The Little CrossFitter That Could

Band sprints are no joke.

“It gets a little serious ... especially if you’ve never done ’em right,” Raphael Ruiz says during a CrossFit Football Trainer Course.

He instructs the group on how to do band sprints safely and effectively. Build up to the sprint and then kick up the asphalt, Ruiz explains. The goal is to teach athletes speed, not to provide so much resistance that they’re barely moving.

“We’re not trying to make this an… Continue Reading

Dr. Ken Gall examines the thermodynamics of CrossFit and asks 10 questions worth considering.

While I was an undergraduate research assistant, one of the graduate students in my lab wanted to show me a “thing on the computer” that you could use to “look up information.” I took a look at it, reluctantly, because this guy was always wasting my time with annoying things such as balloon animals and ballroom dancing.

When he showed me… Continue Reading

In Vermont, there is no high-school swimming, so in the Burlington area, students go to Green Mountain Aquatics on the campus of Saint Michael’s College.

Laura Matuszak has been there for 15 years. She owns and operates the USA Swimming club, and she’s also the head coach. The team, which competes as far away as California, began doing CrossFit as part of its so-called “dry-land training” in the last year and a half. It’s a great departure… Continue Reading

This hungry caterpillar is just wishing to be eaten!

Prep all the body parts beforehand and create this insect with your kid. Make its legs out of anything you have handy. We chose colorful carrots and red peppers.

CrossFit Santa Cruz’s Laurie Galassi, a gymnast and the fifth-place finisher at the 2011 NorCal Regional, shares her coaching tips for mastering the pull-up. In Part 2 of the series, she focuses on timing—the moment of weightlessness, to be specific.

“When I snap from arch to hollow, in the back of my swing I find this little weightless moment only if I come to an aggressive stop,” Galassi says. “If your rhythm is correct and if you’re… Continue Reading

Flowmaster and self-described “slow learner” Pat Sherwood shares wisdom acquired over six years of CrossFit training.

August marked the end of my sixth year of CrossFit, and let me tell you, it has been one hell of a ride. Since 2005, I’ve gone from watching Greg Amundson’s WOD demos on CrossFit.com while working a real-estate job that I did not enjoy to working for CrossFit Headquarters, teaching Level 1… Continue Reading

Kevin Miller was 325 lb. when he found CrossFit through a chance encounter in a bar. Once he started, he was gung-ho, working out five times a week and wholeheartedly adopting the Paleo Diet. It was that attitude, arguably, that got him into trouble.

During a CrossFit Total, Miller had an accident that threatened to leave him without the use of his legs.

In Part 1, Miller and CrossFit New Haven trainers Eric and Carla O’Brien talk… Continue Reading

In the summer of 2010, Lou Callejas, his wife and son went to Houston to visit his parents. His brother, who lived in Tucson, was there, too.

“He was lookin’ pretty nice. He had a nice body. He was lookin’ pretty tough, pretty ripped,” Callejas said.

Turns out his brother had been CrossFitting. At that time, Callejas was 5 foot 8 and about 205 lb. For the previous five or six years, he had been “sitting down on the… Continue Reading

When Kulsoom Abdullah found CrossFit Atlanta several years ago, it was her desire to learn the Olympic lifts that brought her there.

“I had the drive. I really wanted to learn lifting, and I really wanted to go do it,” she says.

She either ignored the stares or tried to be assertive and talk to people. But not all women are like that, notes Abdullah, who last year became the first woman to lift in sanctioned U.S… Continue Reading

To tackle childhood obesity, the NFL is focusing on educating children about exercise and nutrition. Julie Buehler reports.

Ever watched in awe as someone obliterates a workout?

Ever seen a human juggernaut explode through barriers?

It’s not only inspirational, but it also has the ability to compel you to action unlike any written article, spoken word or AC/DC record. It’s the power of example.

With childhood obesity rates becoming super-sized and the… Continue Reading

Steve and Jessica Pinkerton started their affiliate out of their garage. About 15 people showed up to train there. A few months later—in April 2010—they “pulled the trigger” and opened CrossFit Vitality in Concord, N.C.

