Results for “what is fitness”

Executive Producer Sevan Matossian once again gives us unprecedented access to the fittest athletes on the planet, catching CrossFit Games competitors in intimate moments and vulnerable positions.

In the final installment, Matossian follows the drama behind the scenes as the athletes head into the last three events: Midline Madness, Pedal to the Metal 1 and Pedal to the Metal 2.

Eventual champion Ben Smith, a notoriously low-drama competitor, makes Matossian work hard to find… Continue Reading

Colleen Baz presents CrossFit’s DeCO’s program for the Girls Athletic Leadership School.

In 2014, CrossFit DeCO began its relationship with the Girls Athletic Leadership School. GALS is a unique school with its curriculum rooted in the importance of movement and the mind-body connection. Four days a week we are teaching this group of teenage girls how to move well and how to feel confident. What we couldn’t have imagined was how CrossFit would… Continue Reading

Russell Berger attends Exercise Is Medicine credential workshop and discovers gaping holes in methodology.

There are two distinct fronts in the war between CrossFit and chronic disease. The first—and most important—is the battle being waged every day in our affiliates across the world. While CrossFit trainers aren’t selling a cure for chronic disease, increased work capacity appears to be diametrically opposite to metabolic… 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

Affiliate owners offer advice on how to handle the rush when January and February bring prospective clients with fitness goals for 2016.

New year, new you—now at a discounted rate!

It’s a phrase globo gyms around the world know well as they seek to draw New Year’s resolutioners who have pledged to get in shape.

Many CrossFit affiliates, however, take a different approach.

“I learned from experience I cannot lower the price … because it… Continue Reading

In this four-part series, Gary Roberts and Travis Cosentino make their rounds among the elite competitors in the Masters competition at the 2015 Reebok CrossFit Games. Watch highlights from the events, interviews with the athletes, and footage of the trash talk and words of encouragement that motivate some of the Fittest on Earth to push themselves harder than ever.

Parts 3 and 4 cover the final day of the competition. On… Continue Reading

Exercise is not medicine, and suggestions to the contrary do nothing to help fitness trainers improve the health of their clients.

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

This popular saying portrays certain activities as having the ability to improve health. Most people accord a notion of truth to the adage, but would anyone suggest a farmer or retailer could be held out as an exemplar of a health or medical profession? Probably not.

Yet this is exactly… Continue Reading

GORUCK Tough is a physically grueling team event that lasts anywhere from 10 to 12 hours and covers 15 to 20 miles. Participants must carry weighted backpacks—aka rucksacks—loaded with 20 or 30 lb., depending on the weight of the participant. The challenge leaders emphasize team focus throughout the challenge, and the event should never be mistaken for a simple race.

When Owen Valuch of CrossFit Sav-Up was trying to convince longtime friend Matt Transue of CrossFit… Continue Reading

Trainers are in the business of creating fitness. They apply exercises to their clients in order to induce adaptations in structure and function that lead to improved fitness. In order to do this effectively, reliably and safely, working trainers must understand the structures they are stressing with exercise to produce the functional change that is fitness. This is the primary reason we learn anatomy and physiology. We… Continue Reading

While physical capacity inevitably declines as athletes age, fitness has dramatic effects on health and quality of life.

“How much should I be lifting?”

It’s probable every coach or trainer has been asked this question, and the query is usually qualified with variables including age, body weight and so on.

We as trainees, and humans in general, really like to compare what we can do with what other people can do, so we create standards for… Continue Reading

What does your CrossFit affiliate say to members without saying a thing?

Anthony’s truck sagged on the driver’s side as it approached my parking lot. The balding powerlifter had worn out its springs as surely as he’d worn out his welcome at every gym in town. And now it was my turn to send him away. I met him in the parking lot and placed my hand on his door before he could get out.

When I opened my second gym in 2008, my… Continue Reading

Once considered the gold standard of fitness, VO₂ max is now just one aspect of athletic performance.

“By analyzing the amount of oxygen you consume, the (VO₂ max) test determines how efficiently your body extracts and uses oxygen from the air. This makes it the gold standard of fitness markers, as well as a strong indicator of your overall health.”

That statement appeared in the April 21 Menshealth.com article “5 Health Tests That Could Save Your Life.”

Do you think it’s… Continue Reading

In the 11th edition of the Virtuosity series, Jason Taylor explains how a great gym inspires its members, who then pay it forward by inspiring each other to apply a rugged attitude to training and life outside the box.

Tough workout coming? Dig in.

Heading into a challenging situation at the office? Dig in.

Dealing with a family issue? Dig in.

CrossFit Inc. is sending Taylor US$500 for writing about the never-quit mentality that… 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

Arguing about technique variations is pointless without clear definitions and data.

Good exercise technique versus bad exercise technique: Everyone seems to have an opinion about what makes a movement acceptable and what makes it unacceptable.

The mantra of every book, article and blog post on exercise injury or gym safety is “bad technique causes injury.” But in the fitness industry, no one agrees on the exact elements of good technique… Continue Reading

Shane Davis and Michael Livingston were stuck in careers that didn’t fulfill them. Then they made a decision to change their lives. In October 2013, the two opened CrossFit Luminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now their lives are constantly varied.

“Part of why I like (owning an affiliate) is it allows me to do so many different things on a daily basis and constantly challenge myself,” Davis says.

But in April 2014, disaster struck. The affiliate caught fire… Continue Reading

Many athletes earned the label by coming to a crossroads in life and deciding to take a path leading away from old habits. CrossFit affiliates are there to support those choices with a community founded on fitness, friendship and healthy food.

For Annie Kolatsis, CrossFit Mother City in Cape Town, South Africa, provided the backup when she made her decision to move past an “allergy” to exercise. Kolatsis said she… Continue Reading

In late July, CrossFit Founder and CEO Greg Glassman traveled to Washington, D.C., to discuss licensure regulations for personal trainers in the District. He met with city-council representatives and others regarding Omnibus Health Regulation Amendment Act directives, which are still to be determined.

The law, which came into effect in March 2014, made D.C. the country’s first municipality to require licensure of personal trainers. Enforcement is currently on hold while the… Continue Reading

CrossFit athletes sometimes look to squat programs to increase strength—but are they effectively targeting weaknesses or merely feeding the ego and sacrificing general physical preparedness?

The first squat program Aaron Straker tried was the three-week Smolov Jr. cycle in March 2014. His goal was to build strength after an Achilles rupture. The cycle was so successful Straker decided to try the full 13-week Smolov cycle later that same year.

“It just buried me,” said… Continue Reading

Masters athlete Karl Dyall owns CrossFit Solid in Stockholm, Sweden.

The son of a jazz musician, Dyall says show business has been a part of his life since birth. He started theater school at 5 and has since been a breakdancer, a martial artist and a band member. Dancing has always been the biggest part of his active lifestyle, he says.

After several injuries left him weak and unable to do everyday things such as hold his… Continue Reading