Results for “Metabolic Conditioning”

Are you addicted to met-cons to the detriment of overall fitness?

Yes, we know you feel like you didn’t accomplish anything on deadlift day.

It’s very clear you’re unhappy that you are not out of breath and dripping with sweat.

We’re just going to lie here on the rubber with shaking legs while you head over to the corner to bang out 100 burpees for time.

We’ll even start the clock if you feel the need to hit a quick Fran.

But we’re… Continue Reading

It takes more than just a Level 1 Certificate to run a successful CrossFit affiliate. In this series, learn about the various ways affiliate owners and trainers evolve and plan as they work to lead the fitness industry.

In Part 13, the conversation continues as CrossFit Inc.’s Tyson Oldroyd discusses programming as culture with Pat Burke of MBS CrossFit, CrossFit Verve founders Matt and Cherie Chan, Nicole Christensen of CrossFit Roots, and David Tittle of CrossFit… 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

Greg Glassman published the first CrossFit Journal article in 2002. Ten years later, the Journal’s overarching purpose remains the same: To define CrossFit and inspire and support our community.

The first CrossFit Journal article, Foundations, was published 10 years ago, on April 1, 2002, and the fitness world was forever changed.

It was written by CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman, who wrote all the content for the early editions of the Journal.

The… Continue Reading

Find out what it’s like to train with 2009 CrossFit Games champion Mikko Salo and Dan Bailey, first-place finisher in the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, as filmmaker Sevan Matossian captures their training in preparation for the 2012 Games season.

In Part 5, Salo and Bailey move on to metabolic conditioning with front squats (the same movement the pair went heavy on earlier that day) and sled pulling.

Salo says his met-con training often… Continue Reading

With some of CrossFit’s top athletes in Lake Tahoe, Calif., for the Rogue Vs. Again Faster Throwdown, it was a great opportunity to throw the athletes into a room and get them talking with the cameras rolling.

In this installment, the athletes discuss the trade-off between strength gains and proficiency at body-weight movements. Tommy Hackenbruck opens the conversation by asking Chris Spealler whether 10 lb. would benefit his strength without being overly… Continue Reading

Members of Flatirons CrossFit set out to get hard data about the effects of the Paleo Diet and CrossFit workouts. Amy Santamaria and Tim Retzik report their findings.

As more members of the CrossFit community adopt a Paleo Diet, there is a great need for data quantifying the benefits of such a diet. We hear plenty of anecdotal evidence for Paleo-related improvements, but how reliable are these unsubstantiated claims? Those recommending a switch to Paleo need a foundation of… Continue Reading

Dusty Wunderlich uses CrossFit training to scale Aconcagua—the highest mountain outside Asia.

Located in Argentina, Aconcagua is the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere and measures 22,841 feet (6,962 meters). My attempt on the mountain would be my fourth time attempting a peak above 19,000 feet. Our group comprised mostly endurance athletes who spent a tremendous amount of time running, swimming and cycling. It was great to watch… Continue Reading

Florida Marlins strength and conditioning coach Paul Fournier brings CrossFit to Major League Baseball players.

CrossFit’s three fitness standards provide general physical preparedness for everyday athletes, but they also prepare professional baseball players for the demands of their sport.

We can all see how the 10 physical skills apply. In short, the list comprises everything athletic. In a highly skilled sport such as baseball, not all are athletes, but the… Continue Reading

With only eight weeks to train, Italian athletes use CrossFit to prepare for the World Figure Skating Championships in Torino, Italy.

It is my great pleasure to write about the marvellous success obtained by my athletes who will soon compete at the next World Figure Skating Championship in Torino, Italy.

I found many applications for CrossFit as strength and conditioning coach of the Italian National Ice Skating Team. I’m… Continue Reading

This is the eight installment of the Complete 2009 CrossFit Games videos, and the final part of the men’s competition. Here is complete coverage of the Chipper Event and awards ceremony.

The chipper format is a classic CrossFit structure. You have a large number of tasks that you complete in order. They are designed so that as you fatigue in one task, you switch up the demands and keep going. There is a… Continue Reading

Justin Lascek has a love-hate relationship with Fran. In All (Mistakenly) Bow to Fran, he explores the light and dark side of the most powerful of workouts.

As we all know, “Fran” is one of the classic benchmark CrossFit workouts that combines a weight lifting movement with a callisthenic movement. The rep range of 21-15-9 developed by Greg Glassman is known for its ability to improve metabolic conditioning, but it also helps maximize… Continue Reading

The work of a military fighter pilot is often described as long periods of mind-numbing boredom interspersed with short periods of stark terror....One of the ever-present threats is the effects of operating in a high G-force environment. The most dangerous of these is the pooling of blood in the lower extremities, which can cause G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC). G-LOC has claimed numerous pilots' lives. To counter the effects of blood pooling and… Continue Reading

I have had many conversations with CrossFitters, and others, about the efficacy of CrossFit programming. As somebody who teaches about physical conditioning at the university level, I am interested in the unorthodox nature of CrossFit and the results it achieves.

While the majority of trainers and athletes easily understand many aspects of CrossFit programming, there is a certain mystique (the infamous "black box") regarding the metcon… Continue Reading

I am often asked, "What makes the indoor rower any better than other forms of equipment for metcon [metabolic conditioning] training?"

The typical measure of aerobic exercise is elevated heart rate, which increases blood flow, bringing oxygen to power the muscles, and of course, a lot of heavy breathing. All this elevated activity of the lungs and heart trains and conditions the cardiovascular system. Rowing, though… Continue Reading

At the recent CrossFit certification seminar in Boston, someone asked a question that really got me thinking. I paraphrase:

I think I understand the theory behind most of the workouts—that is, strength training, metabolic conditioning, form or technique practice—but what about "Linda"? [Linda is 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 reps each of deadlift at 1.5 x bodyweight, bench-press at 1 x bodyweight, clean at .75 x bodyweight, for… Continue Reading

Conditioning and Mobility with No Equipment

Be creative in your application of these movements. Practice them, and incorporate them into workouts. They are an excellent as part of an active warm-up, done in isolation for strength development, or built into metabolic conditioning routines. Specific programming and repetition schemes will vary depending on the fitness levels and goals of trainees.

Push-ups
Push-ups can range in difficulty… Continue Reading

CrossFit’s wall ball exercise is an example high functionality and the marked carryover of cardiorespiratory benefit to sport and human performance in general, writes Coach Greg Glassman.

We see the bulk of human action as being composed of a limited number of irreducible fundamental movements. These fundamental movements we call functional. When you review the list of factors or exercises associated with significant neuroendocrine response, they largely or… Continue Reading

V02 max: Maximum amount of oxygen that can be used continuously divided by body mass. Long the gold standard of aerobic fitness, the slight advantage that endurance athletes have over anaerobic athletes in V02 max can be attributable to the low body mass of endurance
athletes. I can use a similar definition of strength – by dividing lifts by weight - to show that little guys are stronger than big guys… Continue Reading

Metabolic training refers to conditioning exercises intended to increase the storage and delivery of energy for any activity. Generally, all out efforts of two minutes or less are anaerobic while efforts lasting more than several minutes are aerobic. In this article, Coach Greg Glassman writes why the Crossfit approach is superior for getting results.

Anaerobic efforts are relatively high powered, while aerobic efforts are relatively low powered. Aerobic exercise is nearly universally regarded as being heart… Continue Reading