“It grew really fast, really quick,” Steve says. “That first year was a blur.”

Before that, Jessica had been a stay-at-home mom.

“This is actually the first time I’ve had a regular outside-of-the-home job,” she says.

Today, the couple has 11… Continue Reading

Craig Nelson shares his views on CrossFit after discovering the program at age 60.

Birthday milestones never meant much to me—30, 40, 50 years old—bah, who cares?

But 60? That’s a serious number. One can no longer claim to be middle-aged, and Social Security, Medicare and other indices of old age are looming realities. Thus, as my 60th birthday approached, I found myself contemplating how I could whip my… Continue Reading

When Laura Dziak first started CrossFit, she was mildly concerned about bulking up. What preoccupied her more, however, was doing a workout as RX’d. Today, she’s gained a total of 15 lb. of muscle but is still a Size 0.

As a member of CrossFit Reston in Virginia, the former model ditched her old image for a new one.

“I would not say that being muscular or being fit was encouraged as a model,” Dziak says. “It… Continue Reading

Born deaf, Jordan Levin runs a CrossFit affiliate and is a motivational speaker. Lon Wagner tells the story.

I am talking, on the phone, to Jordan Levin. Normal. Mundane, even.

When I emailed Jordan, I wasn’t sure how this would go, how we would do the interview. Maybe it’d have to be done through email. Or a chat window. Here’s the thing: Jordan Levin was born deaf. And he still is.

“Right now,” Jordan says, his voice sounding… Continue Reading

The individual PDF articles published in January 2012 are collected here in a single download.

The video and audio articles are not contained in the PDF.

The articles included here are:

CrossFit Akwesasne: Done With the Blame Game - Beers
CrossFit Kids “Switch” - Martin
Made in the U.S.A. - Burton
Out of the Box - Achauer
Think Like a Bumblebee, Train Like a Racehorse - Bergeron
Bringing Nutrition Home - Jones
Squash This - Brown/Dazet
Full Reverse, Admiral - Center… Continue Reading

CrossFit Kids have all the fun: laser beams for elbows, hands that hold up the sky and the dance moves of an Oompa-Loompa.

In this video, Kids Seminar Staff member John Brown explains how to teach the press series: the press, the thruster and the push press. That’s right: thruster before push press.

“Once we sort of set kids in motion with this explosive opening of the hips the push press is now just a shortened range of motion for… Continue Reading

Mikki Lee Martin describes ways to drill your kids repeatedly without boring them to distraction.

At the CrossFit Kids Trainer Course, we discuss some teaching methodologies based on how kids learn. They learn primarily through imitation and shared attention, and retention is then further enhanced through repetition, novelty and complexity. Novel experiences are more likely to be retained.

Likewise, youngsters with short attention spans learning perishable… Continue Reading

Inside a 25-year-old family sports facility outside Pittsburgh is Integrated Fitness, a CrossFit box that does sport-specific training.

The Bethel Park, Pa., box is more than 3,000 square feet inside a building that includes a 4,000-square-foot court for basketball hockey, soccer and volleyball. Originally, Integrated Fitness worked out of a 1,100-square-foot space, says Jim Crowell, head trainer and one of the gym owners.

“We wanted to do some sport-specific training on top of CrossFit… Continue Reading

Natalie Taylor uses CrossFit to confront—and beat—her monsters.

About three-and-a-half years ago, I slammed into my first real-life monster. I lost my husband, Josh, in an accident. At the time of his death, I was 24 years old and five months pregnant with our first son. The year following my husband’s death was a lot of things—confusing and sad at first, and then exhausting and sad once I had… Continue Reading

CrossFit Santa Cruz’s Laurie Galassi, a gymnast and the fifth-place finisher at the 2011 NorCal Regional, shares her coaching tips for mastering the pull-up. In Part 1 of the series, she focuses on body shape.

A fast, efficient pull-up has three key ingredients, she says: the hollow-body position, the appropriate grip on the bar and the right timing.

“This arch is an opening of the shoulders. It has very little to do with your… Continue Reading