Rest Day

Implementing Sprinting in CrossFit

CrossFit's comprehensive approach to fitness includes sprinting — a skill many of us have neglected for years. Implement this progressive three-phase plan to safely rediscover or improve your sprinting abilities while minimizing injury risk. Following this progression and incorporating regular speed work into your training will unlock incredible benefits that only high-intensity sprinting can provide.

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Don’t Skip Speed Day: The Lost Art of Sprinting in CrossFit

CrossFit’s foundation of broad, general, and inclusive fitness requires more than just met-cons and heavy lifts; it demands speed. This article explores why sprinting is just as essential as strength training in developing GPP. Drawing from Tony Leyland’s foundational work, we dig into the powerful physiological and neurological benefits of sprinting and its impact on sport and real-world performance. If you want to be a faster, stronger, and more resilient athlete, it’s time to start sprinting.

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The Most Overlooked Key to Athletic Performance: GPP in CrossFit

General physical preparedness (GPP) is often the most overlooked element in athletic training, but it’s the foundation of CrossFit’s methodology. Recently, Stephane Rochet (CF-L3) and Joe Alexander (CF-L4) did a deep dive into how effective GPP can elevate performance across all levels, from everyday athletes to Olympians. Drawing on years of experience, they discuss how CrossFit develops unmatched GPP, why fixing foundational deficiencies often yields immediate sport-specific benefits, and how prioritizing GPP can actually reduce injuries and training volume while increasing long-term athletic development. This is essential viewing for anyone who wants to truly understand the goal of CrossFit training and why it’s different than any other fitness methodology out there.

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Why CrossFit Loves Hyrox (and Why That’s a Good Thing)

Lately, there's been a buzz about Hyrox possibly overtaking CrossFit as the next big thing in fitness — and as someone who's lived and breathed CrossFit for years, I've got some thoughts. Spoiler alert: They're not the same, and that's a good thing. This isn’t a battle. It’s a brilliant intersection. Here's my take on how Hyrox and CrossFit can — and should — thrive side by side.

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CrossFit Makes You Athletic? Here’s Why That’s a Lie (And Why It Still Matters)

Everyone loves to argue over whether CrossFit creates athletes — or just really fit humans. Scroll through social media, and you’ll find hot takes, call-outs, and reaction videos claiming CrossFit athletes are just pretending to be athletic. But the truth is far less sexy and way more powerful: CrossFit doesn’t teach you to sink three-pointers or master a tennis serve, but it does build the raw physical capacity — the strength, speed, balance, and stamina — that fuels athletic greatness. So, let’s cut through the noise and finally settle it: What does CrossFit really do, and what are we actually training for?

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Featured Article

Beyond the Open: 15 Benchmark Workouts to Guide Your CrossFit Progress Year-Round

The CrossFit Open may highlight our strengths and weaknesses, but real progress happens year-round. By strategically incorporating 15 key benchmark workouts — from strength tests to endurance challenges — you can track your fitness, identify gaps, and ensure your programming drives well-rounded improvement. Rather than training for the test, these workouts serve as checkpoints, helping you assess whether your training is building strength, stamina, and resilience across all modalities. Ready to take control of your progress? Let’s dive in.

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Featured Article

Efficient Training: The 80/20 Rule of Fitness and How CrossFit Maximizes Results with Minimal Time

The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. CrossFit embodies this principle by focusing on high-intensity, functional movements, constant variance, and mixed-modality workouts to deliver maximum fitness gains efficiently. Unlike traditional training that prioritizes volume, CrossFit optimizes intensity to drive adaptation, ensuring long-term progress without excessive time investment. With proper nutrition as its foundation, CrossFit’s methodology enables athletes to achieve elite fitness levels in less time, leaving them more opportunities to enjoy life outside the gym.

