Posted on February 27, 2007 in CrossFit

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movements executed at high intensity. Let’s give life to this description and see how this program, honed from years of clinical experience, goes about forging elite fitness.

Man’s world, nature, is full of movement. Our standing, sitting, throwing, lifting, pushing, pulling, climbing, running, and of course, punching are all quite natural. They got us where we are. They are part of our design. These natural, primal, movements influence the exercises included in CrossFit’s workouts.

A major and natural division occurs in movement types between those requiring control of the body alone and those that require the control of an external object as well.

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Posted on February 24, 2007 in Sports Applications

The world’s best swimmers move through the water with grace, economy, and flow, while novices are awkward, clumsy, and inefficient. But the rest of us can learn to swim well if we take the time to master swimming as an art before tackling it as a sport.

How many land-based athletes have concluded that swimming requires some exotic or elusive kind of fitness after an experience like this: Joe, who can breeze through a 5-mile jog without breaking a sweat, decides to try a pool workout one day. Within a few minutes, he’s panting for breath and wondering, “How will I ever get in a decent workout if I can’t even make 100 yards without dying?” Experiences like that convince many adult athletes that swimming is only for those who swam competitively as kids and leave them suspecting that the time and effort required to master swimming may not even be worth it.

But mastering the “swim challenge” is decidedly worthwhile. Not only is it ideal as a restorative, general fitness workout for virtually any aging athlete; learning to swim well also gives you the option to try triathlons or Masters swimming. And I’ve yet to meet an otherwise well-rounded athlete who could not learn to swim well enough to stay fit or tackle a triathlon. All they have to do is discard everything other aerobic activities such as running have taught them, as soon as they enter the pool.

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Posted on February 24, 2007 in Medical/Injuries

One of the paradigms in physical therapy is the notion that once range of motion (ROM) is restored, the patient is considered healthy. The American Medical Association quantifies the severity of back problems mostly on the loss of spinal ROM (McGill, 2002). While this is a laughable definition of “healthy,” we need not dwell on it because our goal is to pass by “healthy” faster than prunes through a goose.

Part of the definition of CrossFit is that sickness, health, and fitness fall into a continuum (see the “What is Fitness?” issue of the CrossFit Journal [October 2002]). A person with bad shoulders generally has weak, tight shoulders. A person with healthy shoulders (according to health codes) will have adequate range of motion, but not necessarily strength. Truly “fit” shoulders must be strong throughout the full range of motion. This article describes a progression of exercises that has been proven effective at restoring ROM and strength in the shoulders. A lot of doctors tell patients with shoulder problems to never lift anything over their heads. I disagree.

This article is not intended as medical advice. As always, we suggest that you consult a doctor, and then another doctor, until you find one who will sign off on this type of work.

This entire article is available in the CrossFit Store.

Posted on February 24, 2007 in Nutrition

I never thought what I ate mattered. I was thin and muscular. My athletic performance was decent. I generally felt pretty healthy and happy. So I was skeptical about diet having any kind of real impact on anything. For my whole life I had been eating a lot of whatever the hell I wanted and seemed to be doing just fine. But I did have a sense that this wasn’t true for everyone and that as a trainer, people would be asking me questions about nutrition and diet. I knew CrossFit prescribed the Zone diet so I bought the books, read them, got my measly block prescription and tried the diet. The deal I made with myself was that for two weeks I would weigh and measure precisely. If after two weeks I wanted to go back to eating the way I was before I could. No guilt, just an experiment.

Four weeks into the Zone diet, I was stronger and faster than I had ever been. I had lost fat and gained muscle. My benchmark workout times decreased, and my pull-up numbers increased. I hit PRs in deadlift, back squat, and push jerk. I had more energy, recovered more quickly, and could push harder more often.

This entire article is available in the CrossFit Store.

