Manual nivel 4 cross fit

CrossFit
Understanding CrossFit Understanding CrossFit
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The aims, prescription, methodology, implementation, and adaptations of
Foundations
CrossFit are collectively and individually unique, defining of CrossFit, and
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instrumental in our program’s successes in diverse applications.
What is Fitness?
Aims
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From the beginning, the aim of CrossFit has been to forge a broad, general,
and inclusive fitness. We sought to build a program that would best prepare
trainees for any physical contingency—prepare them not only for the unknown
but for the unknowable. Looking at all sport and physical tasks collectively,
we asked what physical skills and adaptations would most universally lend
themselves to performance advantage. Capacity culled from the intersection
of all sports demands would quite logically lend itself well to all sport. In sum,
our specialty is not specializing. The second issue (“What is Fitness?”) of the
CrossFit Journal details this perspective.

Prescription
The CrossFit prescription is “constantly varied, high-intensity, functional
movement.” Functional movements are universal motor recruitment patterns;
they are performed in a wave of contraction from core to extremity; and
they are compound movements—i.e., they are multi-joint. They are natural,
effective, and efficient locomotors of body and external objects. But no aspect
of functional movements is more important than their capacity to move large
loads over long distances, and to do so quickly. Collectively, these three attributes
(load, distance, and speed) uniquely qualify functional movements for the
production of high power. Intensity is defined exactly as power, and intensity is
the independent variable most commonly associated with maximizing favorable
adaptation to exercise. Recognizing that the breadth and depth of a program’s
stimulus will determine the breadth and depth of the adaptation it elicits, our
prescription of functionality and intensity is constantly varied. We believe that
preparation for random physical challenges—i.e., unknown and unknowable
events—is at odds with fixed, predictable, and routine regimens.

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CrossFit Training Guide | CrossFit
Understanding CrossFit ...continued
Methodology capacity as the holy grail of performance improvement
and all other common metrics like VO2 max, lactate
The methodology that drives CrossFit is entirely
threshold, body composition, and even strength and
empirical. We believe that meaningful statements about
flexibility as being correlates—derivatives, even. We’d
safety, efficacy, and efficiency, the three most important
not trade improvements in any other fitness metric for a
and interdependent facets of any fitness program, can be
decrease in work capacity.
supported only by measurable, observable, repeatable
facts, i.e., data. We call this approach “evidence-based Conclusions
fitness”. The CrossFit methodology depends on full
disclosure of methods, results, and criticisms, and we’ve The modest start of publicly posting our daily workouts
employed the Internet (and various intranets) to support on the Internet beginning six years ago has evolved into
these values. Our charter is open source, making co- a community where human performance is measured
developers out of participating coaches, athletes, and and publicly recorded against multiple, diverse, and
trainers through a spontaneous and collaborative online fixed workloads. CrossFit is an open-source engine
community. CrossFit is empirically driven, clinically tested, where inputs from any quarter can be publicly given to
and community developed. demonstrate fitness and fitness programming, and where
coaches, trainers, and athletes can collectively advance
Implementation the art and science of optimizing human performance.
In implementation, CrossFit is, quite simply, a sport—the
“sport of fitness.” We’ve learned that harnessing the
natural camaraderie, competition, and fun of sport or
game yields an intensity that cannot be matched by other
means. The late Col. Jeff Cooper observed that “the fear
of sporting failure is worse than the fear of death.” It
is our observation that men will die for points. Using
whiteboards as scoreboards, keeping accurate scores
and records, running a clock, and precisely defining
the rules and standards for performance, we not only
motivate unprecedented output but derive both relative
and absolute metrics at every workout; this data has
important value well beyond motivation.

Adaptations
Our commitment to evidence-based fitness, publicly
posting performance data, co-developing our program in
collaboration with other coaches, and our open-source
charter in general has well positioned us to garner
important lessons from our program—to learn precisely
and accurately, that is, about the adaptations elicited by
CrossFit programming. What we’ve discovered is that
CrossFit increases work capacity across broad time and
modal domains. This is a discovery of great import and
has come to motivate our programming and refocus
our efforts. This far-reaching increase in work capacity
supports our initially stated aims of building a broad,
general, and inclusive fitness program. It also explains
the wide variety of sport demands met by CrossFit as
evidenced by our deep penetration among diverse sports
and endeavors. We’ve come to see increased work

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Foundations

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. demanded of military and police personnel, fi refi ghters,
We have designed our program to elicit as broad an and many sports requiring total or complete physical
adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a prowess. CrossFit has proven effective in these arenas.
specialized fi tness program but a deliberate attempt to
Aside from the breadth or totality of fi tness the CrossFit
optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fi
Program seeks, our program is distinctive, if not unique,
tness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory
in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response,
endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed,
developing power, cross-training with multiple training
Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy.
modalities, constant training and practice with functional
The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an movements, and the development of successful diet
individual’s competency at all physical tasks. Our athletes strategies.
are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse,
Our athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at
and randomized physical challenges. This fitness is
short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure

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Foundations ...continued
and competency in each of the three main metabolic very same methods that elicit optimal response in the
pathways. Olympic or professional athlete will optimize the same
response in the elderly. Of course, we can’t load your
We train our athletes in gymnastics from rudimentary grandmother with the same squatting weight that we’d
to advanced movements garnering great capacity at assign an Olympic skier, but they both need to squat.
controlling the body both dynamically and statically while In fact, squatting is essential to maintaining functional
maximizing strength to weight ratio and fl exibility. We independence and improving fitness. Squatting is just one
also place a heavy emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting example of a movement that is universally valuable and
having seen this sport’s unique ability to develop an essential yet rarely taught to any but the most advanced of
athletes’ explosive power, control of external objects, athletes.This is a tragedy.Through painstakingly thorough
and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns. And coaching and incremental load assignment CrossFit has
fi nally we encourage and assist our athletes to explore been able to teach anyone who can care for themselves
a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their to perform safely and with maximum efficacy the same
fi tness. movements typically utilized by professional coaches in
elite and certainly exclusive environments.
An effective approach
In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical Who has benefited from CrossFit?
workout consists of isolation movements and extended Many professional and elite athletes are participating
aerobic sessions. The fi tness community from trainers in the CrossFit Program. Prize-fighters, cyclists, surfers,
to the magazines has the exercising public believing that skiers, tennis players, triathletes and others competing
lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, sit-ups and the like at the highest levels are using the CrossFit approach to
combined with 20-40 minute stints on the stationary advance their core strength and conditioning, but that’s
bike or treadmill are going to lead to some kind of not all. CrossFit has tested its methods on the sedentary,
great fi tness. Well, at CrossFit we work exclusively overweight, pathological, and elderly and found that these
with compound movements and shorter high intensity special populations met the same success as our stable
cardiovascular sessions. We’ve replaced the lateral of athletes. We call this “bracketing”. If our program
raise with pushpress, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg works for Olympic Skiers and overweight, sedentary
extension with squats. For every long distance effort homemakers then it will work for you.
our athletes will do fi ve or six at short distance. Why?
Because compound or functional movements and high Your current regimen
intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at
eliciting nearly any desired fi tness result. Startlingly, this If your current routine looks somewhat like what we’ve
is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientifi described as typical of the fitness magazines and gyms
c fact and yet the marginally effective old ways persist don’t despair. Any exercise is better than none, and
and are nearly universal. Our approach is consistent with you’ve not wasted your time. In fact, the aerobic exercise
what is practiced in elite training programs associated that you’ve been doing is an essential foundation to
with major university athletic teams and professional fitness and the isolation movements have given you
sports. CrossFit endeavors to bring state-of-the-art some degree of strength. You are in good company; we
coaching techniques to the general public and athlete have found that some of the world’s best athletes were
who haven’t access to current technologies, research, and sorely lacking in their core strength and conditioning.
coaching methods. It’s hard to believe but many elite athletes have achieved
international success and are still far from their potential
Is this for me? because they have not had the benefit of state-of-the-art
coaching methods
Absolutely! Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s
differ by degree not kind. Increased power, strength, Just what is a “core strength and
cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, flexibility, conditioning” program?
stamina, coordination, agility, balance, and coordination
are each important to the world’s best athletes and CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program
to our grandparents. The amazing truth is that the in two distinct senses. First, we are a core strength and

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conditioning program in the sense that the fitness we heart disease, reduced cancer risk, fewer strokes, and less
develop is foundational to all other athletic needs. This is depression than non-athletes
the same sense in which the university courses required
of a particular major are called the “core curriculum”. What is an athlete?
This is the stuff that everyone needs. Second, we are a According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, an
“core” strength and conditioning program in the literal athlete is “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises,
sense meaning the center of something. Much of our sports, or games requiring strength, agility, or stamina”.
work focuses on the major functional axis of the human
body, the extension and flexion, of the hips and extension, The CrossFit definition of an athlete is a bit tighter.
flexion, and rotation of the torso or trunk.The primacy of The CrossFit definition of an athlete is “a person who
core strength and conditioning in this sense is supported is trained or skilled in strength, power, balance and
by the simple observation that powerful hip extension agility, flexibility, and endurance”. The CrossFit model
alone is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite athletic holds “fitness”, “health”, and “athleticism” as strongly
performance. That is, our experience has been that no overlapping constructs. For most purposes they can be
one without the capacity for powerful hip extension seen as equivalents.
enjoys great athletic prowess and nearly everyone we’ve
met with that capacity was a great athlete. Running, What if I don’t want to be an athlete; I just
jumping, punching and throwing all originate at the core. want to be healthy?
At CrossFit we endeavor to develop our athletes from You’re in luck. We hear this often, but the truth is that
the inside out, from core to extremity, which is by the fitness, wellness, and pathology (sickness) are measures
way how good functional movements recruit muscle, of the same entity, your health. There are a multitude of
from the core to the extremities. measurable parameters that can be ordered from sick
(pathological) to well (normal) to fit (better than normal).
Can I enjoy optimal health without being an
These include but are not limited to blood pressure,
athlete?
cholesterol, heart rate, body fat, muscle mass, flexibility,
No! Athletes experience a protection from the ravages and strength. It seems as though all of the body functions
of aging and disease that non-athletes never find. For that can go awry have states that are pathological, normal,
instance, 80-year-old athletes are stronger than non- and exceptional and that elite athletes typically show
athletes in their prime at 25 years old. If you think that these parameters in the exceptional range. The CrossFit
strength isn’t important consider that strength loss is view is that fitness and health are the same thing. It is
what puts people in nursing homes. Athletes have greater also interesting to notice that the health professional
bone density, stronger immune systems, less coronary maintains your health with drugs and surgery each with

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potentially undesirable side effect whereas the CrossFit
Coach typically achieves a superior result always with
“side benefit” vs. side effect.

What is the CrossFit method?
The CrossFit method is to establish a hierarchy of effort
and concern that builds as follows:
Diet - lays the molecular foundations for fitness and
health.
Metabolic Conditioning - builds capacity in each of three
metabolic pathways, beginning with aerobic, then
lactic acid, and then phosphocreatine pathways.
Gymnastics - establishes functional capacity for body
control and range of motion.
Weightlifting and throwing - develop ability to control
external objects and produce power.
Sport - applies fitness in competitive atmosphere with
more randomized movements and skill mastery.
There isn’t a strength and conditioning program anywhere
Examples of CrossFit exercises that works with a greater diversity of tools, modalities,
and drills.
Biking, running, swimming, and rowing in an endless
variety of drills. The clean&jerk, snatch, squat, deadlift, What if I don’t have time for all of this?
push-press, bench-press, and power-clean. Jumping,
medicine ball throws and catches, pull-ups, dips, push- It is a common sentiment to feel that because of the
ups, handstands, presses to handstand, pirouettes, kips, obligations of career and family that you don’t have the
cartwheels, muscle-ups, sit-ups, scales, and holds. We time to become as fit as you might like. Here’s the good
make regular use of bikes, the track, rowing shells and news: world class, age group strength and conditioning
ergometers, Olympic weight sets, rings, parallel bars, free is obtainable through an hour a day six days per week
exercise mat, horizontal bar, plyometrics boxes, medicine of training. It turns out that the intensity of training that
balls, and jump rope. optimizes physical conditioning is not sustainable past
forty-five minutes to an hour. Athletes that train for
hours a day are developing skill or training for sports
that include adaptations inconsistent with elite strength
and conditioning. Past one hour, more is not better!

“Fringe Athletes”
There is a near universal misconception that long distance
athletes are fitter that their short distance counterparts.
The triathlete, cyclist, and marathoner are often regarded
as among the fittest athletes on earth. Nothing could be
farther from the truth.The endurance athlete has trained
long past any cardiovascular health benefit and has lost
ground in strength, speed, and power, typically does
nothing for coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy
and possesses little more than average flexibility. This is

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hardly the stuff of elite athleticism. The CrossFit athlete, lactic acid system. Examples of anaerobic activity include
remember, has trained and practiced for optimal physical running a 100-meter sprint, squatting, and doing pull-ups.
competence in all ten physical skills (cardiovascular/
Our main purpose here is to discuss how anaerobic
respiratory endurance, stamina, flexibility, strength,
and aerobic training support performance variables like
power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy).
strength, power, speed, and endurance. We also support
The excessive aerobic volume of the endurance athlete’s
the contention that total conditioning and optimal health
training has cost him in speed, power, and strength to
necessitates training each of the physiological systems in
the point where his athletic competency has been
a systematic fashion.
compromised. No triathlete is in ideal shape to wrestle,
box, pole-vault, sprint, play any ball sport, fight fires, or It warrants mention that in any activity all three energy
do police work. Each of these requires a fitness level far systems are utilized though one may dominate. The
beyond the needs of the endurance athlete. None of this interplay of these systems can be complex, yet a simple
suggests that being a marathoner, triathlete or other examination of the characteristics of aerobic vs. anaerobic
endurance athlete is a bad thing; just don’t believe that training can prove useful.
training as a long distance athlete gives you the fitness
that is prerequisite to many sports. CrossFit considers the Aerobic training benefits cardiovascular function and
Sumo Wrestler, triathlete, marathoner, and power lifter decreases body fat. This is certainly of significant benefit.
to be “fringe athletes” in that their fitness demands are Aerobic conditioning allows us to engage in moderate/
so specialized as to be inconsistent with the adaptations low power output for extended period of time. This is
that give maximum competency at all physical challenges. valuable for many sports. Athletes engaging in excessive
Elite strength and conditioning is a compromise between aerobic training witness decreases in muscle mass,
each of the ten physical adaptations. Endurance athletes strength, speed, and power. It is not uncommon to find
do not balance that compromise. marathoners with a vertical leap of several inches and
a bench press well below average for most athletes.
Aerobics and Anaerobics Aerobic activity has a pronounced tendency to decrease
anaerobic capacity. This does not bode well for athletes
There are three main energy systems that fuel all human or the individual interested in total conditioning or
activity. Almost all changes that occur in the body due optimal health.
to exercise are related to the demands placed on these
energy systems. Furthermore, the efficacy of any given Anaerobic activity also benefits cardiovascular function
fitness regimen may largely be tied to its ability to elicit and decreases body fat. Anaerobic activity is unique
an adequate stimulus for change within these three in its capacity to dramatically improve power, speed,
energy systems. strength, and muscle mass. Anaerobic conditioning allows
us to exert tremendous forces over a very brief time.
Energy is derived aerobically when oxygen is utilized to Perhaps the aspect of anaerobic conditioning that bears
metabolize substrates derived from food and liberates greatest consideration is that anaerobic conditioning will
energy. An activity is termed aerobic when the majority not adversely affect aerobic capacity! In fact, properly
of energy needed is derived aerobically. These activities structured, anaerobic activity can be used to develop
are usually greater than ninety seconds in duration and a very high level of aerobic fitness without the muscle
involve low to moderate power output or intensity. wasting consistent with high volume aerobic exercise!
Examples of aerobic activity include running on the
treadmill for twenty minutes, swimming a mile, and Basketball, football, gymnastics, boxing, track and field
watching TV. events under one mile, soccer, swimming events under
400 yards, volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting are all
Energy is derived anaerobically when energy is liberated sports that require the majority of training time spent
from substrates in the absence of oxygen. Activities are in anaerobic activity. Long distance and ultra-endurance
considered anaerobic when the majority of the energy running, cross-country skiing, and 1500+ yard swimming
needed is derived anaerobically. These activities are of are all sports that require aerobic training at levels
less than two minutes in duration and involve moderate that produce results unacceptable to other athletes or
to high power output or intensity. There are two such individuals concerned with total conditioning or optimal
anaerobic systems, the phosphagen system and the health.

