas across the United States for various fitness factors - including smoking rates, obesity statistics, and number of parks and other public recreational facilities - to determine how fit each area is.
The top ten metro areas were:
Creative, dedicated CrossFit affiliate owners share how they've overcome obstacles including floods, angry neighbors and endless bureaucracy.
The rain sounded like gunfire as it pelted John Franklin's home in Hoboken, New Jersey, one night in June 2013. Though it was already past 10 p.m., he pulled on his boots and drove the seven blocks to Hudson River CrossFit, the affiliate he was in the process of opening after months of leading free park workouts.
He was just weeks from the grand opening date, and with the gym sitting right at the city's lowest point, he feared the heavy rain might seep inside.
He heaved the garage door open and flicked on the lights.
“The floor looked kind of like an infinity pool,” Franklin recalled, unable to tell where the water ended and dry cement began.
Before he had the chance to reach for a mop, he heard a low gurgle come from the direction of the bathroom. In a few seconds, the gurgle became an explosive sputter as the drains in the gym's two sinks, showers and toilets began spewing sewage in succession “almost like a fountain show,” Franklin said.
As Franklin stood ankle-deep in sewer refuse, he thought of the three friends who had showed up to his park workouts.
“Am I just making like really bad life choices?” he asked himself. “Because we had no idea how this would actually work-or would anybody actually sign up for this CrossFit thing?”
Today, Hudson River CrossFit boasts around 250 members, one of two affiliates that make up Flipside Performance (the other is Bowery CrossFit in Manhattan, New York, which Franklin opened at the end of 2013).
With heavy rain flooding Hudson River CrossFit about once a month, Franklin and his staff have become pros at keeping their heads above water, loading all their equipment into an elevated storage room every time the weather report predicts a storm.
“We're very handy with a Shop-Vac these days,” he said. “That's how you get all the water out, and then you have to go through the whole process of disinfecting it.”
To disinfect the 2,800-square-foot space, Franklin shells out about US$600 each time for a professional sewage-cleaning service. Adding backflow preventers to the drains would cost nearly $30,000 and require a total bathroom tear-up, and with real estate at a premium in the area adjacent to New York City, moving is out of the question.
What keeps him going?
“The community,” he said.
Challenges are just par for the course, Franklin explained: “It's all part of the game. There are certain points ... where I get a little beat down, but in perspective, my life is fantastic. I have a staff that I love, I have members that I love, ... I get to share something that I'm very passionate about with other people, and I'm making a living doing it.”
I was asked to pick a subject matter that would be of interest to the athletic population that read Breaking Muscle Australia and thought what better than the actual subject of breaking muscle.
Welcome to our weekend roundup, Three of the Best! Every Saturday, we'll post up Breaking Muscle's top three articles of the week. These pieces have caught your attention throughout the last seven days. So here they are in one place for you to consume, digest, and enjoy.
Septuagenarian CrossFit coach Mike Suhadolnik refuses to let his peers age gracefully.
Mike Suhadolnik, a former offensive tackle and middle guard at Illinois State University, spent most of his life powerlifting. At his best, he benched 350, squatted 450 and deadlifted 550 lb. His physique implied fitness. But when his daughter Molly and her now-fiancé Tim Hahn asked him to overhead squat more than seven years ago, he couldn't get the bar over his head.
Then they asked him to do burpees.
“I played football in college. I said, 'No problem,'” Suhadolnik recounted. “I couldn't do a burpee.”
Disturbed by this, the then-65-year-old visited his doctor in Springfield.
“I told him I wanted to live until I was at least 110 years old but that I did not want somebody pushing me around in a wheelchair, walking with a walker or having someone wipe my butt,” said Suhadolnik, today 223 lb.
The doctor recommended changes to Suhadolnik's diet, including eliminating processed sugar, dairy and grains. Suhadolnik also became an athlete at CrossFit Instinct, Molly's affiliate.
In the year that followed, Suhadolnik reduced his body fat by more than 16 percent and gained 12 lb. of muscle. He also paid closer attention to the world around him and the people in it.
