Sports Applications

Who says big men and women can’t be graceful?

“This one is all about walking smooth,” Kurtis Bowler of Rainier CrossFit says of the yoke walk.

The strongman movement is particularly challenging because it requires more than just raw strength and core stability. One of the keys to the movement is fluidity, and athletes who stagger or change speed while under load will find heavy weights very difficult to control.

“If you start walking and… Continue Reading

The fat bar is a classic grip-training tool used by competitive strongmen. In this video, Kurtis Bowler (owner and founder of Rainier CrossFit) instructs a female athlete in the somewhat unusual techniques required to get a fat bar from the ground to overhead.

Breaking the movement down into pieces, Bowler demonstrates the difficulty of getting the bar into the rack position, noting that his fingers can’t even fully close around… Continue Reading

Former NFL lineman John Welbourn offers a look into a CrossFit Football Cert, explaining that participants can expect a lot of change-of-direction work in addition to barbell and Olympic lifts.

Drawing on 20 years of experience as an elite football player, Welbourn has designed a program that prepares athletes for the gridiron and the physical testing every player will encounter at some point. Being able to change direction quickly and immediately… Continue Reading

Nicolas Rithner offers a twist on the traditional kettlebell swing with the goal of increasing explosiveness and torque in athletes playing contact sports.

Kettlebell lifting is a great way to develop strength endurance, but it also has the advantage of allowing multi-planar loading. At Glendale Rugby, we use kettlebells for conditioning in addition to barbell training.

We use the rotational swing often because it’s a challenging, non-stop movement that targets the whole… Continue Reading

Jake Platt, owner of Northwest CrossFit (winners of the 2009 Affiliate Cup Challenge), and CrossFitting strongman Rob Orlando both appeared on Episode 87 of CrossFit Radio, webcast live at 6 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009.

2:08 Jake Platt talks about the culture he tries to foster at his two affiliates in Washington state. He explains how he keeps track of 500 members every month and discusses how and why he… Continue Reading

NFL superstars are quickly discovering what other athletes already know: CrossFit works.

In this video by CrossFit by Overload, four-time Pro Bowl fullback Lorenzo Neal talks about his love for CrossFit during the grand opening of CrossFit PIA in San Diego on Sept. 5, 2009.

Neal discovered CrossFit two years ago during a workout with Ahmik Jones and was hooked immediately. The 255-lb. fullback says teammates at the recent Oakland Raiders training camp were in awe… Continue Reading

CrossFit Football isn’t just for football players. Other athletes can also benefit from the program, John Welbourn and his coaches say in this video from Again Faster.

If you want to get stronger, lift heavier and do shorter duration WODs, CrossFit Football may be the program for you. But the CrossFit main site is best for overall GPP (general physical preparedness), and it’s the right choice for most athletes and for… Continue Reading

“Can you be fit and really strong? That’s the test right now,” says Rob Orlando of Hybrid Athletics in this Again Faster video.

A strongman competitor who discovered CrossFit and finished 22nd at the 2009 CrossFit Games, Orlando is now trying to prove that a 600-lb. deadlift doesn’t mean you have to have a three-minute 400-meter time and a max-pull-ups PR of two.

Orlando has always been a successful strongman competitor, but since discovering CrossFit he’s had… Continue Reading