CROSSFIT 101 by TracFit

I don’t need to tell you why it’s been hard for you to stay consistent in your workout program and or diet, why you don’t have the time, or why you used to be fit. You know that very well deep in your heart.

What I can tell you though, is what has seemed to work for many who have taken this path. It’s counter intuitive to what most main stream fitness programs, gyms, and nutritionist have been saying for years, but it’s very intuitive to human nature. Things are about to hit critical mass on this revolution, so here’s your ticket to the show.

1) People like variation, and so does your body and mind. If you look at fitness magazines, like I used to, they’ll prescribe you daily/weekly/monthly “programs” that you’ll repeat while theoretically upping the resistance. People will go through the program once, if that, and what do you think the likelihood is that they will be motivated to go through the same program twice, three times? And how many will do it again even if they haven’t seen or felt results from it? I say it’s a big fat zero. Crossfit type workouts are made up of an endless combination of movements that keeps things fresh and interesting and constantly varies the stimulus to the body. You look forward and are always wondering what’s coming down the pipe for the next workout.

2) People like to be challenged. The satisfaction of achievement is directly proportional to the challenge. Ask anyone of the trainees if they think the workouts were challenging, even the on ramp workouts. On paper, it doesn’t seem like much, but when cracking it out, it takes a high level of mental and physical attention and perseverance to push through the workouts. Getting through a workout that made you nervous in the beginning is a huge confidence booster. You can’t pay for that kind of goodness.

3) People like learning. I don’t see myself as a trainer, but as an instructor. Just like teaching martial arts, teaching someone how to workout gives them tools for life. We develop skills to control the body like the pullup, handstands, L-sits, squats and continuously develop olympic lifts that can take years to master.

You’re global gyms avoid learning, because that would require more human resources, costs go up, memberships go down. They want you to feel comfortable, to make working out as easy as possible, and take your brain out of the equation all together. At best, they hope you don’t show up as they continue to collect your dues and reduce their operating costs. That’s fine for some people, but just look at the ratio of how many fit people you see on the exercise equipment and get back to me.

4) “Esprit de Corps” People like to feel like they belong to a group. Regardless of skill or fitness level, a person who goes through “Fran” (a benchmark workout), scaled down or not, will be able to relate to anyone else who has gone through it. It’s that shared experience that brings CrossFitters together and breaks down barriers. Granted, not all people who do CrossFit type workouts are good people, you generally do meet some outstanding people, because anyone that is committed to working hard and constantly improving probably is someone you want to emulate.

5) People like results. They like to know the rate of return for their time and effort. Crossfit type workouts are measured in times, personal records for strength, or skill achievement. By recording results, we can track progress. Weightloss, more specifically, fat loss, is a side-benefit and just a secondary indicator of the performance based workouts. Anyone who sees their body fat % drop, mile times shorten, and strength numbers go up can easily assess whether this type of method is worth the time, energy, and money they’re investing into it.

This also leads into a sense of friendly competition. By measuring the efforts, a person can see where they stack up with their fellow trainees. This also helps increase the level of commitment and intensity during the workouts and just plain adds fun to the workouts. You might have dominated in one workout, but have a lot to improve on for another.

So how does all this help you keep at it? Well, if you don’t like learning new things, gaining a sense of self-satisfaction by overcoming challenges, seeing results, or hanging out with motivated people, than I guess this probably won’t work for you. For those that do, I guarantee that you will be seeing a shift in the fitness industry towards community centered Crossfit type training boxes that promote specialized instruction rather than equipment heavy fitness clubs. With anything that goes main stream, you’ll get a lot of the bad along with the good. Someone will get hurt, lawsuits will be filed. Just keep that in mind, and do your homework to sort out the truth for yourself. Try the workouts, and post up your results and we’ll go from there.

I’ll do my best to lead the way