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is also worth mentioning that the Olympic lifts are the
only lifts shown to increase maximum oxygen uptake, the
most important marker for cardiovascular fitness.
Sadly, the Olympic lifts are seldom seen in the commercial
fitness community because of their inherently complex
and technical nature. CrossFit makes them available to
anyone with the patience and persistence to learn.

Gymnastics
The extraordinary value of gymnastics as a training
modality lies in its reliance on the body’s own weight
as the sole source of resistance. This places a unique
premium on the improvement of strength to weight ratio.
Unlike other strength training modalities gymnastics and
calisthenics allow for increases in strength only while
The CrossFit approach is to judiciously balance anaerobic increasing strength to weight ratio!
and aerobic exercise in a manner that is consistent with
the athlete’s goals. Our exercise prescriptions adhere to Gymnastics develops pull-ups, squats, lunges, jumping,
proper specificity, progression, variation, and recovery to push-ups, and numerous presses to handstand, scales, and
optimize adaptations. holds. These skills are unrivaled in their benefit to the
physique as evident in any competitive gymnast.
The Olympic Lifts, a.k.a., Weightlifting
As important as the capacity of this modality is for
There are two Olympic lifts, the clean and jerk and the strength development it is without a doubt the ultimate
snatch. Mastery of these lifts develops the squat, deadlift, approach to improving coordination, balance, agility,
powerclean, and split jerk while integrating them into a accuracy, and flexibility. Through the use of numerous
single movement of unequaled value in all of strength and presses, handstands, scales, and other floor work the
conditioning.The Olympic lifters are without a doubt the gymnast’s training greatly enhances kinesthetic sense.
world’s strongest athletes.
The variety of movements available for inclusion in this
These lifts train athletes to effectively activate more modality probably exceeds the number of exercises
muscle fibers more rapidly than through any other known to all non-gymnastic sport! The rich variety here
modality of training. The explosiveness that results from contributes substantially to the CrossFit program’s ability
this training is of vital necessity to every sport. to inspire great athletic confidence and prowess.

Practicing the Olympic lifts teaches one to apply force For a combination of strength, flexibility, well-developed
to muscle groups in proper sequence, i.e., from the physique, coordination, balance, accuracy, and agility the
center of the body to its extremities (core to extremity). gymnast has no equal in the sports world. The inclusion
Learning this vital technical lesson benefits all athletes of this training modality is absurdly absent from nearly all
who need to impart force to another person or object training programs.
as is commonly required in nearly all sports.
Routines
In addition to learning to impart explosive forces, the
clean and jerk and snatch condition the body to receive There is no ideal routine! In fact, the chief value of any
such forces from another moving body both safely and routine lies in abandoning it for another.The CrossFit ideal
effectively. is to train for any contingency. The obvious implication is
that this is possible only if there is a tremendously varied,
Numerous studies have demonstrated the Olympic lifts if not randomized, quality to the breadth of stimulus. It is
unique capacity to develop strength, muscle, power, speed, in this sense that the CrossFit Program is a core strength
coordination, vertical leap, muscular endurance, bone and conditioning program. Anything else is sport specific
strength, and the physical capacity to withstand stress. It training not core strength and conditioning.

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Any routine, no matter how complete, contains within Program. Heavy load weight training, short rest between
its omissions the parameters for which there will be no sets, high heart rates, high intensity training, and short
adaptation. The breadth of adaptation will exactly match rest intervals, though not entirely distinct components,
the breadth of the stimulus. For this reason the CrossFit are all associated with a high neuroendocrine response.
program embraces short, middle, and long distance
metabolic conditioning, low, moderate, and heavy load Power
assignment. We encourage creative and continuously Power is defined as the “time rate of doing work.” It has
varied compositions that tax physiological functions often been said that in sport speed is king. At CrossFit
against every realistically conceivable combination of “power” is the undisputed king of performance. Power
stressors. This is the stuff of surviving fights and fires. is in simplest terms, “hard and fast.” Jumping, punching,
Developing a fitness that is varied yet complete defines throwing, and sprinting are all measures of power.
the very art of strength and conditioning coaching. Increasing your ability to produce power is necessary and
This is not a comforting message in an age where nearly sufficient to elite athleticism. Additionally, power is
scientific certainty and specialization confer authority and the definition of intensity, which in turn has been linked
expertise. Yet, the reality of performance enhancement to nearly every positive aspect of fitness. Increases in
cares not one wit for trend or authority. The CrossFit strength, performance, muscle mass, and bone density
Program’s success in elevating the performance of world- all arise in proportion to the intensity of exercise. And
class athletes lies clearly in demanding of our athletes again, intensity is defined as power. Power is one of the
total and complete physical competence. No routine four defining themes of the CrossFit Program. Power
takes us there. development is an ever-present aspect of the CrossFit
Daily Workout.
Neuroendocrine Adaptation
Cross-Training
“Neuroendocrine adaptation” is a change in the body
that affects you either neurologically or hormonally. Cross training is typically defined as participating in
Most important adaptations to exercise are in part multiple sports. At CrossFit we take a much broader
or completely a result of a hormonal or neurological view of the term.We view cross training as exceeding the
shift. Current research, much of it done by Dr. William normal parameters of the regular demands of your sport
Kraemer, Penn State University, has shown which exercise or training. The CrossFit Program recognizes functional,
protocols maximize neuroendocrine responses. Earlier metabolic, and modal cross training. That is we regularly
we faulted isolation movements as being ineffectual. Now train past the normal motions, metabolic pathways, and
we can tell you that one of the critical elements missing modes or sports common to the athlete’s sport or
from these movements is that they invoke essentially no exercise regimen. We are unique and again distinctive to
neuroendocrine response. the extent that we adhere to and program within this
context.
Among the hormonal responses vital to athletic
development are substantial increases in testosterone, If you remember the CrossFit objective of providing a
insulinlike growth factor, and human growth hormone. broad based fitness that provides maximal competency in
Exercising with protocols known to elevate these all adaptive capacities, cross training, or training outside
hormones eerily mimics the hormonal changes sought of the athletes normal or regular demands is a given. The
in exogenous hormonal therapy (steroid use) with none CrossFit coaching staff had long ago noticed that athletes
of the deleterious effect. Exercise regimens that induce are weakest at the margins of their exposure for almost
a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! every measurable parameter. For instance, if you only
Increased muscle mass and bone density are just two cycle between five to seven miles at each training effort
of many adaptative responses to exercises capable of you will test weak at less than five and greater than seven
producing a significant neuroendocrine response. miles.This is true for range of motion, load, rest, intensity,
and power, etc. The CrossFit workouts are engineered
It is impossible to overstate the importance of the to expand the margins of exposure as broad as function
neuroendocrine response to exercise protocols. This is and capacity will allow. Cross training is one of the four
why it is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit CrossFit defining themes.

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Functional Movements a colossal waste of time. For this reason functional
movement is one of the four dominant CrossFit themes.
There are movements that mimic motor recruitment
patterns that are found in everyday life. Others are Diet
somewhat unique to the gym. Squatting is standing from
a seated position; deadlifting is picking any object off The CrossFit dietary prescription is as follows:
the ground.They are both functional movements. Leg
Protein should be lean and varied and account for about
extension and leg curl both have no equivalent in nature
30% of your total caloric load.
and are in turn nonfunctional movements. The bulk of
isolation movements are non-functional movements. Carbohydrates should be predominantly low-glycemic
By contrast the compound or multi-joint movements and account for about 40% of your total caloric load.
are functional. Natural movement typically involves the
movement of multiple joints for every activity. Fat should be predominantly monounsaturated and
account for about 30% of your total caloric load.
The importance of functional movements is primarily
two-fold. First of all the functional movements are Calories should be set at between .7 and 1.0 grams of
mechanically sound and therefore safe, and secondly they protein per pound of lean body mass depending on your
are the movements that elicit a high neuroendocrine activity level. The .7 figure is for moderate daily workout
response. loads and the 1.0 figure is for the hardcore athlete.

CrossFit has managed a stable of elite athletes and What should I eat?
dramatically enhanced their performance exclusively
In plain language, base your diet on garden vegetables,
with functional movements. The superiority of training
especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch,
with functional movements is clearly apparent with any
and no sugar. That’s about as simple as we can get. Many
athlete within weeks of their incorporation.
have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the
The soundness and efficacy of functional movement is so perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles
profound that exercising without them is by comparison is a great way to protect your health. Food is perishable.

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The stuff with long shelf life is all circumspect. If you follow What is the Problem with High-Glycemic
these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all Carbohydrates?
that can be achieved through nutrition.
The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that
The Caveman or Paleolithic Model for they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an
Nutrition essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation
of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been
Modern diets are ill suited for our genetic composition. positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels,
Evolution has not kept pace with advances in agriculture blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of
and food processing resulting in a plague of health disease and disability. Research “hyperinsulinism” on the
problems for modern man. Coronary heart disease, Internet. There’s a gold mine of information pertinent to
diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity and psychological your health available there. The CrossFit prescription is
dysfunction have all been scientifically linked to a diet a low-glycemic diet and consequently severely blunts the
too high in refined or processed carbohydrate. Search insulin response
“google” or “Alta Vista” for Paleolithic nutrition, or diet.
The return is extensive, compelling, and fascinating. The Caloric Restriction and Longevity
Caveman model is perfectly consistent with the CrossFit
Current research strongly supports the link between
prescription.
caloric restriction and an increased life expectancy. The
What Foods should I avoid? incidence of cancers and heart disease sharply decline
with a diet that is carefully limited in controlling caloric
Excessive consumption of high-glycemic carbohydrates is intake. “Caloric Restriction” is another fruitful area for
the primary culprit in nutritionally caused health problems. Internet search. The CrossFit prescription is consistent
High glycemic carbohydrates are those that raise blood with this research.
sugar too rapidly. They include rice, bread, candy, potato,
sweets, sodas, and most processed carbohydrates. The CrossFit prescription allows a reduced caloric
Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and intake and yet still provides ample nutrition for rigorous
refining. Processing of carbohydrates greatly increases activity.
their glycemic index, a measure of their propensity to
elevate blood sugar.

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What is Fitness?

What Is Fitness and Who Is Fit? standards for assessing and defining fitness.
Outside Magazine crowned triathlete Mark Allen “the CrossFit makes use of three different standards or models
fittest man on earth” (http://web.outsidemag.com/ for evaluating and guiding fitness. Collectively, these three
magazine/0297/9702fefit.html). Let’s just assume for a standards define the CrossFit view of fitness. The first is
moment that this famous six-time winner of the IronMan based on the ten general physical skills widely recognized
Triathlon is the fittest of the fit, then what title do we by exercise physiologists. The second standard, or model,
bestow on the decathlete Simon Poelman (http://www. is based on the performance of athletic tasks, while the
decathlon2000.ee/english/legends/poelman.htm) who third is based on the energy systems that drive all human
also possesses incredible endurance and stamina, yet action.
crushes Mr.Allen in any comparison that includes strength,
power, speed, and coordination? Each model is critical to the CrossFit concept and each
has distinct utility in evaluating an athlete’s overall fitness
Perhaps the definition of fitness doesn’t include or a strength and conditioning regimen’s efficacy. Before
strength, speed, power, and coordination though that explaining in detail how each of these three perspectives
seems rather odd. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate works, it warrants mention that we are not attempting to
Dictionary defines “fitness” and being “fit” as the ability demonstrate our program’s legitimacy through scientific
to transmit genes and being healthy. No help there. principles. We are but sharing the methods of a program
Searching the Internet for a workable, reasonable whose legitimacy has been established through the
definition of fitness yields disappointingly little (http:// testimony of athletes, soldiers, cops, and others whose
www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF- lives or livelihoods depend on fitness.
8&q=fitness+definition). Worse yet, the NSCA, the
most respected publisher in exercise physiology, in their
highly authoritative Essentials of Strength Training and World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:
Conditioning doesn’t even attempt a definition.

Crossfit’s Fitness • Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some
fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to
For CrossFit the specter of championing a fitness program
without clearly defining what it is that the program levels that will support exercise but not body
delivers combines elements of fraud and farce. The fat.
vacuum of guiding authority has therefore necessitated
that CrossFit’s directors provide their own definition of • Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean,
fitness. That’s what this issue of CrossFit Journal is about, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly,
our “fitness.” master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups,
Our pondering, studying, debating about, and finally dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to
defining fitness have played a formative role in CrossFit’s handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.
successes. The keys to understanding the methods and Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.
achievements of CrossFit are perfectly imbedded in our
view of fitness and basic exercise science. • Five or six days per week mix these elements
It will come as no surprise to most of you that our in as many combinations and patterns as
view of fitness is a contrarian view. The general public creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep
both in opinion and in media holds endurance athletes workouts short and intense.
as exemplars of fitness. We do not. Our incredulity on
learning of Outside’s awarding a triathlete title of “fittest • Regularly learn and play new sports.
man on earth” becomes apparent in light of CrossFit’s

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What is Fitness? ...continued
Crossfit’s First Fitness Standard Here’s an excellent reference for additional information:
http://predator.pnb.uconn.edu/beta/virtualtemp/muscle/
There are ten recognized general physical skills. They
exercise-folder/muscle.html
are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina,
strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, Total fitness, the fitness that CrossFit promotes and
and accuracy. (See “General Physical Skills”, pg. 4, for develops, requires competency and training in each of
definitions.) You are as fit as you are competent in each of these three pathways or engines. Balancing the effects
these ten skills. A regimen develops fitness to the extent of these three pathways largely determines the how and
that it improves each of these ten skills. why of the metabolic conditioning or “cardio” that we
do at CrossFit.
Importantly, improvements in endurance, stamina,
strength, and flexibility come about through training. Favoring one or two to the exclusion of the others and
Training refers to activity that improves performance not recognizing the impact of excessive training in the
through a measurable organic change in the body. By oxidative pathway are arguably the two most common
contrast improvements in coordination, agility, balance, faults in fitness training. More on that later.
and accuracy come about through practice. Practice
refers to activity that improves performance through
changes in the nervous system. Power and speed are

Percent of total energy
adaptations of both training and practice.

