Results for “strong medicine”

A recent paper in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found that increased bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in childhood are positively associated with time spent doing high-impact physical activities (PA), even for those with a genetic risk of low bone mass in adulthood (1).

A concern over BMC and BMD generally arises in those over 60 years old, when low bone mass and osteoporosis can occur. However, the time of maximal bone mineral… Continue Reading

If you determine the size of the field before programming the events, you might be putting the collars on before the plates.

“I’ve got 100 athletes, 10 solid judges, 5,000 square feet and nine hours to run as many events as I can.”

How many organizers have said something like that when planning a fitness competition?

I’d suggest what they’ve really got is a programming nightmare.

Local Limits

One of the best parts of the… Continue Reading

Their goals were simple.

“Show up,” Marlo Brown wrote in silver-colored marker on the “goals” blackboard at Cloud 9 CrossFit in New Jersey.

Her husband, Phil: “Wear my shirt.”

When the couple first walked into the affiliate three years ago, Marlo weighed 430 lb. Phil weighed 502 lb. When Phil sat on one of the rowers, the machine bowed under his weight. Once they joined, Marlo was thinking she would try her damnedest to be there three… Continue Reading

Affiliate owners discuss budgeting for replacement gear and making the new equipment last.

A 45-lb. plate can be a great doorstop.

Of course, it’s a better fitness tool, but what else can you do with a broken bumper?

The business of fitness is tough work, and CrossFit athletes are tough on implements. As eager as affiliate owners are for their clients’ PRs, progress inevitably comes with broken weights, snapped skipping ropes and busted rowers.

… Continue Reading

We challenge you to improve your mental fitness by reading our Founder and CEO’s CrossFit Journal articles.

“When we explained that we thought our workouts were so effective that if we were to post one every day, someone would eventually find them, try them, have great results, and come back and tell friends, the dot-comers laughed heartily and condescendingly chortled, ‘Ahhhh, the old grassroots approach!’”

Greg Glassman wrote that in the 2005 CrossFit Journal article “www.crossfit.com.”

On Feb. 10, 2001, the first workout of the day went up on… Continue Reading

Dr. Eugene Fine and Thomas Seyfriend talk about the links between sugar and cancer.

This year, 1,685,210 people in the United States will get cancer; 595,690 will die from it.

It’s the second-leading cause of death after heart disease, responsible for nearly 1 in 4 deaths in the U.S., and researchers have spent lifetimes studying its countless mutations in search of a cause, pointing their fingers mostly at genetics and physical, chemical and biological carcinogens.

But mounting… Continue Reading

CrossFit Enhance in Decatur, Illinois, is not a typical CrossFit affiliate. Opened in 2009, the facility is part of the Decatur Memorial Hospital complex, and it caters to staff and patients, as well as a vast outside membership.

“This is what preventative medicine looks like in the flesh,” says CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman. “Everyone else is paying lip service to it.”

Ken Smithmier, president and CEO of Decatur Memorial, says he… 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

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

When it comes to the clean, it’s all about fully opening the hips.

In other words, “violently extend the hip,” says Jesse Ward, a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff and a coach at CrossFit Lynnwood in Washington state.

To drive home the point, he has athletes throw medicine balls backward. It’s a simple but creative drill the ebullient Ward uses to help athletes identify and focus on one… Continue Reading

The butterflies represent medicines, the stars are surgeries, the hearts are blood transfusions and the red ones are blood draws. They’re “hero beads,” all strung together in a long rope to represent Kate Foster’s journey.

“Since it’s every single little thing, you can show them rather than telling them and hoping they’ll understand,” says the 13-year-old, who at age 12 was diagnosed with leukemia that forced the… Continue Reading

When Laurie Nelson was in high school, there were no women’s sports. It wasn’t until she graduated from college that college sports started for women. Once at Pepperdine University, where the 67-year-old is an associate professor of sports medicine, Nelson started the women’s athletic program there.

This year, she finished 10th at the Reebok CrossFit Games in the Masters Women 60-Plus Division.

For about a year before she… Continue Reading

For Team U.S.A., defeating Team Europe at last month’s CrossFit Invitational wasn’t the only challenge. While in Malibu, Calif., team members were subject to metabolic analysis by Pepperdine University. Athletes wore masks covering their noses and mouths, as well as gadgets to track various markers.

In this video, Julie Foucher, who finished second at this year’s CrossFit Games, does Fran inside one of the school’s lecture halls.

“Studying… Continue Reading

For Team U.S.A., defeating Team Europe at last month’s CrossFit Invitational wasn’t the only challenge. While in Malibu, Calif., team members were subject to metabolic analysis by Pepperdine University during a rowing Helen.

The athletes wore masks covering the nose and mouth, as well as gadgets to track various markers.

“What we look at is the volume of oxygen inspired and the volume of carbon dioxide expired, and it basically tells us how you’re… Continue Reading

After Danny Dean broke his neck eight years ago, he was only able to use 20 percent of his right side. Physical therapists told him whatever movement he regained in the next 18 months would be the most he would ever have. The former competitive wakeboarder became resigned to his fate.

Then his wife started doing CrossFit.

Thus far, there hasn’t been a week in which Dean hasn’t seen improvement under the watchful eye of … Continue Reading

In this series, get a sneak peak at Tony Blauer’s Be Your Own Bodyguard seminar hosted by San Francisco CrossFit. Blauer, founder of Blauer Tactical Systems, has been providing seminars to CrossFitters to teach the basics of self-defense and how to implement them through CrossFit.

In Part 7, Blauer talks about the palm and spear strikes. First, he has participants palm-strike medicine balls held by a partner, then pause.

“At that point here… Continue Reading

In this series, get a sneak peak at Tony Blauer’s Be Your Own Bodyguard seminar hosted by San Francisco CrossFit. Blauer, founder of Blauer Tactical Systems, provides seminars to CrossFitters to teach the basics of self-defense and how to implement them through CrossFit.

In Part 6, Blauer talks about using your “crowbar.”

With partners and medicine balls, he has participants practice throwing forearms into their make-believe enemies.

“My spear—the actual… Continue Reading

There are no bumper plates, medicine balls are thrown against a concrete column, and box jumps are completed upon a wooden divider on which most others set their gym bags.

Not your typical CrossFit facility.

Panther CrossFit is a group of University of Pittsburgh students who came together over their fondness of CrossFit to form a club. It all started in 2008, when John Schneider hosted Fight Gone Bad 3 at his box, … Continue Reading

In this video, Tony Budding of CrossFit Media sits down with investigative journalist Gary Taubes, author of Why We Get Fat and Good Calories, Bad Calories. Through publications and lectures, Taubes tackles scientific controversies and debunks bad science. In this interview, Taubes shares some of his insights with the nutrition-conscious CrossFit community.

“Science is about trying to prove that you’re wrong,” Taubes says… Continue Reading

“I decided I wanted to give CrossFit a chance, and I’m really glad I did,” Annie Thorisdottir says. “I think it couldn’t have turned out any better. Really happy with it.”

Join filmmaker Sevan Matossian as he captures the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games winner Annie Thorisdottir back at her Iceland box, CrossFit BC Island. She reveals more about herself as an athlete and coach.

Thorisdottir credits her background as a gymnast for much of her success in CrossFit… Continue Reading