CrossFit Certification--Trip Report

[J.Brown]

As has been discussed in the large CrossFit discussion thread, I spent this last weekend at a certification put on by CrossFit and taught be its founder Greg Glassman and several other CrossFit elite athletes.

This trip report won't be to teach CrossFit and its principles because it is all available for free on the web, but to just go over what I thought was important from the weekend and give a brief explanation of their principles.

What is CrossFit? The short answer is that it is a training system based on Constantly Varied High Intensity Functional Movement. All of its movements are natural, essential, and safe even when performed at intensity.

CrossFit is a broad based and inclusive system that wants to punish the specialist.

Ex. Who is more fit? Someone with a 900 lb. back squat or someone with a 4:15 mile? or someone with a 550 lb. back squat and a 5:00 mile? No one possess the first 2 abilities at the same time, but elite crossfitters can possess that last 2!

The have a model that goes like this:
sickness to wellness to fitness
and if you achieve fitness it insulates you from sickness because you have to first regress to just general wellness before your body loses it capacity to function and is sick.

The key thing I took from this is what puts us (outside of neurological reasons) in a nursing home? The loss of Functional Movement is the answer. So basing your fitness on functional moves seems to only make sense, not strapping yourself into some weight machine and doing movements that will never be repeated outside of the gym or focusing on isolation exercises that can be both dangerous and ineffective.

CrossFit is about training for use and a ready state in life, not in the gym or for vanity purposes. It is to help you succeed in winning a game, a mission, a rescue, etc.

The weekend was set up as two full days combined with both lecture and instrucion/work outs in which you both are taught and have to teach the movements.

The 9 movements that were focused in on day 1 were:
the squat, the front squat, the overhead squat
the shoulder press, push press, push jerk
the deadlift, the sumo deadlift hi pull, and the clean

the movements covered on day 2 were:
pullups (kipping), ring dips/muscle ups, kettlebell swings
double unders (jump rope), the snatch (intro), thrusters, and some basic core movements (sit ups, ghd stuff, knees to elbows, etc.)

I found the lectures to be the most inspiring and entertaining from both Glassman and Nicole Carroll (she may just be the bionic woman, seriously) see video below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dRlyPvphqk

Glassman dodged exactly zero fitness questions and gave long well thought out answers on a huge variety of subjects.

One of my favorite moments was that he readily admitted that he wanted to have CrossFit be an open source fitness program so that he could continue to learn and assimilate whatever best works to advance human performance. How can that not make sense?

Nutrition was covered, but not in great detail as it was pretty simple. CrossFit 100% supports undertaking the Zone diet and feels that it is the best in achieving optimum performance. The overwhelming majority of elite crossfitters are strict Zoners.

Day 2 also covered programming workouts for yourself and clients and the best ways to scale intensity if the prescribed workouts are too difficult in either weight or volume of work. (the answer is to mix it up: scale both the loads, volume, and intensity until you can work your way up to the prescribed workouts)

All in all a great weekend that inspired me and taught me a ton about moving myself and my body efficiently with weights. The people there were a super cool group of fitness freaks (some of which were animals) and all seemed to really be interested in helping other people get more fit.

I realize this was both long and really generalized, so I would be more than happy to answer any questions or stay active in the discussion of their certification classes.

Easily the most educational and best 1K I have probably ever spent. later. J.

[shemp]

Thank you.

I'd love to hear more about the DU instruction. I can't seem to get rid of putting a single between my doubles. I think the problem is in my hand drive, but I haven't figured it out. I'm not new to jumping, btw.

[J.Brown]

i am in the same boat as you with having to put a single between doubles. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

crossfit just brought buddy lee on to their team so they promised a bunch more instructional vids and intergrating it even more to their wods.

here was the instruction, although i am have some doubts as to how much it will help you.

wrists super tight to your sides, this will allow for use of a shorter rope which you can obv. turn over more efficiently and quickly.

make sure you are jumping straight up and landing in the same spot. drifting really becomes a downside on double unders because of the reduced margin for error.

make sure you are looking forward not down. this causes both misses and decreases turnover rate of the rope.

more explosion in your jumps. (i will be practicing this one)

most of the crossfitters there were terrible at the rope. seriously. made me feel better watch in a guy with a 3:30 Fran unable to do basically any double unders.

i know my advice was pretty basic, but it helped when i was there and i am now using doubles as a part of my warm up everyday and hoping for the improvement. i will keep you posted.

happy skipping. J.

[shemp]

Thanks again.

Btw, regarding:

[ QUOTE ]
CrossFit is about training for use and a ready state in life, not in the gym or for vanity purposes. It is to help you succeed in winning a game, a mission, a rescue, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I refuse to accept a dichotomy where someone focused on performance training can't be every bit as vain as the meathead doing curls in the squat racks.

[J.Brown]

understood.

the point of it is a touch double sided.
training to look fit is different that training to be fit.

you have to work very hard on being really fit and not looking good. this topic was brought up, but unless you really f-up your diet full time you will look good (and can be as vain as you want to be) while getting fit.

it is just not the first and singular purpose and doesn't claim to be. i think this is thremp's main complaint.
i just wanted to stem off the crossfit is for everyone no matter what your goals are arguement. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

btw, i am very vain and look what i am choosing to do. J.

[Thremp]

J Brown,

Jump rope is highly skill specific and a very poor indicator of overall athletic ability. It'd be like taking an NBA player and throwing him into a pool and then wondering why he sucks at swimming.

And yes, that is my almost entire problem with it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

If I was looking to play sports I'd be doing a program that would be almost the exact same.

[longbody]

What is considered good for consecutive DUs? If there is such a #.

I can hit 25 doing them at the end of a skipping session, the limiting factor being forearm fatigue and not being able to get the rope around fast enough at the end. I think I could get more if I started out fresh and had a little luck in not screwing up.

[shemp]

[ QUOTE ]
What is considered good for consecutive DUs?

[/ QUOTE ]

At crossfit they say 2 minutes:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C...bleUnders2.wmv

I'd *guess* that is about 150-180 (assuming about 150-180 rpm on the rope). I'm going to have to make another effort with these. That you have the ability to do them consecutively is the key, imo.

edit: I just watched the video. He's closer to 240rpm. (With a beaded rope. Hah!)

[shemp]

[ QUOTE ]
Jump rope is highly skill specific and a very poor indicator of overall athletic ability.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why is that the acid test for whether the task is worthwhile for fitness or developing athletic ability? That is, how is that a complaint against training with a jump rope?

There is not a single test with transference over all athletic domains, but things focused on and around hip extension are pretty good (vertical and broad jump, hurdling). This is exactly why jump rope is a good tool to develop athletic ability-- it's transference will likely be to improve performance on such tests.

[Thremp]

shemp,

Its a good skill to learn, but tests shouldn't have a large skill specific component.

I think you say it simply when you refer to it as a "tool". It should be used as such and not a barometer of fitness.