Crossfit’s Second Fitness Standard
The essence of this model is the view that fitness is about
performing well at any and every task imaginable. Picture
a hopper loaded with an infinite number of physical
challenges where no selective mechanism is operative,
and being asked to perform fetes randomly drawn from
the hopper. This model suggests that your fitness can be
measured by your capacity to perform well at these tasks
in relation to other individuals.
Time (seconds)
The implication here is that fitness requires an ability
Phosphagen Glycolytic Oxidative
to perform well at all tasks, even unfamiliar tasks, tasks
combined in infinitely varying combinations. In practice
this encourages the athlete to disinvest in any set notions Common Ground
of sets, rest periods, reps, exercises, order of exercises,
The motivation for the three standards is simply to ensure
routines, periodization, etc. Nature frequently provides
the broadest and most general fitness possible. Our first
largely unforeseeable challenges; train for that by striving
model evaluates our efforts against a full range of general
to keep the training stimulus broad and constantly varied.
physical adaptations, in the second the focus is on breadth
Crossfit’s Third Fitness Standard and depth of performance, with the third the measure is
time, power and consequently energy systems. It should
There are three metabolic pathways that provide the be fairly clear that the fitness that CrossFit advocates
energy for all human action. These “metabolic engines” and develops is deliberately broad, general, and inclusive.
are known as the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many
pathway, and the oxidative pathway. The first, the sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average,
phosphagen, dominates the highest-powered activities, punish the specialist.
those that last less than about ten seconds. The second
pathway, the glycolytic, dominates moderate-powered Sickness, Wellness, and Fitness
activities, those that last up to several minutes. The
There is another aspect to the CrossFit brand of fitness
third pathway, the oxidative, dominates low-powered
that is of great interest and immense value to us.We have
activities, those that last in excess of several minutes.

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“Wellness”

Based on measurements of:
- Blood Pressure
- Body Fat
- Bone Density
- Triglycerides
- Good and Bad Cholesterol
- Flexibility
“Sickness” - Muscle Mass “Fitness”
- etc.

Our assumption is that if everything we can measure about health will conform to
this continuum then it seems that sickness, wellness, and fitness are different mea-
sures of a single quality: health.

observed that nearly every measurable value of health (As a note of interest, Mel Siff PhD, whom we often
can be placed on a continuum that ranges from sickness respect and admire, holds his atherosclerotic disease
to wellness to fitness. See table below. Though tougher and subsequent heart attack as anecdotal evidence of
to measure, we would even add mental health to this the contention that fitness and health are not necessarily
observation. Depression is clearly mitigated by proper linked because of his regular training and “good diet”.
diet and exercise, i.e., genuine fitness. When we researched his dietary recommendations we
discovered that he advocates a diet ideally structured for
For example, a blood pressure of 160/95 is pathological, causing heart disease – low fat/high carb. Siff has fallen
120/70 is normal or healthy, and 105/55 is consistent victim to junk science!)
with an athlete’s blood pressure; a body fat of 40% is
pathological, 20% is normal or healthy, and 10% is fit. We Implementation
observe a similar ordering for bone density, triglycerides,
muscle mass, flexibility, HDL or “good cholesterol”, resting Our fitness, being “CrossFit”, comes through molding
heart rate, and dozens of other common measures of men and women that are equal parts gymnast, Olympic
health. Many authorities (e.g. Mel Siff, the NSCA) make weightlifter, and multi-modal sprinter or “sprintathlete.”
a clear distinction between health and fitness. Frequently Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete,
they cite studies that suggest that the fit may not be gymnast, and weightlifter and you’ll be fitter than any
health protected. A close look at the supporting evidence world-class runner, gymnast, or weightlifter. Let’s look
invariably reveals the studied group is endurance athletes at how CrossFit incorporates metabolic conditioning
and, we suspect, endurance athletes on a dangerous fad (“cardio”), gymnastics, and weightlifting to forge the
diet (high carb, low fat, low protein). world’s fittest men and women.

Done right, fitness provides a great margin of protection Metabolic Conditioning, or “Cardio”
against the ravages of time and disease. Where you
find otherwise examine the fitness protocol, especially Biking, running, swimming, rowing, speed skating, and
diet. Fitness is and should be “super-wellness.” Sickness, cross-country skiing are collectively known as “metabolic
wellness, and fitness are measures of the same entity. conditioning.” In the common vernacular they are referred
A fitness regimen that doesn’t support health is not to as “cardio.” CrossFit’s third fitness standard, the one
CrossFit. that deals with metabolic pathways, contains the seeds

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of the CrossFit “cardio” prescription. To understand the
CrossFit approach to “cardio” we need first to briefly General Physical Skills
cover the nature and interaction of the three major
pathways. If your goal is optimum physical competence then
Of the three metabolic pathways the first two, the all the general physical skills must be considered:
phosphagen and the glycolytic, are “anaerobic” and the 1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The
third, the oxidative, is “aerobic.” We needn’t belabor the ability of body systems to gather, process,
biochemical significance of aerobic and anaerobic systems; and deliver oxygen.
suffice it to say that the nature and interaction of anaerobic
exercise and aerobic exercise is vital to understanding 2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to
conditioning. Just remember that efforts at moderate process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
to high power and lasting less than several minutes are
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit,
anaerobic and efforts at low power and lasting in excess
or combination of muscular units, to apply
of several minutes are aerobic. As an example the sprints
force.
at 100, 200, 400, and 800 meters are largely anaerobic
and events like 1,500 meters, the mile, 2,000 meters, and 4. Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range
3,000 meters are largely aerobic. of motion at a given joint.
Aerobic training benefits cardiovascular function and 5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or
decreases body fat – all good. Aerobic conditioning combination of muscular units, to apply
allows us to engage in low power extended efforts maximum force in minimum time.
efficiently (cardio/respiratory endurance and stamina).
This is critical to many sports. Athletes engaged in sports 6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time
or training where a preponderance of the training load cycle of a repeated movement.
is spent in aerobic efforts witness decreases in muscle 7. Coordination - The ability to combine
mass, strength, speed, and power. It is not uncommon several distinct movement patterns into a
to find marathoners with a vertical leap of only several singular distinct movement.
inches! Furthermore, aerobic activity has a pronounced
tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity. This does not 8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition
bode well for most athletes or those interested in elite time from one movement pattern to
fitness. another.

Anaerobic activity also benefits cardiovascular function 9. Balance - The ability to control the
and decreases body fat! In fact, anaerobic exercise is placement of the bodies center of gravity in
superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss! (http://www. relation to its support base.
cbass.com/FATBURN.HTM) Anaerobic activity is, 10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement
however, unique in its capacity to dramatically improve in a given direction or at a given intensity.
power, speed, strength, and muscle mass. Anaerobic
conditioning allows us to exert tremendous forces over (Ed. - Thanks to Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans of
brief time intervals. One aspect of anaerobic conditioning Dynamax, www.medicineballs.com)
that bears great consideration is that anaerobic
conditioning will not adversely affect aerobic capacity. In
fact, properly structured, anaerobic activity can be used
to develop a very high level of aerobic fitness without the volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting are all sports that
muscle wasting consistent with high volumes of aerobic require the vast majority of training time spent in anaerobic
exercise!! The method by which we use anaerobic efforts activity. Long distance and ultra endurance running, cross
to develop aerobic conditioning is “interval training.” country skiing, and 1500+ meter swimming are all sports
that require aerobic training at levels that produce results
Basketball, football, gymnastics, boxing, track events under unacceptable to other athletes or the individual concerned
one mile, soccer, swimming events under 400 meters, with total conditioning and optimal health.

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Dr. Izumi Tabata published research that
Sprint Mid-Distance Distance demonstrated that this interval protocol
produced remarkable increases in both
Primary Energy System Phophagen Glycolytic Oxidative anaerobic and aerobic capacity.

Duration of work It is highly desirable to regularly experiment
10–30 30–120 120–300 with interval patterns of varying
(in seconds)
combinations of rest, work, and repetitions.
Duration of recovery
30–90 60–240 120–300 One of the best Internet resources on
(in seconds)
interval training comes from Dr. Stephen
Seiler (http://home.hia.no/~stephens/
Load:Recovery Ratio 1:3 1:2 1:1
interval.htm). This article on interval
training and another on the time course
Repetitions 25–30 10–20 3–5
of training adaptations (http://home.hia.
no/~stephens/timecors.htm) contain the
We strongly recommend that you attend a track meet seeds of CrossFit’s heavy reliance on interval training.
of nationally or internationally competitive athletes. The article on the time course of training adaptations
Pay close attention to the physiques of the athletes explains that there are three waves of adaptation to
competing at 100, 200, 400, 800 meters, and the milers. endurance training. The first wave is increased maximal
The difference you’re sure to notice is a direct result of oxygen consumption. The second is increased lactate
training at those distances. threshold. The third is increased efficiency. In the
CrossFit concept we are interested in maximizing first
Interval Training wave adaptations and procuring the second systemically
The key to developing the cardiovascular system without through multiple modalities, including weight training,
an unacceptable loss of strength, speed, and power is and avoiding completely third wave adaptations. Second
interval training. Interval training mixes bouts of work and and third wave adaptations are highly specific to the
rest in timed intervals. Figure 3 (pg. 5) gives guidelines for activity in which they are developed and are detrimental
interval training. We can control the dominant metabolic to the broad fitness that we advocate and develop. A
pathway conditioned by varying the duration of the clear understanding of this material has prompted us to
work and rest interval and number of repetitions. Note advocate regular high intensity training in as many training
that the phosphagen pathway is the dominant pathway modalities as possible through largely anaerobic efforts
in intervals of 10-30 seconds of work followed by rest and intervals while deliberately and specifically avoiding
of 30-90 seconds (load:recovery 1:3) repeated 25-30 the efficiency that accompanies mastery of a single
times. The glycolytic pathway is the dominant pathway modality. It is at first ironic that this is our interpretation
in intervals of 30-120 seconds work followed by rest of Dr. Seiler’s work for it was not his intention, but when
of 60-240 seconds (load: recovery 1:2) repeated 10-20 our quest of optimal physical competence is viewed
times. And finally, the oxidative pathway is the dominant in light of Dr. Seiler’s more specific aim of maximizing
pathway in intervals of 120-300 seconds work followed endurance performance our interpretation is powerful.
by rest of 120-300 seconds (load:recovery 1:1). The bulk Dr. Seiler’s work, incidentally, makes clear the fallacy of
of metabolic training should be interval training. assuming that endurance work is of greater benefit to the
Interval training need not be so structured or formal. cardiovascular system than higher intensity interval work.
One example would be to sprint between one set of This is very important: with interval training we get all of
telephone poles and jog between the next set alternating the cardiovascular benefit of endurance work without
in this manner for the duration of a run. the attendant loss of strength, speed, and power.

One example of an interval that CrossFit makes regular Gymnastics
use of is the Tabata Interval, which is 20 seconds of
Our use of the term “gymnastics” not only includes the
work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated six to
traditional competitive sport that we’ve seen on TV but all
eight times (http://www.cbass.com/INTERVAL.HTM).

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activities like climbing, yoga, calisthenics, and dance where until you’ve turned 180 degrees. This skill needs to be
the aim is body control. It is within this realm of activities practiced until it can be done with little chance of falling
that we can develop extraordinary strength (especially from the handstand. Work in intervals of 90 degrees as
upper body and trunk), flexibility, coordination, balance, benchmarks of your growth – 90, 180, 270, 360, 450, 540,
agility, and accuracy. In fact, the traditional gymnast has no 630, and finally 720 degrees.
peer in terms of development of these skills.
Walking on the hands is another fantastic tool for
CrossFit uses short parallel bars, mats, still rings, pull- developing both the handstand and balance and accuracy.
up and dip bars, and a climbing rope to implement our A football field or sidewalk is an excellent place to
gymnastics training. (See CrossFit Journal, September practice and measure your progress.You want to be able
2002, “The Garage Gym” for recommended equipment to walk 100 yards in the handstand without falling.
and vendors.)
Competency in the handstand readies the athlete for
The starting place for gymnastic competency lies with handstand presses. There is a family of presses that range
the well-known calisthenic movements: pull-ups, push- from relatively easy, ones that any beginning gymnast can
ups, dips, and rope climb.These movements need to form perform to ones so difficult that only the best gymnasts
the core of your upper body strength work. Set goals for competing at national levels can perform. Their hierarchy
achieving benchmarks like 20, 25, and 30 pull-ups; 50, 75, of difficulty is bent arm/bent body (hip)/bent leg; straight
and 100 push-ups; 20, 30, 40, and 50 dips; 1, 2, 3, 4, and arm/bent body/bent leg; straight arm/bent body/ straight
5 consecutive trips up the rope without any use of the leg, bent arm/straight body/straight leg, and finally the
feet or legs. monster: straight arm/straight body/straight leg. It is not
unusual to take ten years to get these five presses!
At fifteen pull-ups and dips each it is time to start
working regularly on a “muscle-up.” The muscle-up is The trunk flexion work in gymnastics is beyond anything
moving from a hanging position below the rings to a you’ll see anywhere else. Even the beginning gymnastic
supported position, arms extended, above the rings. It trunk movements cripple bodybuilders, weightlifters, and
is a combination movement containing both a pull-up martial artists. In a future issue of CFJ (CrossFit Journal)
and a dip. Far from a contrivance the muscle-up is hugely we’ll cover in great detail many of the better trunk/ab
functional. With a muscle-up you’ll be able to surmount exercises, but until then the basic sit-up and “L” hold are
any object on which you can get a finger hold – if you the staples. The “L” hold is nothing more than holding
can touch it you can get up on it. The value here for your trunk straight, supported by locked arms, hands on
survival, police, fire fighter, and military use is impossible bench, floor, or parallel bars, and hips at 90 degrees with
to overstate. We will in future issues be covering the legs straight held out in front of you. You want to work
details of this great movement.The key to developing the towards a three minute hold in benchmark increments
muscle-up is pull-ups and dips. of 30 seconds – 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 seconds.
When you can hold an “L” for three minutes all your old
While developing your upper body strength with the ab work will be silly easy.
pull-ups, push-ups, dips, and rope climb, a large measure
of balance and accuracy can be developed through We recommend Bob Anderson’s Stretching. This is a
mastering the handstand. Start with a headstand against simple no nonsense approach to flexibility. The science
the wall if you need to. Once reasonably comfortable with of stretching is weakly developed and many athletes
the inverted position of the headstand you can practice like gymnasts who demonstrate great flexibility receive
kicking up to the handstand again against a wall. Later take no formal instruction. Just do it. Generally, you want to
the handstand to the short parallel bars or parallettes stretch in a warm-up to establish safe, effective range of
(http://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/ motion for the ensuing activity and stretch during cool
paralletteguide/titlepage.html) without the benefit of the down to improve flexibility.
wall. After you can hold a handstand for several minutes
There’s a lot of material to work with here. We highly
without benefit of the wall or a spotter it is time to
recommend an adult gymnastics program if there is one
develop a pirouette. A pirouette is lifting one arm and
in your area. Our friends at www.drillsandskills.com have
turning on the supporting arm 90 degrees to regain
a gymnastics-conditioning page with enough material to
the handstand then repeating this with alternate arms
keep you busy for years (http://www.drillsandskills.com/

