What Is Fitness?

2006-01-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

Who Is Fit?

When most people are asked this question they tend to answer with examples of any number of endurance athletes: distance runners, triathletes, cross-country skiers, tour cyclists, and more. Normann Stadler, the winner of the 2004 Hawaii Ironman and a top four finisher the last four years, is certainly capable of impressive stamina. If he is truly the fittest of the fit, then how do we classify Olympic Decathlon Silver Medalist Bryan Clay? Clay possesses incredible stamina as well, yet would crush Stadler in activities that require strength, power, speed and coordination.

Perhaps the definition of fitness doesn’t include strength, power, speed and coordination though this seems rather odd. Merriam-Webster’s definition is lacking; “the ability to transmit genes and be healthy.” The National Strength and Conditioning Association hazards no definition at all. Where does this leave us?

CrossFit’s Fitness

After considerable research, study, debate and experimentation CrossFit offers it’s program based on the ten general physical skills widely recognized by exercise physiologists. These cover every area of athletic activity and the three human energy pathways: the phosphagen (high-powered activity - less than 10 seconds), glycolitic (moderate-powered activity - 10-30 seconds) and oxidative (low-powered activity - in excess of several minutes).

Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.

Stamina - the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy

Strength - the ability of a muscular unit or combination of muscular units to apply force.

Flexibility - The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.

Power - The ability of a muscular unit or combination of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time

Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.

Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.

Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.

Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to it’s support base.

Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

You are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills. A regimen develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these.

Implementation

Our fitness, that is, being “CrossFit”, comes through molding men and women that are equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter and multi-modal sprinter or “sprintathlete”.

Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete, gymnast and weightlifter and you’ll be fitter than any world-class runner, gymnast or weightlifter.

Let’s see how CrossFit incorporates metabolic conditioning (“cardio”), gymnastics and weightlifting to forge the world’s fittest men and women.

Metabolic Conditioning (“Cardio”)

Biking, running, swimming, rowing, speed skating, and cross-country skiing are collectively known as “metabolic conditioning.” In the common vernacular they are referred to as “cardio”. This is aerobic activity. In essence, efforts at low power and lasting in excess of several minutes are aerobic. While aerobic activity increases metabolic conditioning and stamina it can have a negative impact on muscle mass, strength, speed and power. Not good for most athletes and those interested in elite fitness.

The key to developing the cardiovascular system without an unacceptable loss of strength, speed and power is interval training. Interval training mixes bouts of work and rest in timed intervals. One example of a common interval series you’ll see in CrossFit workouts is the Tabata Protocol; 20 seconds of sprint-level activity followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times. It sounds easy; it’s not. Training this way will increase both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning with no loss of muscle mass, power, speed and strength levels. It meets the demands of the time-conscious athlete by giving you the biggest bang for your metabolic conditioning exercise buck.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics includes not only the traditional family of competitive sports that we’re familiar with from the Olympics but also climbing and calisthenics and a smattering of other activities where the aim is body control. It is from this realm of activities that we can develop extraordinary strength (especially upper body and trunk), flexibility, coordination, balance, agility and accuracy. In fact, the traditional gymnast has no peer in terms of development of these skills.

CrossFit uses short parallel bars, mats, still rings, pull-up and dip bars, and a climbing rope to implement our gymnastics training.

The starting place for gymnastic competency lies with the well-known calisthenic movements: pull-ups, push-ups, dips, and rope climb. These movements need to form the core of your upper body strength work. We will set goals for achieving benchmarks like 20, 25, and 30 pull-ups; 50, 75, and 100 push-ups; 20, 30, 40, and 50 dips; 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 trips up the rope without any use of the legs.

Weightlifting

CrossFit uses Olympic-style weightlifting techniques that develop strength (especially in the hips), speed, and power like no other training modality. Successful weightlifting requires substantial flexibility. Olympic weightlifters are as flexible as any athletes.

The Clean And Jerk and the Snatch are workout staples that develop coordination, agility, accuracy, and balance. Both of these lifts are nuanced and challenging. Moderate competency in these Olympic lifts also confers added prowess to any sport or physical challenge.

The core of our resistance training includes exercises based on the healthlift, clean, squat, and jerk. These movements are the starting point for any serious weight-training program. They elicit a profound neuro-endocrine response. That is, they alter the body hormonally and neurologically. Most of the development that occurs as a result of exercise is systemic and a direct result of hormonal and neurological changes.

Curls, lateral raises, leg extensions, leg curls, flys and other traditional body-building movements have no place in a serious strength and conditioning program primarily because they have a blunted neuro-endocrine response. A distinctive feature of these relatively worthless movements is that they have no functional analog in everyday life and they work only one joint at a time. Compare this to the deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk which are functional and multi-joint movements.

Conclusion

Gymnasts have no peer in trunk and hip flexion, upper body strength in multiple joint angels, agility, accuracy, balance, coordination, their domain is body control. Weightlifters are masters of power, speed, and hip and leg strength. Powerful hip extension is the most critical element of human performance and none have the capacity of the weightlifters. Sprinters have enormous physical potential due to their metabolic competency across anaerobic and aerobic pathways and the speed, power and total conditioning that sprinting demands.

This is a challenging, well-rounded workout regimen that will prepare the CrossFit Trainee for any and all situations. It requires a minimum of time. The vast majority of the routines are 20-30 minutes long making them ideal for busy professionals. A five-day on, two-day off schedule will produce amazing results in strength and stamina that will make you efficient, healthy and safe.

What is Fitness?

What Is Fitness?