What is CrossFit?

What is CrossFit?

A program fit and scale-able to anyone who decides to make the commitment to be better. We utilize compound movements through body-weight, weightlifting and conditioning elements, at varying lengths of duration and intensity.

The result, a fully capable and efficient athlete that is ready to take on any task life or athletics throws at it and a body that looks the part.

When coupled with community, the effects can be staggering and our community certainly reflects the effectiveness of the program.  Don’t let this intimidate or stop you, we have all started fresh and grown to where we are today.  There are no egos here, only friends to help guide you along the way.  All we ask is that you show up and work hard and we will help you get there.

A bit more detailed about CF here…

CrossFit utilizes Bodyweight Movements (pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, box jumps, rope climbs, etc), Weightlifting (kettlebells, barbells, medicine balls, sandbags, etc..) and Conditioning (Running, Rowing, Jump Roping and Biking) in different combinations, rep schemes and time domains. CrossFit is completely scalable. For example, for rope climbs we start from the ground with a pull to stand option. From there, we have a knotted rope, then we teach you how to use your feet and ascend the rope. Finally, we have 10ft, 15ft, 20ft and 25ft ropes. All our weightlifting movements are taught with a pvc pipe and athletes progress to either a 15, 33 or 45lb bar. All of our bumper plates are similar in size and look alike but differ in weight.  The scalability of CrossFit make it the best fitness program regardless of your current level of fitness.

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program designed to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. The fitness domains include Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy. Our training employs constantly varied, functional movement executed at a high level of intensity. By constantly varying the workouts your body is left guessing, requiring it to regularly adapt to the training stimulus.

How will this be beneficial to me?

The sessions remain physically and mentally challenging and more importantly, your progress will remain plateau free. Functional movements are essential, everyday movements that are done in real life. Standing from a seated position, safely picking something up off the ground, and putting an object up over your head are all examples of functional movements. These movements, move large loads, long distances in a short amount of time, and promote lean muscle gain and a reduction of body fat. All the same, you’ll move better and pain free in your everyday lives.

Finally, the high intensity component is the shortcut to quick results. All the good stuff in fitness comes through intensity. Our workouts are scaled so that each individual is able to train at their own high intensity no matter what their current fitness level. With that saying, we train hard.

Our athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure and competency in each of the three main metabolic pathways. We incorporate gymnastics, from rudimentary to advanced movements, garnering great capacity at controlling the body both dynamically and statically while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility. Kettlebells, Olympic weightlifting, and power-lifting are also used to develop an athlete’s explosive power, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns.

With all these training tools, we produce a well rounded athlete that excels at all aspects of fitness. We produce an athlete that is able to control both their own body in space, as well as the objects in space around their body in short energy tasks, long energy tasks and all those in between. Our specialty is not specializing. We’ll prepare you for any fitness task that is thrown your way.

An Effective Approach

In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical workout consists of isolation movements and extended aerobic sessions. The fitness community has the public believing that lateral raises, curls, combined with 20 minutes on the treadmill are going to lead to some kind of great fitness. Well, at CrossFit we work exclusively with compound movements and shorter high intensity cardiovascular sessions. We’ve replaced the lateral raise with the push press, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort our athletes will do five or six at short distance.

Why? Because compound, functional movements and high intensity, anaerobic cardio, is radically effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result. Startlingly, this is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientific fact. Yet, the effective “old ways” persist and are nearly universal. Our practices are consistent with elite training programs. CrossFit endeavors to bring state-of-the-art coaching techniques to the general public and athletes who do not have access to current technologies, research, and coaching methods.

Is This For Me?

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s differ by degree not kind. The same methods that yield great success in an Olympic or professional athlete will show true in the elderly. The idea is to scale load and intensity; not to change programs. You won’t have to lift weights beyond your level or perform movements beyond your skill set.

We pride ourselves on working with athletes of all different types and ability levels and making them better. Furthermore, our target population is not specific to age or gender. Instead, we are targeting anyone who is willing to work hard and keep an open mind to CrossFit principles. Of course, we can’t load your grandmother with the same squatting weight that we’d assign an Olympic skier, but they both need to squat.

In fact, squatting is essential to maintaining functional independence and improving fitness. Through thorough coaching and incremental load assignment, CrossFit has been able to teach anyone to perform with maximum efficacy. We can surpass the same movements typically utilized by professional coaches in elite and certainly exclusive environments. CrossFit has tested its methods on the sedentary, overweight, pathological, and the elderly and found that these populations enjoyed the same success as our stable of athletes. If our program works for Olympic Skiers and overweight, sedentary homemakers then it will work for you.

What if I don’t want to be an athlete? I just want to be healthy.

The CrossFit view is that fitness and health are the same thing. Fitness, wellness, and pathology (sickness) are measures of the same entity, your health. There are a multitude of measurable parameters that can be ordered from sick (pathological) to well (normal) to fit (better than normal). These include but are not limited to blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, body fat, muscle mass, flexibility, and strength. Athletes typically prove to possess exceptional body functionality in areas that could go awry. Athletes experience a protection from the ravages of aging and disease that non-athletes never find.

For instance, 80-year-old athletes are stronger than non-athletes in their prime at 25 years old. If you think that strength isn’t important consider that strength loss is what puts people in nursing homes. Athletes have greater bone density, stronger immune systems, less coronary heart disease, reduced cancer risk, fewer strokes, and less depression than non-athletes.

 

“Fringe Athletes”

There is a near universal misconception that long distance athletes are fitter than their short distance counterparts. The triathlete, cyclist, and marathoner are often regarded as among the fittest athletes on earth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The endurance athlete has trained long past any cardiovascular health benefit and has lost ground in strength, speed, and power. Long distance training typically does not provide noticeable benefits in coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy and possesses little more than average flexibility. Elite strength and conditioning is a compromise between each of the ten physical adaptations. Endurance athletes do not balance that compromise.

Interested in giving it a try?

Check out our Southie CrossFit Schedule and join us for a class, first ones on us!

Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.