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skills/cond). This is among our favorite fitness sites. Start your weightlifting career with the deadlift, clean,
squat, and jerk then introduce the “clean and jerk” and
Every workout should contain regular gymnastic/ snatch.There are many excellent sources for learning the
calisthenic movements that you’ve mastered and other deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk but for the clean and jerk
elements under development. Much of the rudiments of and the snatch we know of only one outstanding source
gymnastics come only with great effort and frustration and that is a couple of videotapes produced by World
– that’s O.K. The return is unprecedented and the most Class Coaching LLC (http://www.worldclasscoachingllc.
frustrating elements are most beneficial -long before com/) These tapes are not only the best instruction
you’ve developed even a modicum of competency. available anywhere they are as good as any instructional
tape we’ve seen on any subject. Much of the material
Weightlifting
on the tapes, both in terms of pedagogy and technical
“Weightlifting” as opposed to “weight lifting”, two words, understanding, is unique to the producers.You need both
and “weight training” refers to the Olympic sport, which tapes, “The Snatch” and “The Clean and Jerk.”
includes the “clean and jerk” and the “snatch.” Olympic
Much of the best weight training material on the Internet
weightlifting, as it is often referred to, develops strength
is found on “powerlifting” sites. Powerlifting is the sport of
(especially in the hips), speed, and power like no other
three lifts: the bench press, squat, and deadlift. Powerlifting
training modality. It is little known that successful
is a superb start to a lifting program followed later by the
weightlifting requires substantial flexibility. Olympic
more dynamic clean and the jerk and finally the “clean &
weightlifters are as flexible as any athletes.
jerk” and the “snatch”.
The benefits of Olympic weightlifting don’t end with
The movements that we are recommending are very
strength, speed, power, and flexibility. The clean and jerk
demanding and very athletic. As a result they’ve kept
and the snatch both develop coordination, agility, accuracy,
athletes interested and intrigued where the typical fare
and balance and to no small degree. Both of these lifts
offered in most gyms (bodybuilding movements) typically
are as nuanced and challenging as any movement in all of
bores athletes to distraction.Weightlifting is sport; weight
sport. Moderate competency in the Olympic lifts confers
training is not.
added prowess to any sport.
The Olympic lifts are based on the deadlift, clean, squat, Throwing
and jerk. These movements are the starting point for Our weight training program includes not only
any serious weight-training program. In fact they should weightlifting and powerlifting but also throwing work
serve as the core of your resistance training throughout with medicine balls. The medicine ball work we favor
your life. provides both physical training and general movement
Why the deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk? Because these practice. We are huge fans of the Dynamax medicine ball
movements elicit a profound neurodendocrine response. (www.medicineballs.com) and the throwing exercises
That is, they alter you hormonally and neurologically. The elaborated in the Dynamax training manual that comes
changes that occur through these movements are essential with their balls. The medicine ball drills add another
to athletic development. Most of the development that potent stimulus for strength, power, speed, coordination,
occurs as a result of exercise is systemic and a direct agility, balance, and accuracy.
result of hormonal and neurological changes. There is a medicine ball game known as Hoover Ball.
Curls, lateral raises, leg extensions, leg curls, flyes and It is played with an eight-foot volleyball net and scored
other body building movements have no place in a serious like tennis. This game burns three times more calories
strength and conditioning program primarily because they than tennis and is great fun. The history and rules of
have a blunted neuroendocrine response. A distinctive Hoover Ball are available from the Internet (http://www.
feature of these relatively worthless movements is that hooverassoc.org/hooverballrules.htm).
they have no functional analog in everyday life and they
work only one joint at a time. Compare this to the Nutrition
deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk which are functional and Nutrition plays a critical role in your fitness.Proper nutrition
multi-joint movements. can amplify or diminish the effect of your training efforts.

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Effective nutrition is moderate in protein, carbohydrate, with nutrition and moves to metabolic conditioning,
and fat. Forget about the fad high carbohydrate, low fat, gymnastics, weightlifting, and finally sport. This hierarchy
and low protein diet. 70% carbohydrate, 20% protein, and largely reflects foundational dependence, skill, and to some
10% fat may work for your rabbit, but it won’t do anything degree, time ordering of development. The logical flow is
for you except increase your risk of cancer, diabetes, and from molecular foundations, cardiovascular sufficiency,
heart disease or leave you weak and sickly. Balanced body control, external object control, and ultimately
macronutrient and healthy nutrition looks more like mastery and application.This model has greatest utility in
40% carbohydrate, 30 % protein, and 30% fat. Dr. Barry analyzing athletes’ shortcomings or difficulties.
Sears’ Zone Diet (http://www.drsears.com/) still offers
We don’t deliberately order these components but
the greatest precision, efficacy, and health benefit of any
nature will. If you have a deficiency at any level of “the
clearly defined protocol. The Zone diet does an adequate
pyramid” the components above will suffer.
job of jointly managing issues of blood glucose control,
proper macronutrient proportion, and caloric restriction Integration
the three pillars of sound nutrition whether your concern
is athletic performance, disease prevention and longevity, Every regimen, every routine contains within its structure
or body composition.We recommend that every one read a blueprint for its deficiency. If you only work your weight
Dr. Sears book Enter the Zone. We will cover nutrition in training at low reps you won’t develop the localized
great detail in an upcoming issue of the CFJ. muscular endurance that you might have otherwise. If
you work high reps exclusively you won’t build the same
Sport strength or power that you would have at low rep. There
are advantages and disadvantages to working out slowly,
Sport plays a wonderful role in fitness. Sport is the
quickly, high weight, low weight, “cardio” before, cardio
application of fitness in a fantastic atmosphere of
after, etc.
competition and mastery.Training efforts typically include
relatively predictable repetitive movements and provide For the fitness that we are pursuing, every parameter
limited opportunity for the essential combination of our within your control needs to be modulated to broaden the
ten general physical skills. It is, after all, the combined stimulus as much as possible.Your body will only respond
expression, or application, of the ten general skills that to an unaccustomed stressor; routine is the enemy of
is our motivation for their development in the first progress and broad adaptation. Don’t subscribe to high
place. Sports and games like soccer, martial arts, baseball, reps, or low reps, or long rests, or short rests, but strive
and basketball in contrast to our training workouts for variance (http://www.cbass.com/EvolutionaryFitness.
have more varied and less predictable movements. But, htm).
where sports develop and require all ten general skills
simultaneously, they do so slowly compared to our So then, what are we to do? Work on becoming a better
strength and conditioning regimen. Sport is better, in weightlifter, stronger-better gymnast, and faster rower,
our view, at expression and testing of skills than it is runner, swimmer, cyclist is the answer. There are an
at developing these same skills. Both expression infinite number of regimens that will deliver the
SPORT goods.
and development are crucial to our fitness. Sport
in many respects more closely mimics the Generally, we have found that three days
demands of nature than does our training. WEIGHTLIFTING
on and one day off allows for a maximum
We encourage and expect our athletes & THROWING
sustainability at maximum intensities.
to engage in regular sports efforts in One of our favorite workout patterns
addition to all of their strength and GYMNASTICS is to warm-up and then perform three
conditioning work. to five sets of three to five reps of
a fundamental lift at a moderately
A Theoretical Heirarchy of METABOLIC CONDITIONING comfortable pace followed by a
Development
ten-minute circuit of gymnastics
A theoretical hierarchy elements at a blistering pace
exists for the development NUTRITION and finally finish with two to
of an athlete. It starts ten minutes of high intensity

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metabolic conditioning. There is nothing sacred in this specific to any sport, the bulk of sport specific training
pattern. The magic is in the movements not the routine. has been ridiculously ineffective. The need for specificity
Be creative. is nearly completely met by regular practice and training
within the sport not in the strength and conditioning
Another favorite is to blend elements of gymnastics environment. Our terrorist hunters, skiers, mountain
and weightlifting in couplets that combine to a dramatic bikers and housewives have found their best fitness from
metabolic challenge. An example would be to perform the same regimen.
five reps of a moderately heavy back squat followed
immediately by a set of max reps pull-ups repeated three
to five times.
On other occasions we’ll take five or six elements
balanced between weightlifting, metabolic conditioning,
and gymnastics and combine them in a single circuit that
we blow through three times without a break.
We can create routines like this forever. In fact our
archives (http://www.crossfit.com/misc/arc.html) contain
four or five hundred daily workouts consciously mixed
and varied in this manner. Perusing them will give you an
idea of how we mix and modulate our key elements.
We’ve not mentioned here our penchant for jumping,
kettlebells, odd object lifting, and obstacle course work.
The recurring theme of functionality and variety clearly
suggest the need and validity for their inclusion though.
Finally, strive to blur distinctions between “cardio” and
strength training. Nature has no regard for this distinction
or any other, including our ten physical adaptations. We’ll
use weights and plyometrics training to elicit a metabolic
response and sprinting to improve strength.

Scalability and Applicability
The question regularly arises as to the applicability of a
regimen like CrossFit’s to older and deconditioned or
detrained populations. The needs of an Olympic athlete
and our grandparents differ by degree not kind. One is
looking for functional dominance the other for functional
competence. Competence and dominance manifest
through identical physiological mechanisms.
We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals
with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from
televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t
change programs.
We get requests from athletes from every sport looking
for a strength and conditioning program for their sport.
Firemen, soccer players, triathletes, boxers, and surfers
all want programs that conform to the specificity of
their needs. While admitting that there are surely needs

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WO R K CA PAC I T Y
ag e 2 0

average, best fit
ft-lbs/sec

exercise 1
power

exercise 2
exercise 3
exercise 4

time (minutes)

WORK CA PACITY
ft-lbs/sec
power

age (years)
time (minutes)



N OT E S

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Movements
Anatomy and Physiology for Jocks Anatomy and Physiology
for Jocks
Page 24

Squat Clinic
Page 27
Spine
Sacroiliac Joint Trunk: The Overhead Squat
Page 34
pelvis and spine
(trunk neutral) Shoulder Press, Push
Pelvis Press, Push Jerk
Page 42

The Deadlift
(hip extended) Page 47
Hip Joint

Femur Medicine Ball Cleans
Page 52
Leg:
The Glute-Ham
tibia and femur Developer Sit-up
(leg extended) Page 58
Tibia Knee Joint

Effective coaching requires efficient communication. This communication is
greatly aided by coach and athlete sharing a terminology for both human
movement and body parts.
We’ve developed an exceedingly simple lesson in anatomy and physiology
that we believe has improved our ability to accurately and precisely motivate
desired behaviors and enhanced our athletes’ understanding of both
movement and posture.

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CrossFit Training Guide | Movements
Anatomy and Physiology for Jocks ...continued

Trunk neutral, hip extension, leg extension Trunk extension

Trunk flexion Leg flexion

Basically, we ask that our athletes learn four body parts,
three joints (not including the spine), and two general
directions for joint movement. We cap our A&P lesson
with the essence of sports biomechanics distilled to
three simple rules.
We use a simple iconography to depict the spine, pelvis,
femur, and tibia. We show that the spine has a normal “S”
shape and where it is on the athlete’s body. We similarly
demonstrate the pelvis, femur, and tibia.
We next demonstrate the motion of three joints. First,
the knee is the joint connecting tibia and femur. Second,
working our way up, is the hip. The hip is the joint that
connects the femur to the pelvis. Third, is the sacroiliac
Hip flexion joint (SI joint), which connects the pelvis to the spine.

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Anatomy and Physiology for Jocks ...continued
(We additionally make the point that the spine is really a
whole bunch of joints.)
We explain that the femur and tibia constitute “the leg”
and that the pelvis and spine constitute “the trunk.”
That completes our anatomy lesson – now for the
physiology. We demonstrate that “flexion” is reducing
the angle of a joint and that “extension” is increasing the
angle of a joint. Pelvis and spine
stay together
Before covering our distillation of essential biomechanics
we test our students to see if everyone can flex and
extend their knee (or “leg”), hip, spine and sacroiliac joint
(or “trunk”) on cue. When it is clear that the difference
between flexion and extension is understood at each
joint we cue for combinations of behaviors, for instance,
“flex one leg and trunk but not your hip”.
Once the joints, parts, and movements are clear we offer
these three tidbits of biomechanics:
• Functional movement generally weds the spine to the
pelvis. The SI joint and spine were designed for small
range movement in multiple directions. Endeavor to
keep the trunk tight and solid for running, jumping, Power comes
squatting, throwing, cycling, etc... from the hip
• The dynamics of those movements comes from the
hip – primarily extension. Powerful hip extension
is certainly necessary and nearly sufficient for elite
athletic capacity.
• Do not let the pelvis chase the femur instead of the
spine. We’ve referred to this in the past as “muted
hip function” (Jan ‘03:5). We also call it “frozen hip”
because when the pelvis chases the femur the hip
angle remains open and is consequently powerless
to extend.
Four parts, three joints, two motions, and three rules give
our athletes and us a simple but powerful lexicon and
understanding whose immediate effect is to render our
athletes at once more “coachable”. We couldn’t ask for
Pelvis chasing
more.
femur

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Squat Clinic

up. There is nothing contrived or
artificial about this movement.
Most of the world’s inhabitants
sit not on chairs but in a squat.
Meals, ceremonies, conversation,
gatherings, and defecation are all
performed bereft of chairs or seats.
Only in the industrialized world do
we find the need for chairs, couches,
benches, and stools. This comes at a
loss of functionality that contributes
immensely to decrepitude.
Frequently, we encounter
individuals whose doctor or
chiropractor has told them not to
squat. In nearly every instance this
is pure ignorance on the part of the
practitioner. When a doctor that
doesn’t like the squat is asked, “by
what method should your patient
get off of the toilet?” they are at a
loss for words.
In a similarly misinformed manner
we have heard trainers and health
care providers suggest that the knee
should not be bent past 90 degrees.
The squat is essential to your well-being. The squat can It’s entertaining to ask proponents
both greatly improve your athleticism and keep your of this view to sit on the ground with their legs out in
hips, back, and knees sound and functioning in your front of them and then to stand without bending the
senior years. legs more than 90 degrees. It can’t be done without
some grotesque bit of contrived movement. The truth
Not only is the squat not detrimental to the knees it is is that getting up off of the floor involves a force on
remarkably rehabilitative of cranky, damaged, or delicate at least one knee that is substantially greater than the
knees. In fact, if you do not squat, your knees are not squat.
healthy regardless of how free of pain or discomfort you
are. This is equally true of the hips and back. Our presumption is that those who counsel against the
squat are either just repeating nonsense they’ve heard
The squat is no more an invention of a coach or trainer in the media or at the gym, or in their clinical practice
than is the hiccup or sneeze. It is a vital, natural, they’ve encountered people who’ve injured themselves
functional, component of your being. squatting incorrectly.
The squat, in the bottom position, is nature’s intended It is entirely possible to injure yourself squatting
sitting posture (chairs are not part of your biological incorrectly, but it is also exceedingly easy to bring the
make-up), and the rise from the bottom to the stand is squat to a level of safety matched by walking. In the
the biomechanically sound method by which we stand- accompanying article we explain how that is done.

