Rest Day/Theory

Top scientists bust hydration myths at the 2015 CrossFit Conference on Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia.

In 1998, Dr. Dale Benjamin Speedy stood in front of Ironman competitors in Auckland, New Zealand, and prepared to make an announcement he knew was going to be unpopular: He told the athletes he was reducing the number of hydration stations throughout the race, which was made up of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bicycle ride and 26.2-mile run.

“People freaked… Continue Reading

In Part 1 of this series, Lon Kilgore examines the research behind one of the sacred cows of strength and conditioning.

Periodization is king of all exercise-programming methods.

Classical periodization, the English translation of Leonid Matveyev’s Soviet model of programming, is the single best model and should be used in all strength-and-conditioning training for all healthy and athletic populations.

So says the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and anyone who… Continue Reading

Artist Karl Porter talks about how graffiti and CrossFit are healing wounds in the flashpoint city of Derry in Northern Ireland.

It was well past 1 a.m., and darkness blanketed the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. The streets were barren save for two teenage boys and their paint. Neither boy noticed the car’s approach until four masked men erupted from within. The vehicle was unmarked.

“That’s when we realized we couldn’t really run,” Porter recalled.

The men were members of… Continue Reading

CrossFit questions the leadership of the fitness and exercise-science communities.

“Consume the maximal amount that can be tolerated.”

The line seems innocuous at first, just a recommendation in a 1996 position stand on hydration published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). But if you read it a few times, the words don’t sit well. Their imprecision alone seems enough to disqualify them from a publication titled Medicine & Science in Sports… Continue Reading

Peer review is held up as the gold standard of legitimacy in academic publishing, but Lon Kilgore says the system has inherent flaws and isn’t as foolproof as journals would have you believe.

As any reader of CrossFit.com and The Russells blog can attest, exercise-science journals seem to be suffering from compromised systems of publication and ethics.

As scientists, clinicians and practitioners rely on the information contained within journals to provide factual basis… Continue Reading

Bill Starr chronicles how Universal and Nautilus changed the face of fitness and made black iron a memory in most gyms.

The earliest pieces of equipment used by men wanting to get stronger and build more impressive physiques were kettlebells, dumbbells and barbells with rounded globes at each end. Then barbells advanced so plates of different weights could be added and removed. The next step in the evolution was to put ball… Continue Reading

What makes people stick with CrossFit year after year? Long-term CrossFit athletes talk about what keeps them interested and motivated after seven, 10 or even 19 years of CrossFit.

In a recent Businessweek article, Yuri Feito said CrossFit is peerless in encouraging people to keep working out. Feito teaches exercise science at Kennesaw State University and studies CrossFit.

Statistics from the fitness industry show traditional gyms generally have a… Continue Reading

CrossFit Games athlete Valerie Voboril and powerlifter Laura Phelps Sweatt explain how they use intensity to limit their time in the gym.

On a Friday afternoon in early October, Valerie Voboril—a five-time CrossFit Games competitor with four top-five finishes—worked out with the sounds of “Dora the Explorer” drifting into her backyard gym from the living room.

Her 3-year-old daughter, Vin, repeated Spanish words to the TV while Voboril and her… Continue Reading