CrossFit
9 November 2008

First I will explain what CrossFit is (it's actually very simple, but it confuses a lot of people) and then I will evaluate it using my experiences with it to date.

There are explanations of it on their web site, but I will summarize it myself. CrossFit is a resistance training program based on a theory of doing a diverse array of physical activities from olympic lifts to jump rope to kettlebell swings to 400m sprints in challenging ways to create someone who is truly physically fit, i.e. capable of doing many physical activities well.

The theory behind it is exactly what my own theory of exercise is for professional soldiers. I have evidence of this in fact! My own preparation for entering the US Army follows this precisely and on many occasions on this site I have described my theories of fitness in very similar terms. Check it out, but not now since it will throw off the flow of this article.

As of this writing I haven't ever strictly followed it so I can't speak to its effectiveness completely with real evidence. So far I have only used it in a modified fashion as part of my marathon preparation regimen, but I know what I like and dislike about it from my experiences so far. This is what I will share with you.

Briefly, I got exposed to it by some fellow servicemembers, Marines, who I currently attend a military school with. Marines are big followers of CrossFit for some reason. It is due primarly to exposure I would assume, i.e. someone tells someone who likes it who then tells others and they start training together and they tell more of their fellow Marines, etc. In any event, I had never heard of it at all until August 2008.

Before we get into why I like it, let’s discuss how it works.  Kind of a funny thing to have to explain, but it is warranted. First you must understand this “program” is web-based.  You go to CrossFit.com and you will see a workout right in the middle of the screen. This is the Workout of the Day or WoD.  Below it you will see a photo some CrossFitter probably sent in and then below that you will find something else, maybe a video or a link to a blog which could be about exercise but not always.  Then below that you will see a link to a message board that says Comments where people post their results or ask questions or simple post (duh) comments.

Basically you do the Workout of the Day that day or maybe within a few days (you can’t always maintain the schedule exactly since life gets in the way of working out sometimes).  The instructions on it are very specific to CrossFit and somewhat hard to understand at first. It’s almost like a code.  Example is today’s WoD (9 Nov) says this: Power clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps. Post loads to comments.

This means you will do 7 max reps of power clean, add up the total weight.  There is no time associated with this event. It’s goal is to see how much weight you can lift in the power clean.

A few days ago, this was the WoD: Four rounds for time of: Run 400 meters, 50 Squats.  This one is a timed event as it states. So you run 400 meters then do 50 bodyweight (this is understood in CrossFit that’s it’s bodyweight unless it specifies) squats four times as fast as you can.  Once you get into it, it’s easy to understand.  Initially when I got to my current duty station (MCB Quantico), I saw people writing the Workout of the Day on a dry-erase board and didn’t know what the hell they were writing or why all of them would post their “scores” below it after their initials.  After I asked someone once, it was all very logical.

Keep in mind that people do make substitutions to the workouts or do other workouts completely if they don't like the WoD or just can't do it for one reason or another (time, fatigue, training for another event like a marathon,etc.). In theory, this program is prescriptive in the fact that the organizers specify the workouts specifically. Not much wiggle room if you are following it strictly.

There is a bunch of other stuff on the site that you may be interested in, but the key thing other than the workout is the link on the left called Exercises and Demos.  This has videos of the exercises or workouts you don’t quite know since CrossFit has its own lingo. For example, one workout called for a “thruster.”  I know just about every exercise and I had no idea what this was. I went to the exercises and demos and saw the video.  No problem. Very helpful database of videos.

Let’s discuss specifically what I like about CrossFit as a system not just the workouts themselves.

1. It is organized. When I say it’s organized, I don’t mean the program has a schedule that is easy to follow even though it does. I mean CrossFit isn’t just an idea or a theory. It is an organization.  It has instructors, gyms, t-shirts, bumper stickers, national events, and a newsletter.  That is much more than any theory of exercise that is publicized by the web could hope for.  I look at this and think that someone who is very savvy at marketing and business had to be involved in this.  They did a great job integrating actual gyms with web-based collaboration.  You will notice the comments message board after each WoD is usually over 500 and a high as 900 regularly.  It is a place people share their common experiences since they are all on basically the same program.  Anyone who follows the program is competing against themselves and against everyone else at the same time, whether or not they actually think about it this way.  This is the best use of the Internet for any exercise-based that I have seen.  I wish I had thought of it 12 years ago when I had one of the first exercise-related web sites on the Internet.
2. It is simple. The programs themselves don’t require complicated equipment (normally).  Many times it is simply a challenging activity repeated multiple times.
3. It is quantifiable. How many programs that you have seen are based on quantifiable aspects EACH time?  Even a powerlifting program or Olympic lifting program, which involves periodically maxing out and seeing how you are gaining in strength/power, most of the supporting workouts are not based on time or total loads lifted.  You can look back on any CrossFit workout over time and see your performance and repeat it to see if you are better now than you were at that time.  This is probably the most basic part of CrossFit that I love. 
4. It is imaginative and interesting. They prescribe very out-of-the-box ideas in unique ways, which makes it so fun to go to the web site at midnight and find out what is in store for you the next day. 
5. It is hardcore.  You need to be seriously committed to fitness to do this stuff.  This isn’t something you will stay into if you are adverse to hard activities that make you hurt.  That can almost be seen as a bad thing because it’s not going to appeal to honestly 95% of the population and only 2% of the remaining 5% will even do it.  If all you cared about was dollars and cents, this would be a bad idea, but I love how it has remained hardcore and hasn’t bended to mass appeal.
6. It is free.  You don’t need to pay for this WoD in any way.  You can do it in nearly any gym or at least make logical substitutions for equipment you lack.  You can choose to go into an actual CrossFit gym if you want where you can get hands-on instruction or enjoy the atmosphere while you train, but you certainly don’t need to.

The bottom line is this program has a strong, dedicated following of people who are willing to do physically challenging things in the name of not only fitness but fun.  This is ground-breaking to me.

The only thing I have yet to really try to understand is how the WoDs are selected and the order they happen in. For example, today I did 7 max reps of power clean.  How will they select tomorrow’s workout? It is a basic periodization schedule, like every 10th workout is max single reps, then every 11th is some sort of longer distance run, etc.?  If so, how do you decide when to do max singles of what?  There are about 10 exercises (power clean, squat clean, hang clean, snatch, bench press, deadlift, squat to name a few) that they regularly prescribe for max reps.  How are they ensuring an equal distribution of when they are done?  There have been times when I did some kind of pull-up for almost every workout for 10 days.  Is this on purpose?  If so, why?  These are the kinds of questions someone like me asks.  Most people who do CrossFit don’t get too analytical I assume.  Maybe this info is out there and I just haven’t asked the right person or read the right article.  I am not sure it even matters, i.e. a somewhat random selection of workouts from a large pool may be the right way to do it to avoid stagnation and preserve continual adaptation.

In any event, I give my full endorsement to the program.  I will not say this is a perfect system or that I won’t take what I like from it to integrate into my hybrid plan, but I recommend you try it and see if you agree with my assessments above. If you get into it and have any questions you think I can assist with, please shoot me an email.