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Squat Clinic ...continued
On the athletic front, the squat is the quintessential hip
extension exercise, and hip extension is the foundation
How to Squat
of all good human movement. Powerful, controlled hip Here are some valuable cues to a sound squat. Many
extension is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite encourage identical behaviors.
athleticism. “Necessary” in that without powerful,
controlled hip extension you are not functioning 1. Start with the feet about shoulder width apart
anywhere near your potential. “Sufficient” in the sense and slightly toed out.
that everyone we’ve met with the capacity to explosively 2. Keep your head up looking slightly above
open the hip could also run, jump, throw, and punch parallel.
with impressive force. 3. Don’t look down at all; ground is in peripheral
Secondarily, but no less important, the squat is among vision only.
those exercises eliciting a potent neuroendocrine 4. Accentuate the normal arch of the lumbar
response. This benefit is ample reason for an exercise’s curve and then pull the excess arch out with
inclusion in your regimen. the abs.
5. Keep the midsection very tight.
The Air Squat 6. Send your butt back and down.
All our athletes begin their squatting with the “air squat”, 7. Your knees track over the line of the foot.
that is, without any weight other than body weight. As 8. Don’t let the knees roll inside the foot.
a matter of terminology when we refer to the “squat” 9. Keep as much pressure on the heels as
we are talking about an unladen, bodyweight only squat. possible.
When we wish to refer to a weighted squat we will 10. Stay off of the balls of the feet.
use the term back squat, overhead squat, or front 11. Delay the knees forward travel as much as
squat referring to those distinct weighted squats. The possible.
safety and efficacy of training with the front, back, and 12. Lift your arms out and up as you descend.
overhead squats, before the weightless variant has been 13. Keep your torso elongated.
mastered retards athletic potential. 14. Send hands as far away from your butt as
When has the squat been mastered? This is a good possible.
question. It is fair to say that the squat is mastered when 15. In proﬁle, the ear does not move forward
both technique and performance are superior. This during the squat, it travels straight down.
suggests that none of the twenty-three points above 16. Don’t let the squat just sink, but pull yourself
are deficient and fast multiple reps are possible. Our down with your hip ﬂexors.
favorite standard for fast multiple reps would be the 17. Don’t let the lumbar curve surrender as you
Tabata Squat (20 seconds on/10 seconds off repeated 8 settle in to the bottom.
times) with the weakest of eight intervals being between 18. Stop when the fold of the hip is below the
18-20 reps. Don’t misunderstand - we’re looking for 18- knee – break parallel with the thigh.
20 perfect squats in twenty seconds, rest for ten and 19. Squeeze glutes and hamstrings and rise without
repeat seven more times for a total of eight intervals. any leaning forward or shifting of balance.
The most common faults to look for are surrendering of 20. Return on the exact same path as you
the lumbar curve at the bottom, not breaking the parallel descended.
plane with the thighs, slouching in the chest and shoulders, 21. Use every bit of musculature you can; there is
looking down, lifting the heels, and not fully extending the no part of the body uninvolved.
hip at the top. Don’t even think about weighted squats 22. On rising, without moving the feet, exert
until none of these faults belong to you. pressure to the outside of your feet as though
you were trying to separate the ground
A relatively small angle of hip extension (flat back) while beneath you.
indicative of a beginner’s or weak squat and caused by 23. At the top of the stroke stand as tall as you
weak hips extensors is not strictly considered a fault as possibly can.
long as the lumbar spine is in extension.

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Causes of the Bad Squat 4. Inflexibility. With super tight hamstrings you’re
screwed. This is a powerful contributor to slipping
1. Weak glute/hamstring. The glutes and hams are
out of lumbar extension and into lumbar flexion
responsible for powerful hip extension, which is
– the worst fault of all.
the key to the athletic performance universe.
5. Sloppy work, poor focus. This is not going to
2. Poor engagement, weak control, and no awareness
come out right by accident. It takes incredible
of glute and hamstring. The road to powerful,
effort. The more you work on the squat the more
effective hip extension is a three to five year
awareness you develop as to its complexity.
odyssey for most athletes.
3. Resulting attempt to squat with quads. Leg
extension dominance over hip extension is a
leading obstacle to elite performance in athletes.

Common Faults or Anatomy of a Bad Squat

Not breaking the parallel plane Rolling knees inside feet Dropping head Losing lumbar extension
(rounding the back - this may be
the worst)

Dropping the shoulders Heels off the ground Not finishing the squat - not
completing hip extension

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Therapies for Common Faults
Bar Holds: Grab a bar racked higher and closer than
your normal reach at bottom of squat, then settle into
perfect bottom with chest, head, hands, arms, shoulders,
and back higher than usual. Find balance, let go, repeat
closer and higher, etc. Lifts squat (raises head, chest,
shoulders, and torso) putting more load on heels and
glute/hams. This immediately forces a solid bottom
posture from which you have the opportunity to feel
the forces required to balance in good posture. This is
a reasonable shoulder stretch but not as good as the
overhead squat. (See page 5). This is a very effective

Box squatting: Squat to a ten inch box, rest at
bottom without altering posture, then squeeze and
rise without rocking forward. Keep perfect posture at
bottom. This is a classic bit of technology perfected at
the Westside Barbell Club. See their site and links.
Bottom to bottoms: Stay at the bottom and come
up to full extension and quickly return to bottom
spending much more time at bottom than top. For
instance sitting in the bottom for five minutes coming
up to full extension only once every five seconds, i.e.,

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sixty reps. Many will avoid the bottom like the plague. without hitting the doorway. Over time, work to move
You want to get down there, stay down there, and learn feet closer and closer to doorway without hitting. The
to like it. broomstick foundation is critical to learning the Snatch
– the world’s fastest lift.
Overhead Squats: (illustrated below) Hold broom
stick at snatch grip width directly overhead, arms String Touch: Hang something on a string, like a
locked. Triangle formed by arms and stick must stay tennis ball or shrunken head, at max reach, and touch
perfectly perpendicular as you squat. Good shoulder it at every rep. Alternate hands touching. This is a great
stretch and lifts squat. With weight, this exercise Tabata drill. This drill will knock the Tabata Interval
demands good balance and posture or loads become score (lowest number of squats in any of eight intervals)
wildly unmanageable. The overhead squat is a quick down for those people who don’t complete their squats
punisher of sloppy technique. If shoulders are too tight by not fully extending the hip.
this movement will give an instant diagnosis. You can
move into a doorway and find where the arms fall and
cause the stick to bang into doorway. Lift the arms,
head, chest, back, and hip enough to travel up and down

Squat Troubleshooting - Common Faults and Therapies

Faults Causes Therapies
Weak hip extensors, laziness, quad
Not going to parallel (not deep enough) Bottom to bottoms, Bar Holds, Box Squatting
dominance
Push feet to outside of shoe, deliberately adduct
Rolling knees inside feet Weak adductors, cheat to quads
(attempt to stretch floor apart beneath feet)
Lack of focus, weak upper back, lack of
Dropping head Bar Holds, Overhead Squats
upper back control
Lack of focus, tight hamstrings, cheat for
Losing lumbar extension Bar Holds, Overhead Squats
balance due to weak glute/hams
Lack of focus, weak upper back, lack of
Dropping shoulders Bar Holds, Overhead Squats
upper back control, tight shoulders
Cheat for balance due to weak glute/
Heels off ground Focus, Bar Holds
hams
Cheating, sets wrong neurological pattern
Incomplete hip extension String Touch
avoiding most important part of squat

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Air Squat
• Back arched
• Look straight ahead
• Keep weight on heels
• Good depth = below
parallel
• Chest high
• Midsection tight
The squat is essential to
human movement, a proven
performance enhancer and
a gateway movement to the
best exercise in strength and
conditioning.

Front Squat
• Bar rests on chest and
shoulders with loose grip
– “racked”
• Mechanics like other squats
The hardest part of the front squat
may be the “racked position”.
Practice until your wrists are
“O.K.” with it. Handstands help.
This one will force shoulder and
wrist flexibility.

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N OT E S

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The Overhead Squat

The overhead squat is the ultimate core exercise, the Ironically, the overhead squat is exceedingly simple yet
heart of the snatch, and peerless in developing effective universally nettlesome for beginners. There are three
athletic movement. common obstacles to learning the overhead squat.
The first is the scarcity of skilled instruction - outside
This functional gem trains for efficient transfer of energy of the Olympic lifting community most instruction on
from large to small body parts – the essence of sport the overhead squat is laughably horribly, wrong – dead
movement. For this reason it is an indispensable tool for wrong. The second is a weak squat - you need to have a
developing speed and power. rock-solid squat to learn the overhead squat.We strongly
The overhead squat also demands and develops functional recommend you review the December 2002 issue of
flexibility, and similarly develops the squat by amplifying the CrossFit Journal on squatting before attempting the
and cruelly punishing faults in squat posture, movement, overhead squat; you could save yourself a lot of time
and stability. in the long run. The third obstacle is starting with too
much weight - you haven’t a snowball’s chance in hell of
The overhead squat is to midline control, stability, learning the overhead squat with a bar.You’ll need to use
and balance what the clean and snatch are to power a length of dowel or plastic PVC pipe; use anything over
– unsurpassed. five pounds to learn this move and your overhead squat
will be stillborn.

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The Overhead Squat ...continued
Here is our seven step process for learning the overhead squat:
1. Start only when you have a strong squat and use a dowel or PVC pipe, not a weight.You should be able to maintain
a rock-bottom squat with your back arched, head and eyes forward, and body weight predominantly on your heels
for several minutes as a prerequisite to the overhead squat. Even a 15-pound training bar is way too heavy to learn
the overhead squat.

2. Learn locked-arm “dislocates” or “pass-throughs” with the dowel. You want to be able to move the dowel nearly
three-hundred and sixty degrees starting with the dowel down and at arms length in front of your body and then
move it in a wide arc until it comes to rest down and behind you without so much as slightly bending your arms
at any point in its travel. Start with a grip wide enough to easily pass through, and then repeatedly bring the hands
in closer until passing through presents a moderate stretch of the shoulders. This is your training grip.

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3. Be able to perform the pass-through at the top, the bottom, and everywhere in between while descending into the
squat. Practice by stopping at several points on the path to the bottom, hold, and gently, slowly, swing the dowel
from front to back, again, with locked arms. At the bottom of each squat slowly bring the dowel back and forth
moving from front to back.

4. Learn to find the frontal plane with the dowel from every position in the squat. Practice this with your eyes closed.
You want to develop a keen sense of where the frontal plane is located. This is the same drill as step 3 but this
time you are bringing the dowel to a stop in the frontal plane and holding briefly with each pass-through. Have a
training partner check to see if at each stop the dowel is in the frontal plane.

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5. Start the overhead squat by standing straight and tall with the dowel held as high as possible in the frontal plane.
You want to start with the dowel directly overhead, not behind you, or, worse yet, even a little bit in front.

6. Very slowly lower to the bottom of the squat, keeping the dowel in the frontal plane the entire time. Have a
training partner watch from your side to make sure that the dowel does not move forward or backward as
you squat to bottom. Moving slightly behind the frontal plane is O.K., but forward is dead wrong. If you cannot
keep the dowel from coming forward your grip may be too narrow. The dowel will not stay in the frontal plane
automatically; you’ll have to pull it back very deliberately as you descend.

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7. Practice the overhead squat regularly and increase load in tiny increments. We can put a 2.5-pound plate on the
dowel, then a 5, then a 5 and a 2.5, and then a 10. Next use a 15-pound training bar, but only while maintaining
perfect form. There’s no benefit to adding weight if the dowel, and later the bar, cannot be kept in the frontal
plane.

With practice, you will be able to bring your hands developing potential for athletic movement.
closer together and still keep the bar in the frontal
An average of your max back and front squat is an
plane. Ultimately you can develop enough control and
excellent measure of your core, hip, and leg strength.
flexibility to descend to a rock bottom squat with your
Your max overhead squat is an excellent measure of your
feet together and hands together without the dowel
core stability and control and ultimately your ability to
coming forward. Practicing for this is a superb warm-up
generate effective and efficient athletic power.
and cool-down drill and stretch.
Your max overhead squat will always be a fraction of the
The overhead squat develops core control by punishing
average of your max back and front squat but, ideally, with
any forward wobble of the load with an enormous and
time, they should converge rather than diverge.
instant increase in the moment about the hip and back.
When the bar is held perfectly overhead and still, which Should they diverge, you are developing hip and core
is nearly impossible, the overhead squat does not present strength, but your capacity to efficiently apply power
greater load on the hip or back, but moving too fast, along distally is reduced. In athletic pursuits you may be prone
the wrong line of action, or wiggling can bring even the to injury. Should they converge, you are developing useful
lightest loads down like a house of cards.You’ve two, and strength and power that can be successfully applied to
only two, safe options for bailing out – dumping the load athletic movements.
forward and stepping or falling backward or dumping
backward and stepping or falling forward. Both are safe The functional application or utility of the overhead
and easy. Lateral escapes are not an option. squat may not be readily apparent, but there are many
real-world occurrences where objects high enough
The difference between your overhead squat and your to get under are too heavy or not free enough to be
back or front squat is a solid measure of your midline jerked or pressed overhead yet can be elevated by first
stability and control and the precision of your squatting lowering your hips until your arms can be locked and
posture and line of action. Improving and developing your then squatting upwards.
overhead squat will fix faults not visible in the back and
front squat. Once developed, the overhead squat is a thing of beauty
– a masterpiece of expression in control, stability, balance,
As your max overhead, back, and front squat each efficient power, and utility. Get on it.
rise, their relative measure reveals much about your

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A: The torso’s angle of inclination above horizontal.
As a squat matures this angle increases. The squat
becomes more upright as the athlete’s strength
and neural “connectedness” to the posterior chain
increase. Lower angles of inclination are created in an
attempt to cantilever away from a weak posterior chain
and onto the quadriceps. While technically correct,
the lower angle is mechanically disadvantaged.
90-A: This is the angle of rotation of the arms, at the
shoulders, past overhead. The lower A is, the greater
the rotation, 90-A, required of the shoulders to keep
the bar in the frontal plane. The larger 90-A is, the
wider the grip required to allow the shoulders to
rotate to keep the bar in the frontal plane. Ultimately
the connectedness/strength of the posterior chain
will determine the width of the grip, elevation of
the squat, and degree of rotation of the shoulders.
Maturity and quality of the squat is a determinant of
all of the mechanics of the overhead squat.
g: These lines mark horizontal
f: This line defines the frontal plane. It divides the
athlete front half from back half. In the squat (as with
most weightlifting movements) the athlete endeavors
to keep the load in this plane. If a load deviates
substantially from this plane the athlete has to bring
the load back, which in turn pulls the athlete off
balance.
b: This is roughly the position for a back or front
squat.
a: This is the position for the overhead squat. With
perfect stability, movement, and alignment this position
does not increase the moment about the hip or back.
The difference in an athlete’s strength when squatting
here, overhead, as opposed to position b, the back or
front squat, is a perfect measure of instability in the
torso, legs, or shoulders, and improper line of action
in the shoulders, hips, or legs, and weak or flawed
posture in the squat.
c: This position has the load behind the frontal plane.
It can actually decrease the moment on the hip and
back. As long as balance is maintained the position is
strong.
d: This is a fatal flaw in the overhead squat. Even
slight movement in this direction greatly increases the
moment in the hip and back. Moving in this direction
with even a small load can collapse the squat like a
house of cards.

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Overhead Squat
• Grip as wide as needed
• Go slowly
• Head up!
• Stay on heels
• Break parallel
The overhead squat is an
important stretch, perfect for
warmups, integral to the snatch
and will expose most functional
inflexibility and any mechanical
deficiency in your squat.