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Featured Article

The CrossFit Physique: When Performance Builds a Better Body

CrossFit’s mission is to forge elite fitness, but an undeniable byproduct is its athletes' strong, capable physiques. Unlike traditional bodybuilding, which often prioritizes aesthetics over function, CrossFit’s constantly varied, high-intensity training produces bodies that are powerful, resilient, and beautiful. Rooted in the training philosophies of early strongmen and Olympic weightlifters, CrossFit builds muscle, strength, and endurance through functional movements, lifting heavy, and pushing intensity. When paired with a whole-foods-based diet, this approach delivers the ultimate combination — unmatched fitness and an athletic physique. In short, train like an athlete, and you’ll look like one, too.

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Featured Article

The CrossFit Approach to Building Healthy Habits

Achieving health and fitness goals isn’t about willpower alone — it’s about creating a smart action plan, reshaping your mindset, and focusing on small, manageable steps. By automating decisions, addressing triggers, and designing environments that support healthy habits, you can reduce reliance on willpower and build momentum. Viewing willpower as a skill to practice and linking small, achievable goals to larger ambitions creates a cycle of success. Whether you’re reigniting an important goal you set months ago or preparing for the 2025 CrossFit Open, these strategies will help you stay on track and achieve lasting progress.

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Featured Article

Strong Women are the Standard

The 2021 NCAA basketball tournament highlighted a long-standing misconception about women and strength training, but CrossFit has always challenged this narrative. In CrossFit, women lift heavy, develop real-world strength, and reap the benefits of resistance training — including improved metabolism, bone density, mobility, and overall health. Strength is essential for true fitness, and any program that neglects it is incomplete. Strong women aren’t the exception — they’re the standard.

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Featured Article

The Power of CrossFit for the Aging Athlete: Strength, Longevity, and Community

Aging doesn’t mean slowing down — especially in the CrossFit world. Despite societal misconceptions, aging adults often see the most significant fitness gains, improving strength, mobility, and overall well-being. CrossFit’s emphasis on functional movements, weight-bearing exercises, and high-intensity training helps counteract age-related muscle loss, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular decline. Beyond physical benefits, it fosters mental resilience, social connections, and a strong sense of community — crucial for maintaining motivation and independence. With scalable workouts tailored to individual needs, CrossFit empowers aging adults to stay active, confident, and engaged, proving that fitness is for every age.

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Featured Article

CrossFit and the Interference Effect

Traditional fitness wisdom once dictated that strength and endurance training should be separate to avoid the “interference effect,” where endurance work was believed to hinder strength gains and vice versa. CrossFit challenged this outdated approach by blending strength and conditioning within the same workouts, maximizing both in a way that traditional split routines cannot. While CrossFit incorporates pure endurance and heavy lifting days, its signature mixed-modality met-cons effectively bridge the gap, developing both aerobic and anaerobic capacity. This method yields superior fitness adaptations without excessive interference, preparing athletes for real-world demands where strength and endurance must coexist seamlessly.

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Featured Article

Training Through Injury: Smart Strategies to Stay Fit and Recover Faster

If you get injured, your priority should be maintaining as much fitness as possible while allowing your body to heal. Instead of completely resting, adapting your training can help minimize fitness loss and prevent long-term setbacks. Strategies such as varying exercises, adjusting range of motion, and modifying tempo allow you to work around injuries safely. For more significant injuries, training surrounding muscles, focusing on cardiovascular fitness, and using contralateral training can support recovery. By staying active and making smart modifications in CrossFit classes, you can continue progressing your fitness without worsening your injury.

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Featured Article

An Open Invitation

The CrossFit Open is more than a test of fitness — it’s a challenge that builds mental toughness, resilience, and confidence. While it provides valuable insights into our progress, it also forces us to perform under pressure, face our fears, and push beyond our comfort zone. Whether it’s conquering a tough movement, racing the clock, or battling self-doubt, the Open is our chance to choose growth over fear and walk away stronger, fitter, and prouder. This year, embrace the challenge — do the hard thing and make it count.

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Riley

For time:
2,400-meter run
150 burpees
2,400-meter run

If you’ve got a weight vest or body armor, wear it.

Post time to comments.

