Why do I think CrossFit is the future of exercise?
Because it makes sense!
Walking into a gym filled with 10’s of thousands of $$ of useless machines, being bombarded by people in suits trying to sell me memberships and lying to me about what each wonderful machine will do for me does not make sense.
Walking into a gym where I can pick heavy things up, lift my own bodyweight up, get more balanced and coordinated and work my cardiovascular system without wasting hours on a treadmill does make sense.
CrossFit will get you ready for what life has to throw at you, be it picking something up, sprinting for a bus, getting up off the ground if I fall over, pulling myself over a fence, jumping over a puddle, running away from a mugger or anything that life can throw at you, because life is unpredictable.
I have heard it said that “CrossFit teaches you not to suck at life!”
So…
The basic description for CrossFit is Constantly Varied Functional Movement at High Intensity.
Breaking that down;
Constantly Varied – One of the main points of CrossFit is to specialise at not specialising. Become good a everything, thus building great overall fitness.
Here are the 10 avenues of fitness as defined by CrossFit;
- Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance
- Stamina
- Strength
- Flexibility
- Power
- Speed
- Coordination
- Agility
- Balance
- Accuracy
What other fitness program covers that many bases?
With the constant variety you receieve a broader experience thus creating better General Physical Preparedness!
Functional Movements – Real functional movements, not standing 1 legged on a wobbleboard with a medicine ball in one hand and body blade in the other…
Functional movements are;
- Natural. Its ingrained in our brains and bodies to pick things up, move things around and move our own bodies at any angle and in any direction.
- Compound movements, yet irreducible. Multi jointed.
- Core to extremity. Core training is midline stabilization. Extremities are your arms and legs. Strong core, moves larger loads.
- Essential to Independant living. Picking things up, putting things on shelves, playing sport
- Safe compared to non-functional movements. How often we hear of injuries from the pec dec and the leg extension…
- Can move large loads, long distances, quickly. This is one of the main points of the program.
High Intensity – Putting it simply, this is the independant variable which will either get you fit or not. You get out what you put in!
Power = Intensity
What is power?
Force x Distance / Time = Power
Ok, so away from the science lesson. Lets say Force is your body weight and Distance is you standing up. Now, Time is how long it takes you to stand up. So power is how long it takes you to get your body from the ground up.
Simple and it makes sense.
Am I fit if I can bicep curl a weight in my hands 15 times x 3 sets then sit and chat in between sets without raising my heart rate?
or
Am I fit if I can do 120 squats in 4 minutes and have my heart rate through the roof without stepping foot on a treadmill?
Make sense?
I have so much to say, but I don’t want to bore you, so I will finish with one more comment. Nutrition is at the base of what you can do to your body by training correctly. Train hard and don’t nourish your body with the right food and you are wasting your time.
I will expand on many aspects of the program in future entries, but for now focus on training large movements at high intensities, regularly and in different ways combined with a diet rich in protein and vegetables, avoid sugar and you are on the road to success.
If you have any questions, please enter your comments and I will get back to you asap.
For more info straight from the horses mouth visit www.crossfitcom
Yours in Fitness
Troy Shipsey
Your favourite Personal Trainer in Randwick and Centennial Park 