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N OT E S

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Shoulder Press, Push Press, Push Jerk

Introduction essential to athletic success. The
region of the body from which these
Learning the progression of lifts that
movements emanate, the core, is often
moves from the shoulder press, to
referred to as the “power zone.” The
the push press, to the push jerk has
muscle groups comprising the “power
long been a staple of the CrossFit
zone” include the hip flexors, hip
regimen. This progression offers
extensors (glutes and hams), spinal
the opportunity to acquire some
erectors, and quadriceps.
essential motor recruitment patterns
found in sport and life (functionality) These lifts are enormous aids
while greatly improving strength in to developing the power zone.
the “power zone” and upper body. In Additionally, the advanced elements
terms of power zone and functional of the progression, the push press and
recruitment patterns, the push press jerk, train for and develop power and
and push jerk have no peer among speed. Power and speed are “king” in
the other presses like the “king” of sport performance. Coupling force
upper body lifts, the bench press. with velocity is the very essence
As the athlete moves from shoulder of power and speed. Some of our
press, to push press, to push jerk, favorite and most developmental
the importance of core to extremity lifts lack this quality. The push press
muscle recruitment is learned and and jerk are performed explosively
reinforced. This concept alone would justify the practice – that is the hallmark of speed and power training.Finally,
and training of these lifts. Core to extremity muscular mastering this progression gives ideal opportunity
recruitment is foundational to the effective and efficient
performance of athletic movement. to detect and eliminate a postural/mechanical fault that
plagues more athletes than not – the pelvis “chasing” the
The most common errors in punching, jumping, throwing, leg during hip flexion. (See article) This fault needs to be
and a multitude of other athletic movements typically searched out and destroyed. The push press performed
express themselves as a violation of this concept.Because under great stress is the perfect tool to conjure up this
good athletic movement begins at the core and radiates performance wrecker so it can be eliminated.
to the extremities, core strength is absolutely

Mechanics
1. The Shoulder Press
a. Set up:Take bar from supports or clean
to racked position. The bar sits on the
shoulders with the grip slightly wider
than shoulder width. The elbows are
below and in front of bar. Stance is
approximately hip width. Head is tilted
slightly back allowing bar to pass.
b. Press: Press the bar to a position
directly overhead.

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Shoulder Press, Push Press, Push Jerk ...continued
2. The Push Press c. Drive: With no pause at the bottom of the dip, the
hips and legs are forcefully extended.
a. Set up: The set up is the same as the shoulder d. Press: As the hips and legs complete extension
press. the shoulders and arms forcefully press the bar
b. Dip: Initiate the dip by bending the hips and knees overhead until the arms are fully extended.
while keeping the torso upright. The dip will be
between 1/5 and ¼ of a squat in depth.

3. The Push Jerk:
a. Set up: The set up is the same as for the shoulder catching the bar in a partial squat with the arms
press and push press. fully extended overhead.
b. Dip: The dip is identical to the push press e. Finish: Stand or Squat to fully erect with bar directly
c. Drive: The drive is identical to the push press overhead identical to terminal position in push
d. Press and Dip: This time instead of just pressing, press and shoulder press.
you press and dip a second time simultaneously,

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The Role of the Abs in the Overhead Lifts athletes to think of every exercise as an ab exercise but
in the overhead lifts it’s absolutely essential to do so. It
Athletically, the abdominals primary role is midline
is easy to see when an athlete is not sufficiently engaging
stabilization, not trunk flexion. They are critical to
the abs in an overhead press – the body arches so as
swimming, running, cycling, and jumping, but never is
to push the hips, pelvis, and stomach ahead of the bar.
their stabilizing role more critical than when attempting
Constant vigilance is required of every lifter to prevent
to drive loads overhead, and, of course, the heavier the
and correct this postural deformation.
load the more critical the abs role becomes.We train our

Summary The second dip on the push jerk will become lower and
lower as you both master the technique and increase
From shoulder press to push jerk the movements
the load. At some point in your development, the loads
become increasingly more athletic, functional, and suited
will become so substantial that the upper body cannot
to heavier loads. The progression also increasingly relies
contribute but a fraction to the movement at which point
on the power zone. In the shoulder press the power zone
the catch becomes very low and an increasing amount of
is used for stabilization only. In the push press the power
the lift is accomplished by the overhead squat.
zone provides not only stability, but also the primary
impetus in both the dip and drive. In the push jerk the On both the push press and jerk the “dip” is critical to
power zone is called on for the dip, drive, second dip, and the entire movement. It may come as a surprise to some
squat. The role of the hip is increased in each exercise. that the dip is not a relaxed fall but an explosive dive.The
stomach is held very tightly and the resultant turn around
With the push press you will be able to drive overhead as
from dip to drive is sudden, explosive, and violent.
much as 30% more weight than with the shoulder press.
The push jerk will allow you to drive as much as 30% Try This:
more overhead than you would with the push press.
Start with 95 pounds and push press or jerk 15 straight
In effect the hip is increasingly recruited through the reps rest thirty seconds and repeat for total of five
progression of lifts to assist the arms and shoulders in sets of 15 reps each. Go up in weight only when you
raising loads overhead. After mastering the push jerk you can complete all five sets with only thirty seconds rest
will find that it will unconsciously displace the push press between each and do not pause in any set.
as your method of choice when going overhead.

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And This:
Repetition one: shoulder press, repetition two: push press,
repetition three: push jerk. Repeat until shoulder press is
impossible then continue until push press is impossible
then five more push jerk. Start with 95 pounds and go up
only when the total reps exceed thirty.
Check out these sites for more push press technique:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/
PushPress.html
http://www.hhs.csus.edu/homepages/khs/Kilogram4/
public/Exercises/table_of_contents_Exercises.htm

Push Press
• Dip (quick drop of the hip)
• Drive (rebound extension of leg
and hip)
• Press
A gateway movement to the jerks, the
push press is an important introduction
to the “core to extremity” nature characteristic of most functional movement.

Push Jerk
• Dip (quick drop of the hip) • Rise to full extension (extend hip and leg again)
• Drive (rebounding extension of leg and hip) • Lower bar to shoulders and repeat
• Press and dip (press overhead while dropping hip More functional, efficient, and effective than the push-press,
again) this is an important lift. The push-jerk with a great cycling
time is a powerful conditioning tool.

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The Deadlift

The deadlift is unrivaled in its simplicity and impact while your deadlift up can nudge your other lifts upward,
unique in its capacity for increasing head to toe strength. especially the Olympic lifts.
Regardless of whether your fitness goals are to “rev up” Fear of the deadlift abounds, but like fear of the squat, it is
your metabolism, increase strength or lean body mass, groundless. No exercise or regimen will protect the back
decrease body fat, rehabilitate your back, improve athletic from the potential injuries of sport and life or the certain
performance, or maintain functional independence as a ravages of time like the deadlift. (See the inset “Doc &
senior, the deadlift is a marked shortcut to that end. Coach” on page 3)
To the detriment of millions, the deadlift is infrequently We recommend deadlifting at near max loads once per
used and seldom seen either by most of the exercising week or so and maybe one other time at loads that
public and/or, believe it or not, by athletes. would be insignificant at low reps. Be patient and learn to
celebrate small infrequent bests.
It might be that the deadlift’s name has scared away the
masses; its older name, “the healthlift,” was a better Major benchmarks would certainly include bodyweight,
choice for this perfect movement. twice bodyweight, and three times bodyweight deadlifts
representing a “beginning,” “good,” and “great” deadlifts
In its most advanced respectively.
application the deadlift
is prerequisite to, and a For us, the guiding principles
component of, “the world’s of proper technique rest
fastest lift,” the snatch, and on three pillars: orthopedic
“the world’s most powerful The deadlift keeps company safety, functionality, and
lift,” the clean; but it is also, mechanical advantage.
quite simply, no more than with standing, running, jumping, and Concerns for orthopedic
the safe and sound approach stresses and limited
by which any object should throwing for functionality functionality are behind our
be lifted from the ground. rejection of wider than hip
but imparts quick and to shoulder width stances.
The deadlift, being no more While acknowledging the
than picking a thing off the prominent athletic advantage remarkable achievements of
ground, keeps company many powerlifters with the
with standing, running, like no other exercise. super wide deadlift stance
jumping, and throwing for we feel that its limited
functionality but imparts functionality (we can’t
quick and prominent
safely, walk, clean, or snatch
athletic advantage like no from “out there”) and the
other exercise. Not until increased resultant forces
the clean, snatch, and squat are well developed will the on the hip from wider stances warrant only infrequent
athlete again find as useful a tool for improving general and moderate to light exposures to wider stances.
physical ability.
Experiment and work regularly with alternate, parallel,
The deadlift’s primal functionality, whole-body nature, and and hook grips. Explore carefully and cautiously variances
mechanical advantage with large loads suggest its strong in stance, grip width, and even plate diameter – each
neuroendocrine impact, and for most athletes the deadlift variant uniquely stresses the margins of an all-important
delivers such a quick boost in general strength and sense functional movement.This is an effective path to increased
of power that its benefits are easily understood. hip capacity.
If you want to get stronger, improve your deadlift. Driving

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The Deadlift ...continued
Consider each of the following cues to a sound deadlift.
Many motivate identical behaviors, yet each of us responds
differently to different cues.
• Natural stance with feet under hips
• Symmetrical grip whether parallel, hook, or
alternate
• Hands placed where arms won’t interfere with
legs while pulling from the ground
• Bar above juncture of little toe and foot
• Shoulders slightly forward of bar
• Inside of elbows facing one another
• Chest up and inflated
• Abs tight
• Arms locked and not pulling
Mixed Grip
• Shoulders pinned back and down
• Lats and triceps contracted and pressing against
one another
• Keep your weight on your heels
• Bar stays close to legs and essentially travels
straight up and down
• Torso’s angle of inclination remains constant
while bar is below the knee
• Head straight ahead
• Shoulders and hips rise at same rate when bar is
below the knee
• Arms remain perpendicular to ground until
lockout

Parallel Grip

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The Deadlift ...continued

Doc and Coach
(Transcript of actual conversation)
Doc: Many of my patients shouldn’t be doing the deadlift.
Coach: Which ones are those, Doc?
Doc: Many are elderly, marginally ambulatory, and frail/feeble and osteoporotic.
Coach: Doc, would you let such a patient, let’s say an old woman, walk to the store to get cat food?
Doc: Sure, If the walk weren’t too far, I’d endorse it.
Coach: All right, suppose after walking home she came up to the front door and realized that her keys were
in her pocket. Is she medically cleared to set the bag down, get her keys out of her pocket, unlock the
door, pick the bag back up, and go in?
Doc: Of course, that’s essential activity
Coach: As I see it the only difference between us is that I want to show her how to do this “essential activity”
safely and soundly and you don’t.
Doc: I see where you’re going. Good point.
Coach: Doc, we haven’t scratched the surface.

Deadlift
• Keep back arched
• Arms don’t pull, they’re just
straps
• Bar travels along legs
• Push with the heels
The deadlift, like the squat, is
essential functional movement
and carries a potent hormonal
punch. This is core training like
no other.

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Sumo Deadlift Highpull
• Start on ground
• Wide, “Sumo” stance
• Take narrow grip on bar
• Keep back arched
• Pull with hips and legs only until both are
at full extension
• Flick hip near full extension
• Powerfully shrug
• Immediately pull with arms continuing the
bars travel up
• Keep the elbows as far above your hands
as possible
• Bring the bar right up under the chin briefly
• Lower to hang
• Lower to ground
For range of motion, line of action, and length
and speed of action, the Sumo Deadlift High Pull
is a great conjugate to the “Thruster”. At low
loads this is our favorite substitute for Concept
II Rowing.

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Medicine Ball Cleans

The clean and jerk and the snatch, the Olympic lifts, present When examining the reasons offered for not teaching the
the toughest learning challenge in all of weight training. Olympic lifts we cannot help but suspect that the lifts’
Absent these lifts, there are no complex movements detractors have no first hand (real) experience with them.
found in the weight room. By contrast, the average We want to see someone, anyone, do a technically sound
collegiate gymnast has learned hundreds of movements clean or snatch at any weight and then offer a rationale
at least as complex, difficult, and nuanced as the clean for the movement’s restricted applicability. Were they
or snatch. In large part because most weight training is dangerous or inappropriate for any particular population,
exceedingly simple, learning the Olympic lifts is for too we’d find coaches intimate with the lifts articulating the
many athletes a shock of frustration and incompetence. nature of their inappropriateness. We do not.
Sadly, many coaches, trainers, and athletes have avoided At CrossFit everyone learns the Olympic lifts – that’s
these movements precisely because of their technical right, everyone.
complexity. Ironically, but not surprisingly, the technical
We review here the bad rap hung on the Olympic lifts
complexity of the quick lifts exactly contain the seeds
because we’ve made exciting progress working past the
of their worth. They train for, that is, they simultaneously
common misconceptions and fears surrounding their
demand and develop strength, power, speed, flexibility,
introduction, execution, and applicability to general
coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy.

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Medicine Ball Cleans ...continued

The Medicine Ball Clean

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populations. The medicine ball clean has been integral to a matter of minutes we then shift our efforts to front
our successes. squatting with the ball. After a little practice with the
squat we move to the clean. (A similar approach is used
In the June 2003 issue of the CrossFit Journal we covered to teach the shoulder press, push press, and push jerk.)
the foundation of one of the lifts, the clean. In that issue
we made brief mention of our use of the medicine ball The clean is then reduced to “pop the hip and drop
to teach the clean. This month we revisit and update that – catch it in a squat” and it’s done. The devil’s in the
work. details, but the group is cleaning in five minutes. It’s a
legitimate, functional clean. This clean may in fact have
The Dynamax medicine ball is a soft, large, pillowy ball clearer application, than cleaning with a bar, to heaving a
that ranges in weight from four to twenty-eight pounds bag of cement into a pick-up or hucking up a toddler to
available in twopound increments to twenty pounds. It is put in a car seat.
unthreatening, even friendly.
The faults universal to lifting initiates are all there in as
Working with Dynamax balls we introduce the starting plain sight with the ball as with the bar. Any subtleties of
position and posture of the deadlift then the lift itself. In

Common Faults ...and Their Corrections

Heels up Back rounded Head down

Corrected starting position: heels Arms bent Pulling too high
down, head up, back arched

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Common Faults ...and Their Corrections (cont’d)

No hip extension No shrug Curling the ball

Corrections: Arms locked, full Low slow elbows in catch Correction:
extension, shrug, not pulling too Catch with elbows high
high, ball kept close to body

Arms bent overhead Arms not straight overhead Corrected overhead position

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matured and modern bar technique not possible with With several weeks practice, a group will go from
the ball are not immediate concerns, and their absence is “spastic” to a precision medicine ball drill team in perfect
plainly justified by the imparted understanding that this synch. In fact, that is how we conduct the training effort.
is functional stuff and applicable to all objects we may
We put the athletes in a small circle, put the best clean
desire to heave from ground to chest.
available in the center as leader, and ask the athletes to
In a group of mixed capacities the newbies get the light mirror the center. Screw-ups are clearly evident by being
balls and the veterans get the heavy ones. In thirty rep in postures or positions out of synch. Attention is riveted
doses whoever ends up with the twenty-eight pound on a good model while duplicating the movement in real
ball is going to get a workout regardless of their abilities. time. The time required for “paralysis through analysis” is
The heavier balls impart a nasty wallop far beyond the wonderfully not there. Thinking becomes doing.
same work done with a bar or dumbbell of equal weight;
Individuals generally impervious to verbal cues become
considerable additional effort is expended adducting the
self-correcting of faults made apparent by watching and
arms, which is required to “pinch” the ball and keep it
comparing to others. It is not uncommon for shouts
from slipping.
of correction to be lobbed across the circle from
We use the medicine ball clean in warm-ups and cool participant to participant. The number of coaching cues
downs to reinforce the movement and the results are and discussion becomes reduced to the minimum and
clearly manifest in the number and rate of personal essential as the process is turned into a child’s game of
records we’re seeing in bar cleans with all our athletes. “follow the leader”.
Yes, the benefit transfers to the bar - even for our better
Where this becomes “dangerous”, “bad for the joints”,
lifters!
“too technical to learn” or any other nonsense routinely
In the duration of a warm-up there are uncountable uttered about weightlifting we don’t know.
opportunities to weed out bad mechanics. Pulling with
the arms, not finishing hip extension, failing to shrug,
pulling too high, lifting the heels in the first pull, curling
the ball, losing back extension, looking down, catching
high then squatting, slow dropping under, slow elbows…
all the faults are there.

