Crossfit: Forging Elite Fitness

Thanks to my friend B for telling me about Crossfit. In one word, Crossfit is badass. From what I can tell, the whole concept is similar to '300' old school workout mentatility. Use simple exercises with very few, if any, machines to get in an awesome workout, vary the workout a lot, keep pounding the body and don't get into constant workout that is always repeated.

The whole thing seems a bit like a cult, but a good cult, not a Jim Jones sort of cult. Incidentally, the name of the gym where the '300' actors worked out is called Gym Jones. Coincidence? Maybe. My guess however is that the gym's founder, Mark Twight, has a slightly twisted sense of humor and named it after the cult leader because his favorite drink, Flavr-Aid, is what the Jim Jones followers drank to commit suicide (or were poisoned against their will) (laced with poison of course).

Anyhoo, to get back to Crossfit, a workout is listed for each day (the WOD, workout of the day). As stated before, most of the workouts are very simple, with little equipment or fancy machines needed. Most are designed to use multiple muscle groups and emphasize movements and function. Some power lifting is specified, and there never seems to be any single muscle training (no sets of arm curls). Like the Gym Jones folks, the goal is not to 'get big' like some weight lifters want to achieve. The goal is to gain functional strength and overall fitness. Some of these exercises are pretty advanced powerlifting, which despite my having knowlege of some proper power lifting techniques from high school football, still make me a bit nervous to perform.

Many of the exercise sets are named after women, such as 'Elizabeth' which consists of: 21-15-9 reps of Clean 135 pounds, Ring dips. (Having the exercises named after women reminds me of all the cars being named after women in the movie 'Gone in 60 seconds'). There are also a bunch of exercise sets called the 'Hero Workouts', named after some brave folks who have died in Iraq, Afghanistan, or serving the public elsewhere.

One of the workouts is called 'Fight Gone Bad'. This exercise supposedly originated as a training exercise for ultimate fighters. They fight for 3 rounds of 5 minutes each, one minute rest in between rounds. When one of the Ultimate Fighting guys tried out the workout he was asked if it mimicked the physical demands of a fight. The response was that it was like a 'fight gone bad'.

The workout consists of 3 rounds of exercises that last one minute each. After each set the next set begins immediately. There is a one minute set in between each round. I have done this at home twice but had to modify it with what I had handy.

A Power Hour Mix comes in handy when doing this...
Original: Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
Row: calories (Calories)
Note: For women the weight used for the high pull and push-press is 55 lbs

Modified Home Version:
Pushups
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (28lbs dumbells)
Modified Mountain Climbers
Push Press (28lbs. dumbells)
Weighted Squat Jumps (28lbs dumbell held at chest)

This workout is only 17 minutes long but pretty, pretty, pretty tough. The three times I've tried it at home I was pretty damn tired by the end of it. I also used the 'women's weights' when doing it, and not the men's weight.

One thing I really like about the Crossfit website is that women are often featured in the pictures and videos performing the workouts. The women that are featured on the site are really fit and strong, and they get just as much credit for their strength, agility, and athleticism as the men do.

One thing I don't like is there seems to be some negative feelings towards vegetarians and vegans on the website. It does not seem to be anything directly posted by those who run Crossfit, but if you delve into the nutrition section of the discussion board on the website, there seems to be some bad mouthing (and incorrect/ignorant information) about the benefits of a plant based diet. That's OK though, I'm not there to read about nutrition, plus people can have their own opinions (I did however read some pretty nasty comments about vegans though that don't need to be repeated here).

Overall the site is pretty cool. They have tons of video demonstrations and other information available for no cost. I don't do the workout of the day every day like some followers must do, but the exercises are good inspirations for workouts. As mentioned, I have tried the Fight Gone Bad, but none of the other ones to a T. I now often do things like 3 rounds of sets of deadlifts + then box jumps, which was inspired by one of the WOD's. For anyone who has never power lifted before however, I would still urge lots of caution in performing some of the exercises, even after watching the video demos. Without proper instruction on proper technique or supervision some of the exercises can be dangerous.

There is a CrossFit Boston, which I also separately read about in The Improper Bostonian magazine. I don't see myself ever signing up for that gym as a regular member unless I get a job right in the city, but it would be cool to go to a few single session workouts to learn some more powerlifting techniques. Giddyup.