Getting Started

2006-01-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

Q: What is Crossfit?

A: CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program based on constantly varied, functional movement performed at high intensity. The goal of CrossFit Training is to insure that you will be physically prepared to meet all of life’s demands. Life by its very nature is unpredictable. CrossFit is unique in that it prepares our trainees to perform well at any and every task imaginable. We train for the unexpected.

Q: How do you do that?

A: We address all 10 aspects of fitness (see: What Is Fitness?) through the artful combining of Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and sprinting. The Workout of the Day (WOD) is the training plan that will prepare you to meet the physical demands you’ll face day-to-day in the best condition you’ve ever experienced.

Q: Is this for me?

A: Absolutely! Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s differ by degree, not kind. Increased fitness is important to the world’s best athletes and to our grandparents.

Q: What if I don’t want to be an athlete, I just want to be healthy?

A: You’re in luck. The truth is that fitness, wellness and pathology (sickness) are measures of the same entity, that is your health. It looks like this:

•Sickness___________________•Wellness____________________Health•

This continuum is measurements of:

Blood Pressure

Body Fat

Bone Density

Triglycerides

Cholesterol

Flexibility

Muscle Mass

etc….

Done right, fitness provides a great margin of protection against the ravages of time and disease. Fitness is “super-wellness”. If your goal is to be fit and healthy you will, by definition, be an athlete.

Q: Who has benefited from CrossFit ?

A: Many professional and elite athletes are participating in the CrossFit program. Prizefighters, cyclists, surfers, skiers, tennis players and others competing at the highest levels are using CrossFit to advance their core strength and conditioning.

But that’s not all; CrossFit has tested its methods on the sedentary, overweight, pathological and elderly and found that these special populations met the same success as professional athletes. If our program works for Olympic skiers and overweight, sedentary seniors then it will work for you.

Q: Is it safe, fast, effective and fun?

A: Yes, yes, yes and yes!

Safe: Because the movements we do are natural extensions of normal human activity - standing, sitting, jumping, throwing, lifting, pushing, pulling and climbing - nothing could be safer. This is not “exercising” in the ordinary sense, which very often is unnatural movement. You’re going to improve your capacity for everyday activity through systematically training the body the way it’s meant to be used.

Fast: Some of the Workouts of the Day (WOD) can take as little as 15 minutes. None takes more than an hour.

Effective: Remember; we’re doing functional movements, constantly varied, at high intensity. Most effective workout you’ve ever done.

Fun: Never a dull moment. The WOD is different everyday. You’ll find camaraderie in our group workouts that’s rare in any gym anywhere.

Q: What are we actually going to do?

A: A number of common and some not so common movements. Remember the goal is functional well-being. We will master the basics: healthlift, clean, squat, presses, clean and jerk, and lunges. We will advance in regular intervals to include gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups. We won’t forget biking, running, swimming, and rowing.

Five or six days per week, we’ll mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. The workouts will be short, intense and fantastic.

Q: What if I don’t have time for this?

A: Home, family, work, spiritual growth and social obligations are, of course, our highest priorities. But, to get the most out of any of these things you have to be well and strong. Face it, anything worthwhile requires a commitment. There is nothing sadder than to have years left in your life, but little life left in your years.

The maximum benefit from CrossFit training is obtained in 5-6 days a week, 20-60 minutes a day. Either 3 days on, 1 day off or 5 days on and 2 days off. This is optimal, though active sports participants can tailor their workouts to include CrossFit in other patterns.

Q: How long will it take to see some benefit?

A: In 2 - 4 weeks you’ll begin to see changes in your body and feel improvements in your attitude, mental sharpness, ability to move and capacity to respond to stress. You’ll look better and feel better faster than on any other workout you’ve ever done.

Q: Do you have a program for…?

A: We hear this a lot. For swimming, soccer, basketball, karate, whatever, the answer is

“Yes. CrossFit”

We design and deliver a broad-based general fitness. The need for specificity in sport is nearly perfectly met within the training and practice of the sport. There is a strong, yet mistaken, belief that every sport requires a separate and distinct strength and conditioning prescription. CrossFit will improve any athlete’s performance in any sport.

Q: What about diet?

A: Simply put, eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that support exercise but not body fat.

This plan is best outlined in The Zone Diet regimen. We encourage our clients to utilize this diet by consulting the many books on the subject. And we’re here to help.

Q: How do I start becoming CrossFit?

A: Like the famous Chinese Proverb, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” your CrossFit plan will begin with learning the basics of the core lifts, exercises and routines and will build on these until you‘re ready for the Workout of the Day (WOD). No previous physical skills or athletic abilities are required. By the same token, experienced athletes familiar with the basics will start out a little faster. Anyone can join, all are welcome. Each participant will receive personal instruction and coaching.