Compare to 140928.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens, 39, of Tolar, Texas, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), died Sept. 28, 2012, in Wardak, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by enemy small-arms fire. Stephens is survived by his wife Tiffany; children, Austin, Morgan, and Rylee Ann; parents, Michael and Joann; brother Ken; and several family members.

Stimulus and Strategy:
Today’s Hero workout is a longer-duration effort. This is meant to be a grind, so expect this workout to take up to 60 minutes. Each run and the burpees should take no more than 20 minutes to complete (each). Athletes who are capable of completing this workout in 35 minutes or less can consider adding a weight vest or body armor. Most athletes should attempt this workout using their own body weight. Work hard and have fun.

Scaling:
Reduce the distance of the run and the repetitions of the burpees.

To adjust the complexity of the run, instead of reducing the distance, consider using a movement substitution like a bike or a rower. Perform 5,500 meters on an Echo bike or 2,500 meters on a rower or ski erg. For the burpees, reduce the range of motion by performing an up-down.

In case of an injury or limitation, consider the running substitutions mentioned above. For burpees, perform up-downs, push-ups, or mountain climbers.

Intermediate option:
For time:
2,400-meter run
150 burpees
2,400-meter run

Beginner option:
For time:
1,200-meter run
50 burpees
1,200-meter run

Coaching cues:
When you are performing the burpees, focus on jumping your feet to your hands and landing in your heels. This will help maximize efficiency across your reps.

Resources:
CrossFit Hero and Tribute Workouts
Running | Change in Support Drill
The Burpee

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Featured Article

CrossFit for Health and Fitness vs. CrossFit for Points

Observing CrossFit Games athletes can be an inspiring and educational experience, offering insights into their techniques, pacing, and strategies. However, it’s essential to recognize the difference between competitive tactics and training for long-term fitness and health. Games athletes prioritize speed and efficiency, often sacrificing range of motion, tempo, or even safety to gain an edge. For general fitness, focusing on controlled rep tempo, full range of motion, sound technique, proper refueling with whole foods, and listening to the body to avoid injury is paramount. By understanding the context behind competitive practices, we can adopt the elements that align with our goals while leaving the extreme measures for competition.

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Featured Article

From Step-Ups to Deadlifts: How Midline Stability Can Transform Your CrossFit Training

CrossFit prioritizes effective and functional core training as part of its commitment to forging elite fitness. Unlike programs that focus on flashy, high-repetition ab exercises, CrossFit emphasizes midline stabilization — the ability to maintain a neutral spine and resist unwanted trunk movements —through compound, isometric, and functional movements. Core strength is developed primarily through foundational movements, Olympic lifts, and single-limb exercises that challenge the spine's ability to stabilize under load. Additional complementary exercises isolate and strengthen specific core muscles, ensuring a comprehensive approach to injury prevention and performance enhancement. By prioritizing core stability over superficial "core work," CrossFit prepares athletes for the demands of sport, combat, and life.

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Featured Article

‘I’m Not Alone’: Scott Hanley Continues to Inspire Parkinson’s Community

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2018, Scott Hanley refused to accept a grim prognosis. In 2020, he began working out, discovering that fitness and strength training eased his symptoms. Joining CrossFit Belfast in 2021, Hanley embraced high-intensity workouts and skill-building, remarkably reducing his symptoms. Inspired by his transformation, others, like Ian Haldane, followed his lead, finding relief and improved quality of life through CrossFit. Backed by science linking intense exercise to neuroprotection and neuroplasticity, Hanley’s story highlights the power of fitness, community, and determination in living well with Parkinson’s while inspiring others to keep fighting.

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Featured Article

Keep the Muscle, Lose the Fat

Chris Masterjohn’s “How to Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle” emphasizes the importance of prioritizing fat loss while preserving lean mass during weight loss. He advises against excessive calorie restriction, recommending instead a focus on full-body resistance training, high-intensity intervals, and adequate protein intake to support muscle retention and overall health. Slow, consistent weight loss—up to 2 pounds per week—is optimal, with exercise playing a critical role in minimizing lean mass loss. Masterjohn’s findings align closely with CrossFit principles, underscoring the effectiveness of functional fitness and whole-food diets in achieving sustainable, healthy results.