“Every time I turned the television on, it seems like all they were showing (was) big butts and fat guts,” he said.
He decided to do something.
It started with a program he dubbed Doctors Get Fit, and it turned into CrossFit Instinct's Longevity class. The Longevity program includes about 25 people split between the 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. classes that occur almost daily.
“Hey, don't wait until you have that heart attack and then start working out,“ Suhadolnik said. ”Bullshit. Do it right now. Start right now.”
It takes more than just a Level 1 Certificate to run a successful CrossFit affiliate. In this series, learn about the various ways affiliate owners and trainers evolve and plan as they work to lead the fitness industry.
In Part 5, the conversation continues as CrossFit Inc.'s Tyson Oldroyd discusses the importance of nutrition with Pat Burke of MBS CrossFit, CrossFit Verve founders Matt and Cherie Chan, Nicole Christensen of CrossFit Roots, and David Tittle of CrossFit Low Oxygen.
“It blows my mind how many affiliates out there don't have a structured nutrition component to their program,” Oldroyd says.
Whether the goal is losing weight, gaining muscle mass or improving performance, good nutrition is integral to a healthy lifestyle. It's no mistake nutrition is the base of CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman's Theoretical Hierarchy of Development.
Christensen says a nutrition program allows trainers to help athletes help themselves outside the walls of the gym, while Matt suggests affiliate owners need to learn about and model good nutrition.
“Without some background,” he says, “you're not going to be able to address (your) client's needs.”
Video by Mike Koslap.
5min 10sec
Additional reading: “Food for Thought” by Emily Beers, published Dec. 18, 2015.
No matter where you look nowadays, someone is trying to sell a diet, pill, or potion that promises to help you detox. Counter to this, there are myriad science and evidence-based sites that will tell you detoxing is a bunch of hokum and that there is no benefit to any detox diet or supplement. So is there any evidence that detox diets or supplements help?
Let's take a look at a few claims people make about detox diets.
Stacy Geisler, a former basketball player seeking new ways to keep fit, was unsure about CrossFit after attending her first class at CrossFit Big D in Dallas, Texas. She was sore and-worse-afraid of the barbells.
Though she wanted to quit, she decided to stick it out for another week-and she started to see big changes that kept her coming back.
Now Geisler's training sessions at Big D are a family affair. Her teenage daughter Annie has joined and says she can't imagine her life without CrossFit.
Their coach, Chase Ingraham, says the two push each other. Instead of dropping Annie off at soccer practice or watching her from the sidelines, Stacy works out with her daughter-or her daughter comes in and tries to beat her mother's scores.
“It's something that they can share together, and not just on a personal level, but on an athletic level,” Ingraham says.
Video by Lindsay Schrock and Elliot Schrock.
3min 45sec
Additional reading: “The Need for Speed” by Hilary Achauer, published Nov. 2, 2014.
Mobility is like going to the dentist. No one likes it, but dental health is essential for your wellbeing, as is making sure your hips, shoulders, or ankles have the appropriate range of motion for safe movement. The easiest way for a coach to elicit groans of protest is to direct a class to grab an ab mat and find a place on the wall for the couch stretch.
Top athletes talk about their single-minded pursuit of the podium and how they filled the void when they stepped back from the sport they love.
Most of us define ourselves, in part, by our job, our family and our interests. But what happens when things change-who will you be then?
Rory Zambard-who started CrossFit at 14-took 14th place at the 2013 Reebok CrossFit Games. Now, at 24, she's stepped away from competitive CrossFit, and it wasn't easy for her to leave behind something that had defined her.
“I had found my identity in CrossFit for too long, and when I could no longer be who I thought I needed to be, or who people thought I needed to be in the world of fitness, things sort of fell apart,” Zambard said.
When a CrossFit Games athlete makes the decision to step away from the sport, it's not an easy transition. Competing at the highest level of any sport is all consuming, and giving it up leaves a vacuum many struggle to fill. However, these athletes often find a pot of gold on the other side of hours of training and time away from family and friends: a return to basics and a renewal of what they initially loved about CrossFit and fitness.