Posted on February 16, 2007 in Sports Applications

In the past six months or so I’ve noticed more conversations about how having a solid strength and power base really drives top performances on the CrossFit storms (the named benchmark workouts, also known as “the girls”) and some discussion on what is the best balance between strength workouts and circuit-type work, etc. I first came across CrossFit about three years ago and immediately began implementing ideas I learned from Coach Glassman and others in the CrossFit community into my job as the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of California, Riverside. With the strength and power discussions heating up and the recent emergence of the CrossFit Total, I thought I’d share an example of how I have incorporated CrossFit in the training of the athletic teams here at UCR.

This article describes the training that we on the strength and conditioning staff did with the position players on our baseball team during the fall off-season. (Next month, I will discuss the specifics of how we used CrossFit in training the women’s basketball team.) The pitching coach is very conservative, so the pitchers do a separate program consisting mostly of squats, some plyometrics, and medicine ball work. I will say, though, that out of seventeen pitchers, thirteen back squatted 300 pounds or more, with seven guys squatting over 350 pounds.

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Posted on February 10, 2007 in Parkour

Parkour is inherently vertical. For most of the rest of the population, the only vertical movement involves elevators or stairs, but for the traceur, every vertical surface is an opportunity to choose a different path. There are numerous techniques for scaling the vertical objects that lie throughout the urban environment (and innumerable techniques for surmounting those found in nature). Learning the basics of the tic-tac and wall run will give you a good understanding of the transference of momentum from the horizontal plane up and over the various vertical obstacles you may encounter.

The tic-tac is the foundation of these vertical movements, being a quick and efficient method for applying the momentum from your run along the ground to any number of objects that may aid in your ascent. In its most basic form, a tic-tac is nothing more than making your last step before take-off a boost off an object that gives you extra height and/or distance to make your next move faster or more efficient. You can use anything from small walls to benches or stumps. You should attempt to create a seamless transition between your approach run, your first step onto the object, and your final leap from it. Practicing this basic idea on a small retaining wall is a great way to learn the movement pattern of the tic-tac, as you can dial in running speed and coordination by creating a cadence that you follow for each successive step, ending in a powerful boost from the top of the wall into the air. From there it’s a matter of focusing on your landing and retreat as you continue on your way.

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Posted on February 10, 2007 in Medical/Injuries

Injury, like illness, is an ineluctable fact of life. In sport, elite performers are more marked by the attitude and manner with which they deal with injury than by their elected course of treatment or by the severity or frequency of their injuries.

Whereas treatment and rehabilitation receive considerable attention and focus in discussing injury, compensatory strategies for maintaining or improving fitness while recovering from injury are generally given short shrift.
This month we reveal the CrossFit approach to training with injury through the hypothetical case of an athlete medically restricted from all weight bearing movements for eight weeks following surgical repair of the meniscus in his right knee.

Remember, our concern here is not how to “rehab” the knee specifically but how to keep the athlete training to ensure that he continues to develop while he is injured and unable to use the affected limb.

This entire article is available in the CrossFit Store.

Posted on February 10, 2007 in Powerlifting

Over the past six years our school’s powerlifting team has been quite successful. We have had about thirty athletes advance to state championship contests and eight have won first or second place. Three have gone on to win national championships, and two of those have made this year’s U.S. World Team and will represent the United States at the IPF Sub-Junior (18 years or less) World Championships in September.

Several months ago I came across a link to CrossFit.com, and, after sifting through the site for a while, I was hooked. As someone who appreciates the value of hard work, I knew I had to find a way to incorporate this type of training and conditioning into my team’s regimen. I will first describe our existing strength training system and then show how we have incorporated CrossFit methodologies to take the program to an even higher level.

This entire article is available in the CrossFit Store.

Posted on February 5, 2007 in Basics

Rhabdomyolysis was first described in the victims of crush injury during the 1940- 1941 London, England, bombing raids of World War II - and more recently in Eugene’s garage.