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Featured Article

Your Environments Determine Your Health

Are you relying on willpower alone to stick to your health and fitness goals? This article reveals the most important strategy people overlook: shaping your physical and mental environments for success. From reorganizing your kitchen and meal prepping to crafting a workout routine and fostering a positive mindset, it’s all about creating a foundation that makes healthy choices easier and setbacks manageable. Discover actionable tips to transform your surroundings, stay consistent, and make this the year you finally achieve lasting results.

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Featured Article

Kill Fake Hunger: Simple Strategies to Overcome Cravings and Hit Your Nutrition and Performance Goals

Mastering your nutrition plan starts with understanding that cravings often stem from boredom, habit, or sugar addiction — not true hunger. Build a solid foundation by consuming high-quality foods, balancing macronutrients, and following a consistent eating schedule. Address triggers like dehydration, junk food access, and lack of sleep, and embrace the slight discomfort of hunger as part of the process. If you slip up, don’t dwell — refocus with your next meal. Progress comes from consistency, not perfection, and with patience and these strategies, you can achieve your nutrition and fitness goals.

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Featured Article

How Fit Are You?

CrossFit’s original fitness competition, predating the CrossFit Games and Open, features five challenging tests designed to assess absolute strength, relative strength, and gymnastics skills. These tests include 1-rep-max lifts, bodyweight movements, and complex gymnastics, with scaling options available. The key goal is not just scoring but identifying weaknesses to improve over time. By working on deficiencies in strength or skill, you can make significant progress, guided by training suggestions included in the article. This approach highlights how focused efforts on weaknesses can lead to remarkable fitness improvements and long-term adaptability.

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Featured Article

CrossFit: The Fountain of Youth

CrossFit challenges the narrative that aging leads to inevitable physical decline, offering a lifelong approach to fitness that improves work capacity and health markers at every stage of life. By focusing on mechanics, consistency, and intensity, CrossFit helps delay age-related limitations, promoting strength, endurance, mobility, and independence. Aging well is a matter of active, intentional choices and continuous training.

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Featured Article

What Is Metabolic Conditioning?

Metabolic conditioning (met-con) is a cornerstone of CrossFit, designed to optimize your body’s ability to store, deliver, and use energy efficiently across varying intensities and durations. By targeting all three energy systems, met-cons boost energy efficiency, enhance fitness, support heart and lung health, promote fat loss while preserving muscle, and prepare you for real-world physical demands. Best of all, CrossFit-style met-cons build exceptional endurance without the need for traditional endurance training.

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Jack

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 push presses
10 kettlebell swings
10 box jumps

♀ 75-lb barbell, 35-lb kettlebell, and 20-inch box
♂115-lb barbell, 53-lb kettlebell, and 24-inch box

Compare to 221029.

Post rounds and reps to comments.

Army Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, of Bethany, Oklahoma, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Washington, died Sept. 29, 2009, in Jolo Island, Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised explosive device. Martin is survived by his wife Ashley; parents Jack and Cheryl; and siblings Abe, Mandi, Amber, and Abi.

Scaling:
For today’s Hero workout, reduce the weight on the push presses and kettlebell swings, and the height of the box so you can perform each exercise unbroken with minimal rest during transitions. Don’t let the load keep you from moving — the goal is constant movement for the duration of the workout.

Intermediate option:
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 push presses
10 kettlebell swings
10 box jumps

♀ 65-lb barbell, 35-lb kettlebell, 20-inch box
♂ 95-lb presses, 53-lb kettlebell, 24-inch box

Beginner option:
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 push presses
10 kettlebell swings
10 box step-ups

♀ 35-lb barbell, 18-lb kettlebell, 12-inch box ♂ 45-lb barbell, 26-lb kettlebell, 20-inch box

Coaching cues:
To speed up the kettlebell swings, focus on pulling the bell back into the starting position between your legs.

