In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical workout consists of isolation movements and extended aerobic sessions. The fitness community from trainers to the magazines has the exercising public believing that lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, sit-ups and the like combined with 20-40 minute stints on the stationary bike or treadmill are going to lead to some kind of great fitness. Not to mention the fact that when you walk in any commercial gym the first sight to be seen is the sea of machines that come with no directions. Learning how to use them, when to use them, in what order, at what intensity can be a mystery and quite overwhelming to even the best fitness enthusiast.
At CrossFit Defined we work exclusively with compound movements and shorter high intensity cardiovascular sessions. Weve replaced the lateral raise with push-press, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort our athletes will do five or six at short distance. Why, because compound or functional movements and high intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result. Startlingly, this is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientific fact and yet the marginally effective old ways persist and are nearly universal. Our approach is consistent with what is practiced in elite training programs associated with major university athletic teams and professional sports. CrossFit endeavors to bring state-of-the-art coaching techniques to the general public and athletes who havent access to current technologies, research, and coaching methods
CrossFit is based on a team/group workout environment. Very different from the commercial gyms; there are very few open gym times and almost no traditional machines. The complete program is based around maintaining a low client to coach ratio and one of the most important characteristics is the fitness programming. Each member chooses a time that he/she can attend a scheduled class. All participants in that class warm-up together, work on skills together and perform the workout of the day. As a team, as a family, as a unit, they start and end the workout together. Pushing, encouraging, and helping each other along the way; similar to that of a professional sports team or military unit.
Another one of the biggest problems with commercial gyms is the lack of training and knowledge passed on to the client. Teaching correct form and technique from day one and educating all members on how to perform every movement they will encounter in the CrossFit environment can mean the difference between an injury and a forever healthy and limber athlete.
This education of proper form and technique will be offered through a mandatory On-Ramp Program. This program will be 9 sessions long, held 3 days a week for the first 3 weeks of membership. Each 1 hour session will focus on proper form and technique in warming up, cooling down and the workout itself. There are 9 CrossFit foundational movements that each athlete must learn and prove competency in before moving on to the class environment. Each client will have to successfully finish the On-Ramp Program or in the case of a seasoned CrossFitter, they have the option to test out.
The CrossFit method is to establish a hierarchy of effort and concern that builds as follows:
Diet: lays the molecular foundations for fitness and health.
Metabolic Conditioning: builds capacity in each of three metabolic pathways, beginning with aerobic, then lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways.
Gymnastics: establishes functional capacity for body control and range of motion.
Weightlifting and Throwing: develop ability to control external objects and produce power.
Sport: applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with more randomized movements and skill mastery.
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