We review here the bad rap hung on the Olympic lifts because
we’ve made exciting progress working past the common
misconceptions and fears surrounding their introduction,
execution, and applicability to general populations.
The medicine ball clean has been integral to our successes.

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The Glute-Ham Developer Sit-up

We have four glute-ham developers (GHDs) (http:// The workout left Matt sick in the immediate aftermath.
store.sorinex.com/product_p/ghb-1.htm) at This was a surprise for sure but nothing prepared Matt
CrossFit Santa Cruz. We use them for back extensions for what came the following morning: “I awoke later
and sit-ups. This month we explore the glute-ham without the slightest ability to sit up. It was as if the six
developer sit-up, once more commonly referred to as a pack was totally gone, though all ribs remained.The curse
“roman chair sit-up.” had left me merely able to roll over and slither like a
snake off the edge of the bed. From there I had to use my
The GHD sit-up was once a gym staple. In the gym today
arms in humiliating ways to move about. I avoided being
only rarely will someone be found doing other than back
seen. A week passed, and I began to revitalize.”
extensions on the GHD. In no small measure the decline
of the GHD or roman chair sit-up coincided with the The worst was yet to come! In the wake of Matt’s
advent of the crunch. The crunch came to fashion on being dethroned as King Sit-Up, his abs had swollen and
warnings and claims in popular media of the traditional distended markedly. This kid looked fat and sunburned
sit-up’s destructive impact on the back. where the week before he’d been ripped and lily white.
As the swelling subsided, his scrotum grew and grew and
It was argued that the GHD style sit-up’s primary movers
grew. Matt’s father, John, is an ER doc, so he was consulted.
were the hip flexors and not the abs and consequently
He laughed himself to near seizure. (Our kind of doc.)
this sit-up, and sit-ups like it, were actually not good
abdominal exercises. It was further argued that recruiting Before the swelling stopped Matt’s scrotum had become
the hip flexors to lift the torso was destructive to the the size of a small and very ugly cantaloupe.Why we have
lumbar spine. no pictures we’ll never understand.

Once every couple of years we get lucky and find an Apparently the fluids that had swollen Matt’s abs had
exercise physiologist to repeat this message of poor ab drained into the inguinal canal and filled the scrotum.
recruitment and lower back destruction standing in front Oh, and apparently GHD sit-ups recruit the abs. Matt is
of the GHD apparatus.What we do is ask them to mount convinced.
the GHD and perform a set of thirty sit-ups for us while
The lesson we’ve drawn from the GHD sit-up is that in
rehashing the poor recruitment claim.
spite of the primacy of hip flexors over trunk flexors,
The fun comes the following day when the report comes or the abs, in this sit-up it recruits the abs powerfully
back from the exercise scientist that they are almost too in two ways. First, the movement takes the trunk from
sore to sit upright. Laughing, walking, standing, and moving hyperextension to full flexion, albeit with negligible load.
are all excruciating. Where are they hit? The abs. (No crunch can match this range of motion.) Second,
the role of the abs in this sit-up is powerful and largely
Our favorite story along these same lines comes from
isometric—i.e., they stabilize the torso from undue
Matt Weaver (www.speed101.com), arguably the world’s
extension.
fastest human being. On top of being known for hitting 85
mph on a bike, Matt was crowned “King Sit-Up” in high This second point is consistent with our belief that
school for completing 100 perfect-form bodyslapping sit- the most powerful, functional, and developmental
ups in one minute. In one of his earlier visits to CrossFit contractions of the trunk are isometric, not isokinetic.
Santa Cruz he found himself in a multi-station circuit with Our favorite ab exercises are predominantly stabilization
a group of CrossFit veterans that included twenty-one or isometric exercises. The GHD sit-up, the L sit, and the
reps of GHD sit-ups with a full range of motion, hands overhead squat share this stabilization role. The lack of
reaching back to the floor. trunk flexion in these moves hides their potency from
the uninitiated.

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The Glute-Ham Developer Sit-up ...continued
Our experience with athletes and static hip flexion work stalls the sit-up but the pelvis and low back have solid
like the L sit and more dynamic exercises like the GHD contact with the ground so the hip flexors complete
sit-up have led us to several conclusions: the movement. The natural, biphasic, one-two count of
the military sit-up is a repeat of upper abs throwing the
1. The hip flexors’ purchase and strength suggest their
movement to the hip flexors where they complete the
importance to functional movement. One expert
movement. Upper abs, hip flexors. Upper abs, hip flexors.
calculated that they are capable of generating many
No effective middle ab work.
times the force that the abs can.To think that muscles
with that much mechanical advantage should not be This deficiency of middle ab work, and consequently
used to that advantage is ridiculous. strength in the middle rectus, and the violence of the toss
from upper to lower abs may have presented unhealthy
2. Most modern athletes are hip flexion weak and it
wear and tear on the lumbar spine. This understanding
affects most performance.
came, in part, from some brilliant work by Koch, Blom,
3. Weak hip flexors assure weak abs—especially and Jacob in producing the “Ab Mat” (http://www.
weak lower abs—and no amount of crunches can backbuilder.com/abmat_situps.htm).
compensate. (It seems that every gym has an abs class
Second, in watching people perform situps on the GHD
instructor who has a prominent lower abdominal
we note that very few employ the full complement of hip
pooch. Ask her to hold one knee up while standing
flexors in sitting up. The hip flexors include the iliopsoas
on the other leg and to resist your pushing the knee
and rectus femoris.The iliopsoas originates at the lumbar
downward with a couple of fingers. It’s easy to push
spine and attaches to the femur. In the sit-up it pulls the
the knee down, and it shouldn’t be).
athlete to seated by the lumbar spine, potentially creating
4. Without static contraction/stabilization exercises, nettlesome shear forces on the spine. Rectus femoris is
the abs never learn to perform their most critical, the top piece of the quadriceps and it both extends the
functional, role—midline stabilization. leg and flexes the hip. Rectus femoris originates at the
pelvis and attaches to the patella via the patellar tendon.
What about the danger to the lower back purported to In the sit-up rectus femoris pulls the athlete to seated
be induced by strong hip flexor work? We have neither from both the pelvis and the iliac spine. The activation of
induced nor seen this damage. We do however have rectus femoris during the GHD sit-up does two important
some hunches as to how this might have occurred in things. First, it adds significant force to the movement.The
communities where roman chair sit-ups and traditional acceleration of the torso to upright is so forceful when
military PT sit-ups were in wide acceptance. rectus femoris is engaged that our trainers can detect its
First, in military and law enforcement PT where the sit- use or lack of participation from their peripheral vision.
up was king, it was and is essentially a biphasic movement. What it adds to the movement is obvious in speed and
With feet anchored and knees bent, this situp comes up acceleration of the torso. Second, rectus femoris reduces
with a slight pause in the middle of the action. Look at the shear force on the lumbar vertebrae by pulling from
video of someone doing these sit-ups and you’ll see the the pelvis and iliac spine instead of the lumbar spine.
pause. When coaching the GHD sit-up, we cue for the athlete to
What is happening is that the upper back makes solid sharply extend the legs while coming up.The difference is
contact with the ground under the upper abs and so they obvious to everyone watching when rectus femoris kicks
can flex the trunk and fulcrum off the contact point. As in. Those who have identified the GHD sit-up and other
the sit-up continues, the middle abs flex the torso but the feet-anchored sit-ups as a source of low-back pain seem
lumbar curve surrenders without finding resistance and to always pull with the iliopsoas alone and never use
at full middle rectus contraction the spine is neutral and rectus femoris. Those
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-
not flexed. The contraction occurred with no real load; who’ve had problems video/cfj-oct-2005/glute-
the belly and back just sank closer to the ground. This with low back pain ham-demo.wmv

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The Glute-Ham Developer Sit-up ...continued

from GHD or roman chair sit-ups will find
considerable relief by training to use the full
complement of hip flexors in performing
sit-ups.

Third, all too often communities that have
held the sit-up in high regard have typically
neglected hip extension work. Military and
police physical training has historically been
enamored of the sit-up. It is one of the yard
sticks by which police and military fitness
is traditionally measured. In most of these
programs there are no squats, no deadlifts,
no good mornings, no stiff legged deadlifts,
and no back or hip extension exercises.
The posterior chain in these communities
typically sees no work other than running
or perhaps burpees. What this imbalance of regular hip We also caution against unbridled bouts on the GHD
flexion exercises with little hip extension and no full- for newcomers to avoid the Matt Weaver cantaloupe
range hip extension portends for injury we don’t know. syndrome described above. This is a potent exercise and
The imbalance can’t be a good thing, however. Regardless, it has sidelined dozens of strong, strong, athletes for a
we see our back and hip extension drills on the GHD to few days to a week.
be indispensable to lower back health.
We start newcomers out on the GHD sit-up by spotting
to make sure that they can come down to parallel
without collapsing. (Last year, and very briefly, we trained
a Stanford University coach who made a huge point of
sharing his focus on core training on the Swiss ball.When
we got him on the GHD, he fell back off of the horizon
and couldn’t get up. He had to be deadlifted back to
horizontal.) If our athlete is afflicted with a core as weak
as the Stanford coach’s, we start him on the AbMat and
reintroduce the GHD sit-up at a later date—when more
rudimentary strength has been developed.

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Nutrition
Food Food
Page 62

Glycemic Index
Page 64

Meal Plans
Page 66

“What a long strange trip it’s been”

- Grateful Dead
CrossFit has been an active combatant in the diet wars. For decades it has been
an exciting world of “us” versus “them”.
“We” were the low carb, low calorie, good fat camp and “they” were the low
fat, low calorie, high carb opposition. The battle was for the hearts and minds
of the public on the very personal and private matter of nutrition - what diet
makes us healthy?

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CrossFit Training Guide | Nutrition
Food ...continued
Sheldon Margin, publisher of the UC Berkley Wellness them marvelously effective.
Letter, a leader of “them”, accepted this characterization
Doctor Robert Atkins deserves credit for suffering
of battle lines when we presented it to him in 1996. In
unimaginable abuse while remaining steadfast, Gary Taubes
1996 Dr. Atkins and Barry Sears were both publicly
for being the first journalist to expose the fraud and
and regularly referred to as “quacks” and “frauds” by
origins of the low fat position and for later making the
mainstream physicians, journalists, and nutritionists. While
point that the science may have been behind Dr. Atkins all
this was something that Sears would have to get used to,
along, Barry Sears for super tuning a responsible diet, and
Dr. Atkins had been dealing with vicious assaults on his
Dr. Uffe Ravnksov for exposing the fraud and slop in anti-
life’s work and character since publishing his Dr. Atkins’
fat research so effectively that he needed to be completely
Diet Revolution in 1972.
ignored to be dealt with.
We write here today in 2003 gloating. Gloating, because it
But the true heroes are each and every one of you who
is our perception that we are decisively winning the diet
thought for yourselves, ignored the chorus of doctors,
war. In the public square, the realization that carbs, not
nutritionists, journalists and neighbors bleating like
fat, make you sick and fat is spreading rapidly. Spreading
sheep, “faaaat is baaad”, followed the logic of reduced
like truth unobstructed. The position that carbohydrate
carbohydrate consumption, and then critically and most
is essentially toxic at common consumption levels was a
importantly, tried the diet. You try one diet and you feel
truth suppressed by political and industrial corruption of
great, you try another and your teeth fall out. Who needs
science and journalism. Suppressing truth is like holding a
a doctor?
beach ball under water; it takes constant work against a
tireless resistance. They have slipped and our position sits Patients are telling their doctors about the Zone and
like the beach ball on top of the water, where everyone Protein Power and Atkins, not the other way around.
can see it. Doctors everywhere are themselves doing the Zone and
Atkins on the advice of their patients – on seeing their
We interpret our position of being clearly visible, as winning
patients’ successes. The peer reviewed literature remains
the diet wars because our diet better models human
unread, but, the reverberation of the good diet books
nutrition and will always trump the opposition’s model
message is working its way from author to reader to
if tested. Ours works, theirs doesn’t. Where theirs does
doctor and finally back to patients.
work, ours works better.Their success required our being
kept out of the marketplace. Underwater preferably. Perhaps, this process isn’t so unusual but merely another
example of the efficiency of decentralized networks. In any
In countless exchanges with doctors, trainers, nutritionists,
case it is consistent with this bit of philosophy from Dr.
and family we shared our position and the common
Uffe Ravnskov’s epilogue to The Cholesterol Myths:
response was, “do you have any science? I need science.”
We had science and showed it proudly. No one would read “After a lecture, a journalist asked me how she could be
it. The cry for peer-reviewed evidence is almost always a certain that my information was not just as biased as that
smoke screen. The guys who write it read it – the rest of the cholesterol campaign. At first I did not know what
pretend. If you can train people to unquestioningly accept to say. Afterwards I found the answer.
proposition X then you’ve largely inoculated these same
folks from even considering “not X”. She could not be certain. Everyone must gain the truth in
an active way. If you want to know something you must
The science supporting our position while being produced look at all the premises yourself, listen to all the arguments
at an increasing rate, was always there and is not responsible yourself, and then decide for yourself what seems to be
for the dramatic change over the last two years. the most likely answer. You may easily be led astray if you
ask the authorities to do this work for you.
What has changed is that the public bought some 100
million diet books over the last thirty years running the This is also the answer to those who wonder why even
most important and successful science experiment ever honest scientists are misled. And it is also the answer
conducted. To a constant and universal barraging of the to those who after reading this book, ask the same
fat is bad mantra from public health authorities, millions question.”
of people with no clinical or scientific credentials tried
regimens found in “dangerous” books and found some of

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Glycemic Index

For several decades now, bad science and bad politics consumption to hyperinsulinemia and coronary heart
have joined hands to produce what is arguably the disease is compelling if not overwhelmingly convincing.
most costly error in the history of science - the low
Additionally, excess consumption of carbohydrate
fat diet. This fad diet has cost millions unnecessary
may soon be shown to be linked to Alzheimer’s, aging,
death and suffering from heart disease, diabetes and, it
cancers and other disease through a process known as
increasingly seems, a host of cancers and other chronic
“glycosylation”.
and debilitating illnesses.
At any rate, a search on “Google” for “hyperinsulinemia”
Gary Taubes, the esteemed science writer, has written
reveals hundreds of ills linked to this metabolic
two brilliant and highly regarded pieces on exactly
derangement. The rapidly growing awareness of the
this subject. The first appeared in Science Magazine in
consequences of elevated blood sugar is one of the more
1999 and the second in the New York Times just this
promising avenues of medical advancement today.
summer.
Though frightening, the diseases brought about through
A new age is dawning in nutrition: one where the culprit
hyperinsulinemia can easily be avoided by minimizing
is no longer seen as dietary fat but excess consumption
carbohydrate consumption - specifically carbohydrate
of carbohydrate - particularly refined or processed
that gives substantial rise to blood sugar and consequently
carbohydrate. In fact, there’s an increasing awareness
insulin levels.
that excess carbohydrates play a dominant role in
chronic diseases like obesity, coronary heart disease, There is a singular measure of carbohydrate that gives
many cancers, and diabetes. This understanding comes exactly this information - “Glycemic Index.” Glycemic
directly from current medical research. Amazingly, the index is simply a measure of a food’s propensity to raise
near universal perception that dietary fat is the major blood sugar. Avoid high glycemic foods and you’ll avoid
culprit in obesity has no scientific foundation. (See many, if not most, of the ills associated with diet.
Taubes, above.)
Rick Mendosa has published one of the most complete
There’s a family of popular diets and diet books based glycemic indices available anywhere with a listing of over
on decreasing carbohydrate consumption. Most of them 750 common food items giving values based on glucose’s
are excellent. score of 100.
Chief among these books are Barry Sears’ Enter the We can increase the ease and utility of using such a list
Zone, Michael Eades’ Protein Power, Atkins’ Dr. Atkins’ by dividing commonly eaten foods into two groups –
Diet Revolution, Cordain’s The Paleo Diet, and the one of high-glycemic foods, “bad foods”, and one of low-
Hellers’ Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. Each of these is glycemic foods, or “good foods.” This is the rationale
an honest and accurate chronicling the effects of the behind the CrossFit Shopping List.
low fat, fad diet.and they all offer a rational, effective
regimen for avoiding dietary ills. For those technically You may notice that the “good foods” are typically
inclined, the mechanism by which excess carbohydrate meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, whereas
causes disease state is known as “hyperinsulinemia.” the bad foods include many manmade or processed
Hyperinsulinemia is the chronic and acute elevation foodstuffs. There are some notable exceptions, but the
of insulin as a result of habitual consumption of excess trend is certainly instructive.
carbohydrate. High glycemic foods, or “bad foods”, are typically
The list of ills linked to hyperinsulinemia is staggering starchy, sweet, or processed foods like bread, pasta,
and growing. Just recently colorectal cancer was added rice, potato, grains, and desserts.
to the probable list of hyperinsulinemia-mediated More than a few observers have pointed out that low-
diseases. The evidence linking excess carbohydrate glycemic foods have limited shelf life and are found on