Resources:
The Push Press
The Kettlebell Swing
The Box Jump
The Box Step-Up
Class Demo: Jack From 221029
CrossFit Hero and Tribute Workouts

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Featured Article

Hitting the Stimulus in Every CrossFit WOD

Intensity and variance are essential to CrossFit programming, driving results and fostering broad fitness. Preserving the intended stimulus of each workout ensures we optimize both elements. Factors like how a workout feels, loading, timing, volume, and movement patterns play a crucial role. The math method helps scale workouts to maintain intensity, guiding athletes to hit the desired time or rep targets. Whether tackling Fran, Cindy, or Amanda, scaling appropriately ensures athletes achieve the intended stimulus, maximizing fitness and results over the long term.

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Featured Article

The Deadlift

The deadlift, a fundamental hinging movement pattern, is highly effective for building strength, increasing muscle mass, improving back health, and enhancing athletic performance. Engaging major muscle groups like the glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors, the deadlift supports full-body strength and resilience. Regular deadlift training promotes muscle growth and reduces back pain by strengthening the spine and surrounding muscles. It also boosts athletic abilities, improving speed, power, and midline stability essential for sports. By incorporating deadlifts consistently, you can achieve significant improvements in strength, health, and overall fitness.

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Featured Article

Staying Strong Through the Holidays: A Message for Your Future Self

The holiday season often leads to small weight gains that add up over time, increasing health risks and straying from fitness goals. Instead of letting indulgence derail your progress, focus on staying intentional with your choices, prioritizing movement, and maintaining discipline. Enjoy the season while aligning your actions with your long-term health and performance aspirations. Come January, you’ll thank yourself for staying consistent, waking up stronger, fitter, and proud of your commitment.

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Featured Article

Primer on Protein, Part 6: The Immune System

In the final article in this six-part series, we discuss how following CrossFit’s fitness and dietary guidelines not only enhances physical performance but also fortifies your body’s immune system. Protein is vital in this process, supporting immune cell production and function. High-quality animal proteins provide essential amino acids like glutamine, arginine, and cysteine, critical for immune defense and recovery. This holistic approach to health strengthens your body against chronic diseases and acute illnesses alike, making fitness a lifelong pursuit.

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CHAD1000X

For time:
1,000 weighted step-ups

♀ 35-lb ruck, 20-inch box
♂ 45-lb ruck, 20-inch box

Post time to comments.

Compare to 231111.

Sara Wilkinson, CrossFit, and Rogue Fitness present the Hero workout CHAD1000X in honor of Navy SEAL Chad Wilkinson who died by suicide on Oct. 29, 2018, due to the effects of numerous deployments, several TBIs, blast-wave injuries, and PTSD. Our goal is to honor Chad’s life and legacy, and to raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Click here to officially register and to learn more about CHAD1000X and The Step Up Foundation’s mission to raise awareness around and prevent veteran suicide.

Scaling:
Today’s workout is a long grind. Complete as a team, with a partner, or individually for time. Reduce the load and height of the step-up as needed. If you have completed this workout previously, look back and use that information to help you tackle today’s effort.

Intermediate option:
For time:
1,000 weighted step-ups
♀ 20-lb ruck, you pick the height of the step-ups
♂ 30-lb ruck, you pick the height of the step-ups

Beginner option:
For time:
1,000 unweighted box step-ups
No rucksack, you pick the height of the step-ups.

Coaching cues: During each step-up, focus on keeping your knees tracking in line with the toes and standing up by taking your chest to the sky. These two points will ensure the best posture and mechanics throughout the workout.

Resources:
The Box Step-Up
Tips for Beginners
Partner Tips
CHAD1000X Hero Workout
The Step-Up Foundation
CrossFit Hero and Tribute Workouts

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Featured Article

The Primer on Protein, Part 1: What Is Food For

In "World Class Fitness in 100 Words," the first prescription for achieving fitness is focused on food, not exercise, highlighting the importance of nutrition. While food provides energy, it also offers crucial building blocks for the body, like amino acids, which form proteins essential for brain, muscle, and tissue function. This series explores how dietary protein supports muscle health, which is vital for longevity and disease prevention.

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