The Basics of CrossFit

“My dad used to say, ‘If you hang out in a barber shop, you’ll always have your hair cut. If you hang out in a tattoo parlor, you’ll have tattoos.’ … That’s just something he used to say, and then all of a sudden, I found CrossFit.” —Herb Mitchell, longtime member of CrossFit Makai

 

If you spend time around fit, healthy people, chances are, you’re going to become fitter and healthier yourself. Starting CrossFit is a direct path to that fitter, healthier version of yourself. 

The best way to understand CrossFit and its value as a fitness program is to experience it yourself by walking into a CrossFit gym and trying it. But we understand you may want to know what you’re getting yourself into before you take that step, so here’s a primer on the basics of CrossFit.

What Is CrossFit?

Let’s start with what CrossFit isn’t: CrossFit is not about sacrificing technique for a faster time. It’s not about taking the easy route and avoiding movements that are hard or humbling to learn. And it’s not about fancy diets or special supplements.  

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program designed to elicit the broadest physical capacity possible. We want our participants to be able to handle any challenge or adventure life throws at them, and 20+ years of results from our members prove CrossFit works for everyone and that the benefits continue to accumulate long term.

Every recommendation we make in CrossFit — both in relation to exercise and to nutrition — is about getting you results. Simply put, everything we do is geared toward making you the fittest, healthiest person you can be so you can thrive instead of just get by. 

These are the ingredients for achieving the high level of fitness CrossFit offers:

1. A comprehensive list of extremely effective functional movements.
2. An infinite variety of workout combinations that will always keep your workouts interesting and keep you progressing toward new skills. 
3. Intensity.
4. Expert coaching.
5. Basic yet profoundly effective nutrition strategies.

Functional Movements

Functional movements are movements involving multiple joints — as opposed to exercises that isolate one part of the body. The functional movements we use in CrossFit are important because they improve our ability to complete everyday activities while improving our overall fitness. For example, a deadlift trains us to pick something heavy up off the ground and a squat improves our ability to stand from a seated position.

Because these movements replicate the natural movements of life, functional movements are the safest movements we can perform in the gym. At the same time, they are unrivaled in their ability to strengthen muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments while also improving hormone and nervous-system function. 

This is why CrossFit uses functional movements such as biking, running, rowing, push-ups, dips, pull-ups, squats, deadlifts, presses, cleans, snatches, and jumping almost exclusively in our workouts. 

Variety

One unique element of CrossFit programming is the constant variance of the movements and combinations of movements used from one workout to the next.

Because our goal is to train for anything life might throw at us, we avoid routine. Running on a treadmill every day will not prepare us to carry our kids out of a burning building, and doing nothing but biceps curls and leg presses will not help us get up off the ground after a fall when we’re old. 

To develop the broad level of fitness we need for life, we have to be good at everything. This is why we run, bike, and row short, middle, and long distances and lift light, moderate, and heavy weights, mixing all these activities together in as many creative combinations as we can. 

In the words of CrossFit Founder Greg Glassman, the results of training with such variance are “the stuff of surviving fights and fires.” 

Intensity

Make no mistake, CrossFit is a high-intensity strength and conditioning program.

Intensity is a critical component of CrossFit because it is the key to achieving the fitness results we desire. If you want to run a faster mile, lose excess body fat, or improve your next blood panel, higher intensity in your workouts will get you there more efficiently and effectively than anything else.

That said, it is important to be crystal clear that we are talking about working out at one’s own relative intensity. The speed, load, rep range, and distance required to achieve high intensity for one person will be different for another, even in the same workout. Where a collegiate athlete might deadlift 200 lb and jump to a 30-inch box, a grandmother who’s never worked out before might deadlift a lightweight dowell and step up to a plate on the ground. 

That doesn’t mean we make the workout easier. No matter a person’s fitness level, we want the challenges of the workout to slightly exceed what’s comfortable so as to tax their abilities — because that is how we improve. 

Treading intelligently into this uncomfortable zone is essential for exceptional results, while going too hard can quickly lead to burnout or injury. That’s where the expertise and customized guidance of a CrossFit coach comes in.

Coaching

Unlike many other programs that define themselves as high intensity, CrossFit is not focused solely on going faster, farther, or heavier at all costs. Instead, we emphasize the importance of being able to consistently perform exercises safely with proper technique before increasing intensity.

Balancing skill mastery and technique with intensity — in other words, performing at the appropriate relative intensity — is necessary for athletic development and long-term results. At a CrossFit gym, it is the coach who teaches their athletes how to safely move at the ideal level of intensity to get results. This is why CrossFit has developed a culture that embraces relentless coaching during workouts and has created a rigorous educational curriculum for coaches to continue to hone their skills.

Nutrition

CrossFit nutrition relies on two very basic principles. First, eat whole, unprocessed foods, such as meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruit. Next, eat enough food to support your activity level but not so much as to lead to excess body fat. Using these principles, we can develop the habits and nutrition plan that support our health and fitness goals.

Here are a few steps you can take to develop a healthy nutrition plan that is sustainable:

1. Set yourself up for success by doing your grocery shopping and meal prep on the weekend. 
2. Stock your fridge, freezer, and pantry with the whole, unprocessed foods you need to fuel your activities. 
3. Learn to prepare your own meals.
4. Make sure you’re getting adequate protein with every meal and snack, and add fruits, vegetables, and other high-quality staples to round out each meal.
5. Read ingredient labels to make sure you know what you’re consuming (and watch out for any of these 56 different names for sugar).

It’s also important to remember that our diets evolve as our goals and lives change, and we should never get frustrated when things don’t go exactly according to plan. Long-term consistency is more important than any short-term deviation. No matter what, we are all only ever one meal away from getting back on track. 

It is really that simple — not easy, but simple. 

Making the Choice to Get Results

CrossFit has created the most safe and effective path for achieving exceptional levels of fitness. All the workouts, nutritional advice, and coaching resources are readily available for anyone to implement.

However, the key component of success is you: your willingness to show up every day and work hard — and to come back tomorrow and try again if you get off track.

Make the choice each day to be consistent with both exercise and diet. Do that and you will get results.

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