Rest Day/Theory

With frivolous licensure threatening the fitness community, Brittney Saline investigates how regulation has failed many other industries.

Isis Brantley began African braiding as a child, practicing skills learned from her mother on neighbors in a small, impoverished community in southern Dallas, Texas. She has made her living braiding since 25, and in 1995, at 36, she opened her own salon.

Then she got arrested.

The date was Oct. 13, 1997, a Monday. Two women… Continue Reading

The secret to becoming an expert is always behaving like a student.

John Broz questions himself all the time. Although Broz has been involved in the sport of Olympic weightlifting for 36 years, he sometimes doesn’t feel as qualified as he’d like.

“I never stop learning,” Broz said.

Nicole Carroll is CrossFit Inc.’s Director of Certification and Co-Director of Training, and it goes without saying that Carroll expects CrossFit coaches to constantly seek new… Continue Reading

Lon Kilgore reviews academic literature on periodization from 2000 to 2015 and finds little support for the NSCA’s contention that classical periodization is superior.

Academic evaluation of periodized training has historically been quite limited, and very few experimental papers on the topic were produced before 2000. Attention was firmly affixed to endurance training for heart health as weight training and high-intensity training were not accepted means of improving cardiac… Continue Reading

CrossFit 614 owner Mitch Potterf sues Ohio State University on the strength of sworn statements from participants who say they were not injured in a study.

It started out as a great opportunity for Mitch Potterf. It was a chance for his athletes at CrossFit 614 in Columbus, Ohio, to participate in a scientific study at one of the most well-known research universities in the country.

More than three years later, Potterf finds himself suing… Continue Reading

CrossFit coaches detail their successful and unsuccessful programming experiments in the search for measurable, observable and repeatable results.

CrossFit athletes are a skeptical bunch. They like to experiment and tinker and tweak. For Kurtis Bowler that meant messing around with strength-biased programming for his affiliate, Rainier CrossFit.

“Every year or year-and-a-half, there’s an influx of newer people,” said the owner of the… Continue Reading

For several years, CrossFit Inc. Founder and CEO Greg Glassman and his legal team have been fighting a battle with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), organizations that present themselves as the foremost authorities on strength and conditioning.

Through the CrossFit Journal, The Russells blog, social-media posts and litigation, CrossFit is taking action against questionable “science” published by… Continue Reading

CrossFit King of Prussia finds success with SAT-prep program.

He arrived a shy teenager. Skinny, hunched over, head hung, knees caving.

Today, things are different.

“Now he’s head high, ‘I can squat, I can lift weights, I can hold my own,’” Aimee Lyons said of Carter Buce. Lyons owns CrossFit King of Prussia in Pennsylvania.

But the 17-year-old is not just physically improved. He’s also mentally improved. After participating in CrossFit King of Prussia’s… Continue Reading

The authors of a bestseller suggest willpower is a finite but renewable resource.

So let’s say you’ve decided to give up sugar. On the first day, you skip your regular morning latte, evade the siren song of the doughnuts in your morning meeting, dodge the cookies in the lunchroom and turn down the candy at the checkout aisle of the grocery store.

And then, late that night, you head into the kitchen to do the… Continue Reading