“I believe me getting in better shape, me losing, you know, that extra weight I needed to lose, I think ... that's one of the areas that never gets the attention it needs to.”
Hip-hop artist Rick Ross said that in 2014 in the CrossFit Journal video “RossFit.”
And he's right: His dramatic weight loss and improved health and fitness haven't gotten the attention they deserve.
Ross stands in contrast to hip-hop DJ and TV personality André “Doctor Dré” Brown, who was the subject of the June 12 New York Times article “D.J. Doctor Dré Is Waging a Public Battle With Diabetes.”
Brown-not to be confused with West Coast rapper and producer Andre “Dr. Dre” Young-is one of more than 29 million Americans with diabetes. According to the New York Times, Brown acquired Type 2 diabetes 10 years ago due to a poor lifestyle and has since lost a toe and his sight to the disease. He's planning to have weight-loss surgery to alleviate his symptoms and wants to showcase the process and recovery on a proposed reality-TV show.
Brown's intentions are honorable: He'd like to help others avoid the mistakes he made-“We can prevent this. We can cure this,” he told the Times. But featuring bariatric surgery as a solution for chronic disease places a lot of emphasis on an extreme measure CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman referred to as the “worst idea in the history of modern medicine.”
Here's the problem: A reality show featuring bariatric surgery as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes shines a spotlight on a last-ditch effort that comes with a lot of risks. It's like showcasing an arm amputation because a cut on a hand was left untreated for years and no other options remained.
We'd prefer to focus on the dramatic effects of diet and exercise-non-medical health care that works. Medicine doesn't have an answer that's not symptomatic treatment. Medicine's answer doesn't work.
We know diet and exercise alleviate symptoms of chronic disease. We have proof. The stories are getting old. For but one example, read about Pete Katz, whose physician, Dr. J. Harry Isaacson, said Katz “basically cured his (Type 2) diabetes with his attention to lifestyle.”
For another example of how diet and exercise can be used to reduce disease risk, you need only look to Ross-who works in the exact same industry as Brown.
Since starting CrossFit in 2013, the Grammy-nominated Ross has lost about 100 lb. through diet and exercise. After two 2011 seizures sent him to the hospital and forced the artist to evaluate his health, he cut out soda, drank less, adjusted his diet, slept more and started working out.
Ross-who is not diabetic-isn't perfect. He works in an industry characterized by late nights, travel and parties, and he owns a host of Wingstop franchises. Be that as it may, he changed his lifestyle, lost a large amount of weight and significantly reduced his risk for chronic disease. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
We know we can prevent, control and reverse Type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise.
If we're going to look to the hip-hop community for inspiration to lose weight and improve health, we'll choose Ross over Brown.
Additional video: “From Couch to Capable” by Gary Roberts, published May 5, 2014.
As a competitor I have been watching the growth of kettlebell sport in the UK since 2011, and as an osteopath I have watched the injuries of the lifters involved develop and change radically. Complaints in the beginning were mostly about fatigue and torn hands, reflecting the underdeveloped techniques used in the sport back then. But kettlebell sport has gone from a strength discipline to a highly technical endurance one, and many of the injuries I see now are from overuse.
Educator Julie Potts applies CrossFit training principles to help her students succeed.
A few months ago, I walked into a CrossFit box hoping to learn new ways to get in shape. What I did not expect was the insight CrossFit would give me into my career as a kindergarten teacher.
Watching a CrossFit class is like witnessing the most perfectly differentiated and inclusive classroom. Every athlete is completing the same workout, but all work at very different levels. Some do pull-ups while others do ring rows, and some squat with 75 lb. while others lift 200 lb. or more.
The structure allows me, a beginner, to attend the same class as a competitive CrossFit athlete. I don't feel threatened or unsuccessful, and he or she doesn't feel bored or unchallenged. This structure is what I strive to achieve every day in my classroom.
