CrossFit

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning fitness methodology. Its stated goal is to create "the quintessential athlete, equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, and sprinter." Crossfit is not sport-specific and promotes broad and general overall physical fitness. Its growing popularity has been fuelled by a virtual community Internet model.

Description

CrossFit uses Olympic weightlifting, kettlebells, gymnastics rings, pull-up bars, and many calisthenics exercises. CrossFit athletes run, row, climb ropes, jump up on boxes, flip giant tires, and carry odd objects. They can also bounce medicine balls against the floor or a target on a wall.

CrossFit workouts often call on athletes to move large loads long distances quickly. Many CrossFit gyms use scoring and ranking systems, transforming workouts into sport. CrossFit responds to criticism that its program is too intense by citing an essential element of its methodology: workouts should always be individually scaled and varied.

CrossFit seeks to unify health and fitness. It defines health as sustained fitness. CrossFit’s prescription for achieving this fitness is constantly varied high intensity functional movements. CrossFit says fitness can be graphed in three dimensions, with duration of effort on the x-axis, power on the y-axis, and age on the z-axis. At each duration, power capacity is averaged across a variety of modal domains (skills and drills). CrossFit says it increases work capacity and speed in these domains by provoking neurologic and hormonal adaptations across all metabolic pathways. CrossFit says it is building a technology of human performance through careful definition of terms, constant experimentation and precise measurement by using a force, distance and time approach, rather than a molecular one. CrossFit views such measures as lactate threshold and vo2 max as correlates or components of fitness, but says measuring actual performance in specific workouts is of far greater interest to athletes and coaches. [1] CrossFit was introduced to the academic exercise physiology community at a meeting of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists in April, 2009. [2]

On diet, CrossFit advocates eating meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and sugar only at levels that support exercise but not body fat. Many CrossFitters follow the Zone Diet or the Paleolithic diet.

CrossFit adaptations include programs tailored for children, pregnant women, seniors, football players, military special forces candidates, and endurance athletes including triathletes, runners, swimmers and rowers. Most CrossFit gyms also offer "On Ramp" or "Elements of CrossFit" introductory classes for beginners. Some Crossfit athletes perform the "Workout of the Day" posted at the CrossFit website and never visit a CrossFit gym. Others formulate their own workouts based on CrossFit's principles. In 2007, the United States Marine Corps began a shift in its physical training program. The emphasis is moving away from aerobic training and toward more combat-oriented "functional fitness training" by incorporating CrossFit principles. Many U.S. and Canadian police and fire departments, U.S. Army Special Forces and the Canadian Forces now base some of their physical training on CrossFit principles. [3]. Official CrossFit affiliates operate at the United States Military Academy at West Point and more than 40 U.S. military bases. CrossFit is also being adopted by a growing number of high school physical education teachers and by teams at both the high school and college level.

CrossFit's affiliate model rejects franchising and requires few start up expenditures. CrossFit headquarters certifies CrossFit trainers, approves applications for gyms to become affiliates and publishes "The CrossFit Journal", but does not share in revenue from membership fees. Affiliate owners pay either $500, $1,000 or $2,000 annually for affiliation and are then free to develop their own programming, instructional methods and membership fee structure. CrossFit says this de-centralized model, which shares some common features with open source and crowdsourcing projects, allows best practices to emerge from a diversity of collaboative approaches. The privately-held company was described as "hugely profitable" in a 2009 CrossFit Journal article that estimated annual revenue from certification seminars at $6.41 million and indicated that annual affiliation fees may amount to $1.85 million. (No figures were provided for subscription, merchandise or sponsorship revenue.) [4]. Monthly membership fees generally range from $85 to $300, with $150 a fee often charged. Many affiliates feature small group classes that allow for individual coaching. Classes often include a warm up, a skill development segment, and a high-intensity timed workout that lasts 10 to 20 minutes.

