Defining Fitness

CrossFit describes itself in a number of ways. If you read the mainsite, CrossFit Journal or other affiliate sites you probably run across terms like work capacity, power, modal domains, functional movement, evidence based fitness… The list goes on and on. These phrases do have meaning. They help define our first-principles are which guide our philosophy which expresses itself in our methodology. In other words, it’s for the geeks among us. I won’t hold it against you if piles of data and an Excel spreadsheet don’t excite you, but there is so much to learn by digging into the numbers generated by your workouts. I think it makes workouts more interesting, just like I think it makes baseball more interesting. Nothing makes this interesting.

We start by listing a few of the more popular phrases and define the terms… CONTINUE READING AFTER THE BREAK


Lauren obviously thinks Chuck is pretty great

“CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity”

Functional movement – Simply stated these describe exercises that are natural to the human body in its natural environment. You can also describe them as the most efficient movement based on the human machine’s natural mechanics. Think of the basics like squatting, pushing, pulling, lifting, throwing… There is a natural, proper way for them to be performed. We do functional movements because they are the basic movements required of every human being.

Constantly varied – We don’t do the same things day after day after day. This does NOT mean we just randomly do stuff. You can vary time, reps, weight, distance or rest periods. A max rep back squat, a set of 100 air squats, 5×5 front squats and Tabata wall ball shots are different expressions of the squat. Running 3-5 miles 5-6 days a week doesn’t really count as varied. Generally speaking, the more focused your training is on one thing the better you will be at that one thing. We purposefully train a wide variety of skills in a wide variety of ways.

Intensity – The most simple way to think of intensity is doing more in less time. The more intensity in a workout the shorter it will be. Think of intensity in terms of horsepower. High intensity means you are producing more power but you will only maintain that level for short bursts. In other words. 21 thrusters followed by 21 pull-ups is fast and powerful, it is intense. Running for 5 miles is not powerful and is not intense.



“Specialization is for insects”
I have seen this on t-shirts. It is an attempt at humor so you specialists should calm down. Sports specific training is specialization; the specialist needs to focus on their sport. They say after seeing 50,000 curveballs a player starts to get an idea about how to hit one. You don’t get that experience by doing anything but seeing curveballs. At the same time, you don’t just go into the batting cage and swing at 50,000 curveballs and expect to be a top ballplayer. The cage is only a part of a workout routine aimed at being a better hitter. Our varied workout program seeks to increase speed, flexibility, strength, power, endurance, agility, stamina, coordination, etc. all of which support the end goal of hitting a baseball. It’s inaccurate to say that CrossFit will make you a better baseball player. It is accurate to say that CrossFit provides a base of performance related training that will enhance your specialization.



“Work capacity across broad time and modal domains”

Some people seem to think this statement is hard to understand or doesn’t make sense. Boiling it down it really just states that we are aiming to do many different things and do them as well as we can. This includes short heavy efforts and longer sustained efforts. This can be displayed visually by graphing power generated across time. It’s a geek thing for sure!

Work Capacity = Power = (weight x distance) / time – You know what miles per hour means. Work capacity is expressed as foot pounds. If you move a 100 pound weight 10 feet you have done 1,000 foot pounds of work. (100 pounds x 10 feet) See not hard. Say it took you 2 seconds. 1,000 ft lbs/2seconds = 500 ft lbs per second. This is your “average power output”. We will stop there.

Broad time and modal domains – That’s just a highfalutin way of saying different time spans and doing different things. Deadlift for 20 seconds, run for 3 hours, do Fran in 3:16. Sit on your butt for an entire football game. Expressed as power you would see very different amounts of work done across very different time frames.

–Class dismissed–