I was always a fairly successful student, and I don't think I've been able to truly empathize with my struggling learners until my CrossFit experience.
Imagine if I had walked in on my first day of CrossFit and the coaches told me to do as many pull-ups as I could. I am hardly strong enough to hang from the bar, much less attempt pull-ups. What if they did not give me an alternative or became frustrated with me for not trying? No matter how angry they might get, I just can't do a pull-up.
I think of my students and how some activities are simply not appropriate for certain learners. No matter how badly I want them to read or write at a certain level, they might not be ready, and forcing them to attempt tasks that are inappropriate is only going to lead to feelings of inadequacy and failure. Just as I would have walked right out the door if coaches insisted I do pull-ups, children will give up if we give them tasks that are out of their reach.
My definition of having high expectations for my students has changed since starting CrossFit. I used to think “high expectations” meant a goal for all students to read at a certain level or achieve a certain score on a writing or math test. What I've realized is that I can have high expectations for all students, but those expectations do not need to be the same for every child.
Just as I can have a great workout that will not come close to the level of the competitive athlete at the rack next to me, a struggling learner can complete an incredible piece of writing that might not contain many letters or words. I am still working the same muscle groups and becoming stronger every day, just as my students are becoming better readers and writers every day, even if some aren't yet reaching the milestones the department of education would like.
I needed introductory training sessions to teach me the basics, and I still need the coaches to check in with me more frequently during class workouts. I am not ready for some exercises, and for each I have an alternative to strengthen the same muscle group. It's not embarrassing to do something slightly different, as everyone knows we all work at different levels.
I have already made changes to my classroom activities and expectations, and I look forward to continuing to develop a learning environment similar to the one I experience when I attend CrossFit classes.
Psychologist Lev Vygotsky taught us to keep tasks within a child's zone of proximal development (ZPD), providing her with experiences that challenge her just enough to move forward but not so much that she becomes frustrated. Success is unlikely if a child is constantly pushed past her ZPD and into frustration and failure, just as it would be impossible for me to succeed if pushed past my physical limits or given a task my body simply cannot perform.
Will I be able to do a pull-up eventually? Yes! When my body is ready for it, just as all my students will read and write when their minds are ready.
About the Contributor: Julie Potts is a kindergarten teacher in Massachusetts. She started CrossFit in January 2016 at The Fort CrossFit in Hampstead, New Hampshire.
All photos: Dave Re/CrossFit Journal
As yoga's popularity has increased, I see more and more athletic programs using yoga-inspired movements. I think this is wonderful, and have absolutely no problem when people call these movements by Westernized names other than their ancient titles. I'm pretty sure the trademark symbol does not exist in Sanskrit.
In a shock twist in the the lead up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, it has been confirmed by the International Weightlifting Federation that twenty Olympic weightlifting athletes have failed retests of their blood samples from Beijing and London.
Warning: Reducing intensity can be habit forming. Please consult your CrossFit trainer immediately.
You have to do Fran today.
Stop reading, close your eyes and really think about that for a moment.
Note the freefall feeling in your chest, the sweaty palms and the subtle changes in your breathing.
Now consider this statement:
You have to do Fran in less than 12 minutes today.
I bet you suddenly don't feel nervous at all. You might even view the reps as a warm-up for another workout.
Same weight, same reps, same workout-different results.
Intensity burns. It tastes like a mouthful of old pennies soaked in battery acid. It makes you dizzy. It causes you to writhe around on the ground trying to work the misery out of your muscles. It usually requires a period spent on your back or butt, and sometimes it sends your lunch back the way it came in. Intensity gets caught in your throat and keeps you hacking hours after the workout ends.
Intensity also brings results. Push someone out of the comfort zone and physiology adapts. Do that regularly and fitness improves dramatically. After more than 15 years of workouts on CrossFit.com and six years of the CrossFit Games Open, we can make that statement with certainty backed by data.
Discomfort creates adaptation, but it can be very tempting to avoid the continuous discomfort needed to keep driving adaptation-even as a CrossFit athlete who knows its rewards.