History and growth

CrossFit Trainer Certification, 2007

Greg Glassman created the CrossFit training methodology in the 1980s.The program gained the attention of various military and law enforcement agencies. In 1995, Glassman was hired to train the Santa Cruz, CA police department. The first CrossFit gym opened in Santa Cruz in 1996. The CrossFit website, launched in 2001, now includes an extensive video library of exercise demonstrations and a very active discussion forum.

The number of CrossFit-affiliated gyms has grown from 18 in 2005 to over 1,500 in 2009, with 239 more affiliation requests pending. According to Canada's Business News Network, CrossFit is "one of the fastest growing fitness movements on the planet."

Weightlifting coaches associated with CrossFit include Louie Simmons, Bill Starr, Mike Burgener and several national and Olympic level competitors. Former NFL player John Welbourn developed the CrossFit Football program. Other CrossFit subject matter experts include Dr. Nicholas Romanov, inventor of the Pose Method of running and Dr. Barry Sears, originator of the Zone diet. Weighlifting coach Dave Tate and Terry McLaughlin, inventor of the total immersion swimming technique, have been featured in the CrossFit Journal. Speciality certification seminars include powerlifting, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, rowing, mobility and recovery, kettlebells, endurance, nutrition, and CrossFit Kids.

CrossFit has been criticized for its perceived "cult-like" mentality. Some fitness professionals and a senior officer who commands the U.S. Navy’s Center for Personal and Professional Development believe CrossFit workouts are so intense that participants risk injury or even death from rhabdomyolysis. Mark Twight, Mark Rippetoe, Dan John, Greg Everett and Robb Wolf are trainers once very active in the CrossFit community who have parted company with CrossFit or reduced their association with it. Some of them question CrossFit's management practices and say it is not truly an open source movement open to change. [5]CrossFit has also been criticized for lax certification standards and for failing to provide any oversight of affiliates. Everyone who pays $1,000 to attend a weekend seminar is certified as a CrossFit trainer; there are no pre-requisites or exams. Certification as a "Level 2" trainer currently requires extensive practical testing and the failure rate ranges from 50% and 80%. Certifications are not currently accredited by any outside body, but CrossFit has applied for aaccreditation from ANSI, the American National Standards Institute. CrossFit says ANSI accreditation would make its fitness certifications the world leader in terms of standards, credibility, scientific rigor and international recognition.

In October 2008, a Virginia jury awarded $300,000 in damages to a man disabled by a workout at a gym that had been CrossFit-affiliated, but was not affiliated at the time of the alleged injury. (The trainer was not certified by Crossfit and CrossFit was not named as a defendant.) CrossFit subsequently established the affiliate-owned CrossFit Risk Retention Group to provide a form of self-insurance and vigorously defend any future lawsuits. CrossFit says its rate of rhabdomyolysis is a small fraction of the rate for many other sports or conventional police and military training. It says that there are actuarial studies proving that claim forthcoming.

CrossFit Games

The CrossFit Games have been held annually in Aromas, California since 2007. CrossFit says the competition is now a laboratory for human performance, with the male and female champions having plausible claims to being the fittest people in the world. The events are announced only a few days or hours in advance. One hundred and fifty athletes, chosen in regional qualifiers from around the world, competed in eight workouts over two days in July, 2009. In 2010, additional qualifiers will held in the form of preliminary "sectional" competitions and one of the regional qualifiers will be held at the Arnold Classic.

CrossFit Links

• The official website of CrossFit
• CrossFit Journal
• crossfitgames.com
• CrossFit Message Board
• Glassman, Greg, Crossfit Foundations, Crossfit Journal, 2002.
• Tabata I., Nishimura K., Kouzaki M, Hirai Y., Ogita F., Miyachi M., Yamamoto K., Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training endurance on anaerobic capacity and VO2 max, Med. Sci. Sports Exercise. 1996 Oct. 28(10):1327-30.
• Team CrossFit training and blog
• Gym CrossFit training and blog
• CrossFit Cheshire (Cheshire, CT)