There may be plenty of you still wondering what exactly CrossFit is, as hearing the big news that we will be joining the affiliate family as West London CrossFit. 

I wanted this post to lay out a clear message of what CrossFit is. 

CrossFit is defined as: Constantly Varied, Functional Movements, Executed at High Intensity.

Constantly Varied?

What are we varying? Let’s break down a few things- Movements; deadlifts, squats, presses, pull-ups, running, rowing, swimming, biking, push-ups etc.

Rep schemes: one day we may back squat for 5 sets of 5, another day we may go for a max and then another day possibly 20 reps! The same goes for any other exercise (with some exceptions of course.)

Energy Systems: There are three basic energy systems, but we can simplify it by breaking it down into anaerobic and aerobic work. For anaerobic you can think short and heavy (max deadlift) , for anaerobic you can think longer duration- really anything over 2 minutes. 

Functional Movements? 

Any movement that you would find yourself performing in everyday life; standing up from a sitting postion, picking up something off the ground, putting a box up on the top shelf for storage- these movements are expressed in the three main lifts everyone should be training; squats, deadlifts and pressing. Functional movements are also unique in their ability to express power. This is important- power is king! This becomes especially important when we are creating conditioning workouts. We want to use movement that express the most power. We do so by using the following criteria to label an exercise a “functional movement.”

1. Moves a large load
2. Moves it a long distance
3. Does so quickly 

High Intensity?

You may remember this from grade 10 physics—> Force x Distance / Time = Power. 

In science, power and intensity are the same thing. How much did it weigh? How far did you move it? How long did it take you? We clearly want to move the heaviest weights, the longest distances, in the fastest amount of time possible. 

The idea with CrossFit, is to build a broad, general and inclusive fitness level. Whatever task you wish to perform in life- be it swimming, rock climbing, pick up game of basketball, weeding the garden, playing with your kids- you should be able to do it. We can help you do it. 

Next post, I will discuss how we define “Fitness” at CrossFit.