Repetition creates habit, and you can adjust to almost anything-even fairly unpleasant stuff like Fran. I'm sure The Man in the Iron Mask was pretty uncomfortable for the first period of his imprisonment, but after a few years of metal, he was probably well used to flattening out his sandwiches so they would fit through the mouth slot.
Same deal with fitness. As we all know, “beginner's gains” in CrossFit are the reward athletes are given simply for ditching inactivity or a stagnant fitness routine in favor of a superior regimen. When beginner's gains evaporate and the nose must go right to the grindstone for sustained improvement in CrossFit, it can be tempting to get comfortable and step back from intensity. Not all the way back-just enough to take the edge off. Satisfaction with current output can reduce discomfort significantly-and limit results-while the quest for further improvements would bring great reward but also renewed acquaintance with that deep burning sensation.
Reducing intensity can be as subtle as breaking up Fran's 15 thrusters when we don't have to. It's a very minor reduction in effort, and almost no one notices-sometimes not even the athlete. Fran burns a bit less, and only 20 seconds are added to a PR time, giving him or her the opportunity to attribute the score to an off day, bad sleep or “that third burrito at lunch.”
Luckily, the athlete still stays far fitter than if he or she hadn't done Fran, but slacking off a little can lead to slacking off a lot, which is equivalent to treating a CrossFit workout like a 20-minute roll through the sports section while plodding on the elliptical machine.
I realized I was cutting with the wrong side of a very sharp knife a few weeks back in a workout that forced me to push myself:
100 wall-ball shots
Do 13 burpees after any broken set; no resting while holding the ball.
In that workout, my utter hatred of burpees forced me to complete my final set of 45 by pushing into the neighborhood of my physical limit. But my mental limit had come 30 reps into that last set, when I normally would have quit had the burpees not been present.
“I can't finish this unbroken,” I thought before a coach saw me mentally crumbling and quickly advised that trading only 15 wall balls for 13 burpees plus 15 wall balls was a bad deal.
So I kept going, and while the 45th rep burned deeply, it was achievable. In fact, I had a few more in me. I had no idea-but my coach did.
The workout and the coach kicked me off the elliptical machine, so to speak, and they highlighted the fact that I'm capable of more than I think I am. I bet you're more capable than you think you are, and your CrossFit coach knows it. Listen to him or her when you're told to keep going and see what happens. When the coach says, “Do 5 more,” do 5 more-even if you think you'll fail. I bet you won't. I bet you'll get fitter.
To get even further out of your CrossFit comfort zone, I'd encourage you to experiment with workouts similar to the wall-ball challenge detailed above.
Air Force, with 4 burpees preceding the work every minute, is a good example of a nowhere-to-hide workout.
Or try 500-meter rowing or 400-meter running repeats with a thruster penalty for every second under a certain challenging but achievable time.
Another option: Create a workout with a scheme about 2 reps out of your comfort zone and vow to do all sets unbroken. Fran at 23-17-11 might present an excellent challenge even if it lacks the mathematical grace of the original prescription.
Or you can create workouts in which a certain number of reps must be completed every 60 seconds. If you pick the right amount of work for your fitness level-say 15 wall-ball shots and 10 heavy kettlebell swings, for example-you're going to have to work hard and go unbroken to get the work done in each minute.
To reap the greatest benefits from CrossFit, you have to be willing to push yourself, to be uncomfortable, to suffer for reward. And most of us are most of the time. The whiteboard and the rivalries thereon are powerful motivational tools. Still, a 5-minute Fran can become a habit if you let your mind trick you into dropping the barbell well before you need to.
Remember: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, while objects at rest tend to head to the chalk bucket.
About the Author: Mike Warkentin is the managing editor of the CrossFit Journal and the founder of CrossFit 204.
Walk in to any supplement store and you'll immediately see images of super lean physique athletes. This might make you think supplements are only good for the bodybuilders and hard-core fitness people. That's not true at all.
