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A CrossFit Startup Guide: Part 1

Todd Widman

New to CrossFit and not sure where to begin? I so, thenwelcome. This series will address the primary concernsand ocal points or a starting CrossFit athlete,orienting your use o resources throughout the entireCrossFit.comuniverse.What you will nd here are some tools to ocus yourentry into CrossFit workouts and tness in general.Gone are the promises o easy and comortable results.The best CrossFitters educate themselves both aboutmovement and tness broadly, as well as about theirown individual strengths and weaknesses.O course, the best way to begin CrossFit is with a greattrainer who uses his or her vast experience to guide youthrough the various phases o your tness quest. Thisseries is not intended to equal that. It cannot. Instead,we recognize that not everyone has access to such atrainer, and this will help those olks get the most out othe vast resources available onCrossFit.com.

Three-part Charter:Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity

The rst and most important component o beginningCrossFit is to ollow our charter o mechanics,consistency, and then intensity. These three aspectsare intricately interrelated; CrossFit does not work to itspotential unless you execute each one and understandhow it is bound to the others.

Mechanics

reers to technique—your ability to moveproperly through our core movements. For us, this

Here’s a quick overview to get CrossFit beginners up to speed

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A CrossFit Startup Guide

(continued)is to improve your tness or lie; no one ever got inshape overnight. I you gradually exceed what you havedone beore, soon enough you will be doing the mainsite workouts “as prescribed.”

All three together:

Now that you understand mechanics,consistency, and intensity, here’s how they all t togetherunder CrossFit: While many assume that saety is themain concern with proper mechanics —it is certainly thesaest way to train—we can’t emphasize enough thatsound technique is the most ecient and eective roadto tness. Proper movements will allow you to lit moreweight, perorm more repetitions aster, or both. Morework in less time means higher average power (orce xdistance / time = power). Higher average power meanshigher intensity. Higher intensity means better results.Thereore, proper mechanics are the ideal supports orthe bridge to tness.

A Brie Explanation o Fitness

Fitness, most broadly dened, is the ability to handlethe demands o your lie. Each o us has both dierentand unpredictable demands. A reghter has no ideahow big the re will be on his next call, just as Grandmahas no idea how heavy each grocery bag will be the nexttime she goes to the store. Very dierent concerns, orcertain, but the ability to handle each requires the samebasic abilities. As Coach Glassman has said or years,“The needs o our grandparents and soldiers dierin degree, not kind.” These needs are the unctionalcompetencies to move our own bodies and externalobjects through three-dimensional space.means moving yoursel and external objects in the mostecient, eective, and sae manner possible.

Consistency

has a two-part application: 1) That youare consistent in perorming the mechanics o themovement; and 2) That you are consistent in CrossFitworkouts. Both are necessary! CrossFit workouts arevery potent medicine; too much too soon and you canseverely hurt yoursel. Luckily, the body adapts quickly,and beore you know it, you will be hitting each workoutwith maximum personal intensity.

Intensity

, as Coach Greg Glassman, ounder and CEOo CrossFit, ormally states, is the independent variablemost commonly associated with the rate o return onavorable adaptation. More simply put, intensity bringsabout all the good results rom working out. However,we also have to realize that intensity is relative to ourphysical and psychological tolerances. This is a process,and one that takes an indeterminate amount o time, sobe patient. Elite-level athletes may be ready to ramp uptheir intensity in a couple o weeks, while de-conditionedathletes can take months or longer. The goal o CrossFit

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A CrossFit Startup Guide

(continued)exactly the same number o reps at the same loads in lesstime, your intensity went up. I you increased the loadsand kept the same time (or nished even quicker), yourintensity went up. These direct comparisons give you aquantiable gauge to the increase o your tness. You aremeasuring the changes in your capacity and scienticallyproving that you are getting tter and more capable.CrossFit has a concise yet comprehensive denition otness that is a bit o a mouthul:

Fitness is increased work capacity across broad time, modal, and age domains.

What this means is that you have unctional capacity inall dierent types o movements at a variety o durationso eort, throughout your lie. I you are increasing thisbroad work capacity, you will be competent at bothshort bursts o activity and extended, longer workouts.The great majority o unctional movements are complexand dicult to master. But the advantages o developingprociency in them ar outweigh the inconvenience andeort required to learn them. There are physical andneurological benets uniquely associated with thesemovement patterns, benets that translate broadly intothe various movements and skills o lie.The CrossFit exercises that we use the most are whatwe have ound to be the most eective ways to builda broad, general, and inclusive unctional competence.Squatting, picking things up o the ground, puttingthings overhead, pulling ourselves up, running, jumping,throwing; these are the movements o lie, and donewith intensity, they prepare us or the demands o lie.Many people wonder why CrossFit workouts are timed.There are several reasons or this, the most importantbeing intensity. Remember that average power is workdivided by time. The same work done in less time ismore power and more intensity. Your rst workoutsshould be done at a relatively low intensity. This isessential or you to both learn the proper mechanics othe movements and to let your body acclimate to theworkload. Every time you repeat a workout, you cancompare your perormance and see i you are increasingyour power (thereore intensity). For example, i you do