A rugby player performs intense sets of squat jumps on a hot day, collapses, and is rushed to the hospital, where he spends two days in intensive care. Doctors notice that his heart is beating abnormally and that he has unusually high levels of potassium in his blood. A soccer player runs a series of 100- meter sprints at near maximum intensity. After his eighth sprint he collapses to the ground; when he gets to the hospital he is found to have high levels of potassium and myoglobin in his bloodstream. He spends several days in the hospital and is unable to train for several weeks. A highly fit marathoner holds a 6:30 pace for 26 miles but collapses only a few feet short of the finish line. Blood tests reveal a potassium concentration three or four times the normal level and he dies.


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Posted on February 1, 2007 in CFJ

The February 2007 issue (#54) of the CrossFit Journal is out! Thirty-six pages of no-nonsense writing by some of the brightest lights in functional fitness, direct to your inbox.

Josh Everett, "UC Riverside Baseball Fall Strength and Conditioning" – The head strength and conditioning coach at UC Riverside reveals all the particulars of his CrossFit-infused training plan for the university's baseball team. See exactly what he's had them do, how he balances their training with their sport and their academic schedules, and how CrossFit has taken them to a new level of fitness and competitiveness. And if you like this one, be sure to tune in next month, when he gives a similar look into his work with the women's basketball team.

Tony Blauer/Yael Grauer, "Fight Training Fitness" – Grauer grills Blauer (hmm, both rhyme with power) on how to train for real-life fights. "The reality is," Blauer maintains, "that you can't practice real fighting; at best, you can simulate it." Check out the interview learn about what that means for fight training and how Blauer organizes his training to address that issue.

Becca Borawski, "The Jab and Right Cross" – Ring Girl starts throwing punches this month. With detailed instructions and full-color photos.

Mike Burgener, with Tony Budding, "Snatch Assistance Exercises" – Coach B follows up on last month's article about his eponymous warm-up sequence with a review of the four primary skill-transfer exercises for the snatch: the overhead squat, pressing snatch balance, heaving snatch balance, and snatch balance.

Tony Leyland, "The Myth of the Fat-Burning Zone" – There is no shortage of fitness myths to debunk, and this month Professor Leyland sets his sights on a central tenet of pop-fitness dogma on heart-rate-zone "cardio" training. Yet another one of the technical arguments for intensity, made crystal clear.

Peter Dreissigacker, "Row Fast: How to Prepare for an Erg Test" – Whether you've set a new year's training goal to hit a new PR on a rowing distance, want to improve your times on WODs that include rowing, or are just looking for programming and training ideas for specific events or competition on the rower or off, this article by Concept2 founder and competitive rower Peter Dreissigacker has something for you. A perfect companion piece to Coach Glassman's classic take on " Strategies for a 7-Minute 2K on the Concept II Rower" in the CrossFit Journal archives.

Jeff Martone, "Kettlebell Skills: H2H Tapping Drills" – Demonstrating that it takes more than strength and power to manhandle big Russian balls of iron, KB juggler and hand-to-hand guru Martone lays out a progression for also developing coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance by throwing your weights around.

Michael Rutherford, "The Dumbbell Snatch" – Coach Rut likes to throw his weights around too. This month, he puts some power behind his bells, elaborating on the virtues of three dumbbell snatch variations. Plus, he looks cool in sunglasses. (Or does he? Post your thoughts to comments.)

Jesse Woody, "Indoor Parkour Training" – What happens when you combine our own Monkey Boy Jesse Woody, weather that reduces the appeal of leaping off tall buildings, and his own brand new indoor gym? You get Parkour off the streets, of course. It's more accessible to those of us who haven't escaped the ties of gravity and so much fun that you (or your kids) might not even notice you're getting a darn good workout in the process.

Mark Rippetoe, "Conventional Wisdom and the Fitness Industry" – Mark Rippetoe gets downright polemical in his intelligent tirade on the silliness that pervades the fitness industry. The medical profession, the media, Joe Trainer at GloboGym, the world of academic exercise physiology, and embroidered polo shirts—all are fair game when Rip gets on a roll.

The Grinder : CrossFit Fragmentary Order #7, "DYER" – This month the soldiers get ground down by a series of runs and a descending ladder of calisthenics. No equipment required. You can get some anywhere, any time, with any size group.

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