Results for “swing”

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

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct footwork in the jerk.

The jerk really comes down to a fraction of a second.

Time it perfectly and the bar seems to stall in the air while a lightning-fast athlete wedges himself between the steel and the ground with perfect balance. The lift looks easy and natural, full of agility and grace. It’s like watching a gymnast stick the landing.

Miss the correct moment by… Continue Reading

To move all significant health markers in the right direction, do more work faster, trainers say.

The only way to know intensity is to experience it.

It is not a mythical creature born of grunting loudest, sweating most or cheering excitedly. It is also not a matter of opinion. It’s physics. Scientifically speaking, intensity is defined as power: force multiplied by distance, then divided by time. Simply put: Intensity is doing more work faster.

… Continue Reading

Admit it: You’ve shaved a rep.

Maybe you’ve even shaved entire rounds off workouts. You might have even lied about loads or times.

Guess what: Your coach noticed. And so did the other people in the class.

Thankfully, cheaters are relatively rare in CrossFit, perhaps because “so much of repugnant behavior is about trying to get something for nothing, and the CrossFitters inherently don’t believe that it’s… Continue Reading

Warning: Reducing intensity can be habit forming. Please consult your CrossFit trainer immediately.

You have to do Fran today.

Stop reading, close your eyes and really think about that for a moment.

Note the freefall feeling in your chest, the sweaty palms and the subtle changes in your breathing.

Now consider this statement:

You have to do Fran in less than 12 minutes today.

I bet you suddenly don’t feel… Continue Reading

When a pegboard showed up in Event 12 of the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games, a lot of people were shocked.

That’s a weird reaction by any follower of a sport in which competitors sign up to face the “unknown and unknowable,” but it’s even weirder when you consider CrossFit’s Founder and CEO wrote about pegboards back in 2002.

In the second issue of the CrossFit Journal, Greg Glassman listed and sourced all the equipment a person would need to turn a garage into a “world-class strength and conditioning facility.” The article, … Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct errors in the snatch and clean and jerk.

Just as it’s possible to correct weightlifting errors, it’s possible to cause errors when cues go awry.

Take, for example, the oft-used cue “finish!” What the coach is looking for is a natural position created by perfect balance and unbridled aggression. In a snatch or clean, a profile shot of the finish will show a lifter at full… Continue Reading

Mike Burgener offers quick tips to correct errors in the snatch and clean and jerk.

Most of us have seen the guy who can do a kettlebell swing with a 300-lb. barbell. The lift is called a clean, but it lacks the grace and speed evident when skilled lifters pulls their bodies around and under a perfectly placed bar with lizard-like speed.

While ugly, the swinging clean is impressive because the lift… Continue Reading

Chris Hinshaw is a professional triathlete, renowned endurance coach and instructor for the CrossFit Aerobic Capacity Course. At Tennessee Tech, Hinshaw leads a group of elite CrossFit Games competitors through a series of warm-up drills.

The drills—24 in all—begin with prep work for the hips and lower body. The first five are called high-knee karaoke, over the hurdle, knee to chest, figure four and lunge.

“So what we do… Continue Reading

Feel free to ignore health warnings. You have every right to do so.

My dad died in 2011, taken peacefully while he slept. That’s what the obituary said anyway. If I’d had it my way, he would have gone down swinging like the hero every boy imagines his father to be.

From a three-foot nightstand beside his twin bed, I took a pocketknife, left the digital alarm clock and overflowing ashtray, and threw away an unopened pack of… Continue Reading

Try changing your perspective to connect with athletes who are struggling with a movement.

“Do something different. Take off one shoe. Try chewing gum. Maybe lose your underwear for the next set. Or put on a second pair. Just do something different. Anything.”

Coaching can be exasperating at times, and tough situations sometimes push trainers to their wit’s end and beyond.

For every athlete who learns the false grip and starts crushing… Continue Reading

Former Oakland A’s outfielder Danny Putnam creates a CrossFit training plan to keep ball players in top shape all year long.

A new element is affecting baseball culture and the rest of the professional sports world: fitness. While that might seem odd considering the physical nature of most sports, consider that some players get by only on great skill and sport-specific training but actually have glaring fitness deficiencies. Some less-than-fit athletes… Continue Reading

The CrossFit Games have twice exposed athletes who didn’t know how to swing a sledgehammer. Moe Kelsey and Dan Hollingsworth offer tips for mastering this basic functional movement.

It was a “blue-collar test.”

The fourth event at the 2009 CrossFit Games started with a 500-m row. Once the row was completed, athletes had to drive a 4-foot stake into the ground with a sledgehammer until no more than 6 inches remained above… Continue Reading

On Episode 361 of CrossFit Radio, host Justin Judkins interviewed Tyler Quinn of CrossFit Minneapolis and blind athlete Austin Clark. This episode was webcast on Dec. 24, 2014.

2:39 Tyler Quinn and his partners own four affiliates in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, area. With the holidays in full swing, Quinn explained how he handles drop-ins and ensures visiting athletes get a great workout. As coach to multi-year CrossFit Games athlete… Continue Reading

Improved prosthetic technology and user-driven innovation are opening new avenues for adaptive athletes who refuse to accept limitations.

On Dec. 22, 2013, vigilant U.S. Transportation Security Administration agents pulled Kendra Bailey out of a screening line.

Bailey’s carryon contained a length of hollow pipe, a short chain, a leather strap and various connectors because she was hoping to do power cleans while visiting a gym on the West Coast… Continue Reading

As speed demons on skates carve up the ice in Sochi, Emily Beers explains the differences between short- and long-track speed-skating events.

One of the most famous medals of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games was Steven Bradbury’s iconic gold in the 1,000-m event on the short track.

During his semifinal, Bradbury hung out behind the other skaters because he knew he wasn’t as fast. When three other competitors… Continue Reading

The topic is the pull-up in the third episode of Offline, an unscripted presentation of guests debating controversial subjects in the CrossFit world. In this installment, discussion focuses on whether strict pull-ups should be required of athletes before kipping pull-ups are taught, an issue raised by Matt Crabtree in the Huffington Post article CrossFitters: Why I Haven’t Taught You to Kip.

Host Russell Berger welcomes guests Dave Durante, a member of USA… Continue Reading

With the NHL and NFL seasons in full swing, concussions are a hot topic. Blows to the head can have serious short- and long-term consequences, so why do athletes risk brain damage by returning to play too early? And how can we keep them safer?

A little knock on the head can lead to big trouble, though the exact nature of the trouble has yet to be determined. Regardless, it’s clear that there are significant problems… Continue Reading

Key points of warm-up include moving joints through a full range of motion and increasing mobility. Sometimes the movements specifically complement those in the workout, and other times the movements are simply meant to increase blood flow, lubricate joints and elevate body temperature. A good coach also uses the time to interact with athletes and note any mobility or movement issues that might create a need for scaling, either in the warm-up… Continue Reading

The workout was simple: three rounds for time of a 400-meter run, 21 kettlebell swings at 1.5 pood and 12 pull-ups. In other words, Helen.

“Thought I’d be pretty good at it,” Karl Steadman of CrossFit 3D says when describing his first CrossFit workout.

But after the initial round, he was “in a world of hurt.”

“If I look back on it, I cringe now,” Steadman adds.

Meanwhile, Jami Tikkanen of CrossFit Thames in England tested… Continue Reading