Rest Day/Theory

Former SEAL Mark Divine shares the secrets of true mental toughness.

What separates survivors from quitters in extreme challenges? When you look at the tactics used by successful SEALs, SEALFIT graduates, ultra-endurance athletes and survivors of natural disasters, they are surprisingly similar.

In the case of BUD/s selection or SEALFIT Kokoro Camp, quitting means you get a blanket and a cup of coffee. However, you must… Continue Reading

Dawn Fletcher explains how too much stress can affect performance and what you can do to relax.

The “stress family” is not a fun one. This family consists of anxiety, fear, pressure, nervousness and panic. And each one of these components can negatively affect your CrossFit performance.

Numerous theories attempt to describe how stress affects performance. The bottom line is that every individual has a unique experience to stress. It is… Continue Reading

Powerlifting affiliate owner Chris Moore challenges the CrossFit community to train strength way more often.

For some reason, I recently recalled a memory of watching Kickboxer, the old Jean-Claude Van Damme fight-fest. I don’t remember much about the plot, and I really don’t care to. The movie’s probably as terrible now as it was then. But I’ll tell you what was great about it: the training montage.

Some of the details… Continue Reading

Most athletes train to be their best for a certain event—but does “peaking” work? Brian MacKenzie and Anthony Roberts don’t think so.

One of my most vivid high-school memories was swimming at Belmont Plaza each year for CIF, although only one of my top performances came at this meet. Most of the people I swam with (20-plus kids went to CIF each year from my school alone) rarely set a personal record… Continue Reading

How do intangibles like passion and belief in self fit into a community driven by data? Web Smith explains.

Determination, faith and the value of conquering the “fear of failure” may fall outside the CrossFit pursuit of data-driven performance, but it’s apparent these factors existed for Matt Chan and Chris Spealler in the 2010 CrossFit Games.

Just as the variables of CrossFit competition are unknown, so too are the depths of an… Continue Reading

Dr. Steven Platek and co. offer up data analysis showing increased performance in Fran, Angie, Cindy and the CrossFit Total.

Constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity—this is CrossFit.

To create functionally fit individuals is a primary goal of CrossFit, and an efficacious way of measuring or operationally defining fitness is in an athlete’s ability to do more work faster and across variable domains over time—increased work… Continue Reading

In this multipart series, Andrew Bernstein, author of The Myth of Stress, presents to CrossFit athletes and coaches his process of dealing with stress.

In Part 7,the group analyzes a new stressful situation: “I should be the best right now.”

Bernstein allows the participants to individualize the stress they feel about striving to be their best and feeling like they aren’t there yet. Using the worksheet, they work through the problem… Continue Reading

Greg Glassman asked the question, “What is fitness?” Blair Morrison offers some of his own thoughts to help you discover what fitness means to you.

What is fitness?

That question is one of the foundations of the CrossFit program, and asking it will make you question just about everything you know about training. In answering it, Greg Glassman created a new way of training and a new way of thinking about health and human… Continue Reading