Supplements are beneficial for almost anyone wanting to live optimally. But with thousands of different options, differentiating between ones that work and don't can be confusing. In this article, I will go over four of the most effective and dependable supplements, according to research.
Professional joy-killer Daniel Engber of Slate recently opined that there is possibly no “greater waste of time and energy than the running of the marathon.” He bemoans the misspent hours, the injury risk and expense of the endeavor, and the lack of tangible reward for all that labor.
It takes more than just a Level 1 Certificate to run a successful CrossFit affiliate. In this series, learn about the various ways affiliate owners and trainers evolve and plan as they work to lead the fitness industry.
In Part 4, the conversation continues as CrossFit Inc.'s Tyson Oldroyd discusses the importance of sound business processes with Pat Burke of MBS CrossFit, CrossFit Verve founders Matt and Cherie Chan, Nicole Christensen of CrossFit Roots, and David Tittle of CrossFit Low Oxygen.
The group agrees gym owners must develop effective processes in order to create a thriving affiliate. Whether it's responding to emails and phone calls in a timely manner or building a user-friendly website, owners have a lot of challenges to overcome with their professionalism and creativity.
“To really develop a process that makes it so that that 24-hour response happens or the phone gets answered, that's a lot of layers,” Christensen says.
While Christensen notes that different processes work for different affiliates, Matt affirms that a few tried-and-true practices are part of every flourishing CrossFit box: “There is that core group of best practices that every successful affiliate shares.”
Video by Mike Koslap.
5min 13sec
Additional reading: “Programming: In-House or Outsource” by Emily Beers, published June 1, 2016.
I have a friend who has dignosed himself as “borderline obese” based on his BMI. I look at him and see a thriving person who eats well and likes to lift. The fact that his classification is technically correct is the result of an inadequate definition.
“Hey, I know I must be getting pretty annoying posting all my run stuff all the time, so I've created this other page where I'll be posting it. If you want to, give my new page a follow…”
Amongst inactivity, overconsumption of processed foods, and low nutrient intakes, a new culprit has emerged as one of the main contributing factors to obesity in Western populations: increased portion sizes.
We were born with an innate wisdom to listen to our bodies. That gut feeling you just can't ignore. But for a society that is so hyper-connected, we are incredibly disconnected from the world around us, and also with ourselves. Somewhere along our journey we stopped paying attention to our natural human abilities, needs, desires, thoughts, and actions.
Undefeated in litigation, CF-RRG continues to defend the CrossFit community and improve service to policyholders.
Since 2009, CrossFit Risk Retention Group (CF-RRG) has stood behind affiliates and trainers.
A community-owned insurance company, CF-RRG provides all insurance requirements in affiliate licensing agreements and fulfills CrossFit Kids requirements. CF-RRG also provides personal-trainer policies for independent Level 1 CrossFit Certificate holders.
Last year was very strong, and 2016 has already brought notable successes, making the future very promising for CF-RRG and its policyholders.
It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and you feel like grabbing a donut to tide you over until dinner. On your way out the door, you find your co-workers oohing and ahhing over the latest Instagram post of some ripped guy doing an exercise stunt that defies all reason and human physical capacity. Everyone in the office is stunned at his prowess.
Affiliate owners sound off on the best way to program a CrossFit affiliate.
Raul Alonso Valenzuela is passionate about coaching, but he's even more passionate about designing workout plans for his athletes.
“Programming is one of the most satisfying parts of my job,” said Valenzuela, owner of CrossFit Down Under in Adelaide, Australia.
He isn't alone: Thousands of affiliate owners share Valenzuela's love for designing and implementing workouts and fitness plans for their athletes. But for every Valenzuela, there's also a Jan Clingston. The owner of CrossFit Kungsbacka in Sweden bowed out of doing his affiliate's programming when he started outsourcing the task in October 2015, and he's very satisfied with his choice.
Some affiliate owners vow they'll always program for their gyms, while others are happy to give the role to a staff person, use the high-quality free programming on CrossFit.com and other websites, or pay an outside vendor to program. We talk to members of both camps to find out why they do what they do.