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Glycemic Index ...continued

CrossFit Shopping List
“Good Foods” - Low Glycemic “Bad Foods” - High Glycemic
Water Avocado Oil Acorn Squash Prunes Pancakes
Oatmeal Tofu Peanuts Baked Beans Raisins Popcorn
Eggs Tomato Swordfish Beets Fruit Juice Rice
Protein Powder Lettuce Tuna Steak Black Eyed Peas Vegetable Juice Rolls
Peanut Butter Onion Tomato Sauce Butternut Squash Bagel Taco Shell
Tahini Mushroom Spinach Cooked Carrots Biscut Tortillas
Olives Cucumber Carrots Corn Bread Crumbs Udon Noodles
Beef Blueberries Orange French Fries Bread Waffle
Cheese Milk Pear Hubbard Squash Steak Sauce BBQ Sauce
Salsa Broccoli Pineapple Lima Beans Bulgar Ketchup
Black Beans Zucchini Brussel Sprouts Parsnips Sweet Relich Cocktail Sauce
Kidney Beans Apple Eggplant Peas Cereal Honey
Ground Turkey Grape Sauerkraut Pinto Beans Cornstarch Jelly
Soy Sausage Plum Hot Dogs Potato Croissant Sugar
Chicken Shrimp Chick Peas Refried Beans Crouton Maple Syrup
Turkey Sausage Mayonnaise Lamb Sweet Potato Doughnut Teriaki Sauce
Salmon Plain Yogurt Pork Turnip English Muffin Chocolate
Turkey Deli Meat Dill Pickles Banana Granola Corn Chips
Canned Tuna Ham Soy Beans Cranberries Grits Ice Cream
Canned Chicken Soy Milk Asparagus Dates Melba Toast Potato Chips
Soy Burgers Spirulina Cantaloupe Figs Muffin Pretzels
Cottage Cheese Tempeh Strawberry Guava Noodles Saltine Crakers
Almonds Egg Substitute Peach Mango Instant Oatmeal Molasses
Macadamia Nuts Papaya

the perimeter of the grocery store where the high-
glycemic foods have a longer shelf life and are typically
found within the grocery store’s aisles.
Though this approach is an oversimplification of much of
nutritional science, it has the power to deliver nearly all of
what more detailed and elaborate regimens offer such as
those by Sears, Eades, Cordain, Atkins, and the Hellers.
Eat more of the “good foods” and less of the “bad foods”
and you’ll garner much of what the more responsible
eating plans offer. Many of our friends have radically
transformed their health through this single tool.

65 of 94



Meal Plans

Wild Black Bass with Artichoke Ragout
Created by Eric Lau - Chef/Owner of Oswald, Santa Cruz, California.

Our recommendation to “eat meat and vegetables, nuts Diet is critical to optimizing human function, and our
and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar” is adequate clinical experience leads us to believe that Barry Sears’s
to the task of preventing the scourges of diet-induced “Zone diet” closely models optimal nutrition.
disease, but more accurate and precise prescription is
CrossFit’s best performers are Zone eaters. When our
necessary to optimize physical performance.
second-tier athletes commit to “strict” adherence to
Finely tuned, a good diet will increase energy, sense of the Zone parameters, they generally become top-tier
well-being, and acumen, while simultaneously flensing fat performers quickly. It seems that the Zone diet accelerates
and packing on muscle. When properly composed, the and amplifies the effects of the CrossFit regimen.
right diet can nudge every important quantifiable marker
Unfortunately, the full benefit of the Zone diet is largely
continued... pg. 16
for health in the right direction.

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Meal Plans ...continued
Choose which body type best fits you to determine your block
What is a Block? requirement.
A block is a unit of measure used
to simplify the process of making Break- Total
Lunch Snack Dinner Snack Body Type
balanced meals. fast Blocks

7 grams of protein = 1 block of 2 2 2 2 2 10 Small female
protein
9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block 3 3 1 3 1 11 Medium female
of carbohydrate
3 3 2 3 2 13 Large female
1.5 grams of fat = 1 block of fat
(This assumes that there is about 1.5 Athletic, well
4 4 1 4 1 14
grams of fat in each block of protein, muscled female
so the total amount of fat needed
4 4 2 4 2 16 Small male
per 1 block meal is 3 grams.)
When a meal is composed of equal 5 5 1 5 1 17 Medium male
blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and
fat, it is 40% of its calories are from
5 5 2 5 2 19 Large male
carbohydrate, 30% from protein and
30% from fat.
4 4 4 4 4 20 X-Large male
Pages 4 and 5 list common foods
in their macronutrient category
(protein, carbohydrate, or fat), along 5 5 3 5 3 21 Hard gainer
with a conversion of measurements
to blocks. 5 5 4 5 4 23 Large hard gainer

This “block chart” is a convenient Athletic, well
tool for making balanced meals. 5 5 5 5 5 25
muscled male
Simply choose 1 item from the
protein list, 1 item from the
carbohydrate list, and 1 item from
the fat list to compose a 1-block Sample Day | Block requirements for small (“4-block”) male
meal. Or choose 2 items from each
column to compose a 2-block meal,
and so on. Breakfast Lunch Snack Dinner Snack

Here is a sample 4-block meal:
Protein 4 4 2 4 4
4 oz. chicken breast
1 artichoke Carbohydrate 4 4 2 4 4
1 cup of steamed vegetables w/
24 crushed peanuts
1 sliced apple Fat 4 4 2 4 4

This meals contains 28 grams of
protein, 36 grams of carbohydrate,
and 12 grams of fat. It is simpler,
though, to think of it as 4 blocks of
protein, 4 blocks of carbohydrate,
and 4 blocks of fat.

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Protein (cooked qty) cheese 1 oz celery 2 cup soy milk 1 cup
chicken breast 1 oz feta cheese 1 1/2 oz cucumber 1 1/2 cup tempeh 1 1/2 oz
turkey breast 1 oz ricotta cheese 2 oz lettuce, iceberg 2 heads Fat
ground turkey 1 1/2 oz Favorable Carb (cooked) lettuce, romaine 10 cups almonds ~3
veal 1 oz oatmeal 1
/3 cup mushrooms 4 cups avocado 1 tbsp
beef 1 oz artichoke 1 small onion 2
/3 cup canola oil 1
/3 tsp
ground beef 1 1/2 oz asparagus 12 sprs peppers 1 1/4 cup macadamia nuts ~1
Canadian bacon 1 oz green beans 1 1/2 cup radishes 4 cups olives ~5
corned beef 1 oz beet greens 1 1/4 cup salsa 1
/2 cup peanut butter 1
/2 tsp
duck 1 1/2 oz black beans 1
/4 cup snow peas 1 1/2 cup peanuts ~6
ham 1 oz bok choy 3 cups spinach 10 cups cashews ~3
lamb 1 oz broccoli 3 cups tomato 1 1/2 cup peanut oil 1
/3 tsp
ground lamb 1 1/2 oz brussels sprouts 3/4 cup apple 1/2 olive oil 1
/3 tsp
pork 1 oz cabbage 3 cups applesauce 3
/8 cup tahini 1
/3 tsp
ground pork 1 1/2 oz cauliflower 4 cups apricots 3 small guacamole 1
/2 tbsp
calamari 1 1/2 oz chick peas 1
/4 cup blackberries 3
/4 cup vegetable oil 1
/3 tsp
catfish 1 1/2 oz collard greens 2 cups cantaloupe 1/4 mayonnaise 1
/3 tsp
clams 1 1/2 oz dill pickles 3 (3”) cherries 8 mayo, light 1 tsp
crabmeat 1 1/2 oz eggplant 1 1/2 cup fruit cocktail 1
/3 cup sesame oil 1
/3 tsp
flounder/sole 1 1/2 oz fava beans 1
/3 cup blueberries 1
/2 cup sunflower seeds 1
/4 tsp
lobster 1 1/2 oz kale 2 cups grapes 1
/2 cup bacon bits 2 1/2 tsp
salmon 1 1/2 oz kidney beans 1
/4 cup grapefruit 1/2 butter 1
/3 tsp
sardines 1 oz leeks 1 cup honeydew 2/3 half and half 1 tbsp
scallops 1 1/2 oz lentils 1
/4 cup kiwi 1 cream, light 1
/2 tsp
swordfish 1 1/2 oz okra 1 cup lemon 1 cream cheese 1 tsp
shrimp 1 1/2 oz onion 1
/2 cup lime 1 sour cream 1 tsp
tuna steak 1 1/2 oz sauerkraut 1 cup nectarine 1/2 tartar sauce 1
/2 tsp
canned tuna 1 oz spaghetti squash 1 cup orange 1/2 lard 1
/3 tsp
protein powder 1 oz spinach 1 1/3 cup peach 1 veg. shortening 1
/3 tsp
seitan 1 oz swiss chard 2 1/2 cup pear 1/2
soy burgers 1
/2 patty tomato sauce 1
/2 cup pineapple 1
/2 cup
soy sausage 2 links tomatoes 3
/4 cup plum 1
spirulina (dry) 1
/2 oz yellow squash 2 cups raspberries 1 cup
soy cheese 1 oz zucchini 2 cups strawberries 1 cup
firm tofu 2 oz Favorable Carb (raw) tangerine 1
soft tofu 3 oz alfalfa sprouts 10 cups watermelon 3
/4 cup
whole egg 1 large bean sprouts 3 cups Combo Items (qty)
*Note: combo items
egg whites 2 large broccoli 4 cups milk 1 cup
contain 1 block of
egg substitute 1
/4 cup cabbage 4 cups yogurt (plain) 1
/2 cup protein, and 1 block of
cottage cheese 1
/4 cup cauliflower 4 cups soybeans 1
/4 cup carbohydrate

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Block Chart for Unfavorable Carbohydrates

Vegetables Lemon juice 1/3 cup Tortilla (corn) 1 (6”)
Acorn squash 1/2 cup Orange juice 1/3 cup Tortilla (flour) 1/2 (6”)
Baked beans 1/4 cup Pineapple juice 1/4 cup Udon noodles 3 tbsp
Beets 1/2 cup Tomato juice 3/4 cup Waffle 1/2
Black-eyed peas 1/4 cup Grains and Breads Condiments
Butternut squash 1/2 cup Bagel 1/4 BBQ sauce 2 tbsp
Cooked carrots 1/2 cup Barley 1 tbsp Catsup 2 tbsp
Corn 1/4 cup Biscuit 1/4 Cocktail sauce 2 tbsp
French fries 5 Baked potato 1/3 cup Honey 1/2 tbsp
Hubbard squash 2/3 cup Bread crumbs 1/2 oz Jelly/jam 2 tsp
Lima beans 1/4 cup Bread 1/2 slice Plum sauce 1 1/2 tbsp
Parsnips 1/3 (9”) Breadstick 1 Molasses 2 tsp
Peas 1/2 cup Buckwheat 1/2 oz Pickle (bread & 6 slices
Pinto beans 1/4 cup Bulgur wheat 1/2 oz butter)
Potato, boiled 1/3 cup Cereal 1/2 oz Relish (sweet) 4 tsp
Potato, mashed 1/4 cup Corn bread 1” square Steak sauce 2 tbsp
Refried beans 1/4 cup Cornstarch 4 tsp Brown sugar 1 1/2 tsp
Sweet potato, baked 1/3 (5”) Croissant 1/4 Granulated sugar 2 tsp
Sweet potato, mashed 1/5 cup Crouton 1/2 oz Confectioners sugar 1 tbsp
Turnip 3/4 cup Donut 1/4 Maple syrup 2 tsp
Fruit English muffin 1/4 Teriyaki sauce 1 1/2 tbsp
Banana 1/3 (9”) Flour 1 1/2 tsp Alcohol
Cranberries 3/4 cup Granola 1/2 oz Beer 4 oz
Cranberry sauce 3 tsp Grits 1/3 cup Light Beer 6 oz
Dates 2 Melba toast 1/2 oz Liquor 1 oz
Figs 1 Muffins 1/4 Wine 4 oz
Guava 1/2 cup Noodles 1/4 cup Snacks
Kumquat 3 Instant oatmeal 1/2 pkt Chocolate bar 1/2 oz
Mango 1/3 cup Pasta, cooked 1/4 cup Corn chips 1/2 oz
Papaya 3/4 cup Pasta, high protein 1/3 cup Graham crackers 1 1/2
Prunes 2 Pancake 1/2 (4”) Ice cream 1/4 cup
Raisins 1 tbsp Pita bread 1/4 Potato chips 1/2 cup
Fruit Juice Popcorn 2 cups Pretzels 1/2 oz
Apple juice 1/3 cup Rice 3 tbsp Tortilla chips 1/2 oz
Cranberry juice 1/4 cup Rice cake 1 Saltine crackers 4
Fruit punch 1/4 cup Roll (hamburger, hot dog) 1/4
*Note: When building meals with
Grape juice 1/4 cup Roll (dinner) 1/2
“unfavorable carbohydrates”
Grapefruit juice 1/3 cup Taco shell 1 quantity becomes critical.

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2 Block Menus
Breakfast Lunch Dinner
Breakfast Quesadilla Tuna Sandwich Fresh Fish
1 corn tortilla Mix: Grill:
1/4 cup black beans 2 oz canned tuna 3 oz fresh fish (salmon, tuna, halibut, etc.)
1 egg (scrambled or fried) 2 tsp light mayo Saute:
1 oz cheese Serve on 1 1/3 cup zucchini in herbs
1 Tbs avocado 1 slice bread Serve with:
1 large salad
Breakfast Sandwich Tacos ~1Tbs salad dressing of choice
1/2 pita bread 1 corn tortilla
1 egg (scrambled or fried) 3 oz seasoned ground meat Beef Stew
1 oz cheese 1/2 tomato, cubed Saute:
Served with 2 macadamia nuts 1/4 cup onion, chopped 2/3 tsp olive oil
Lettuce, chopped 1/4 cup onion, chopped
Fruit Salad Served with Tabasco to taste 1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup cottage cheese mixed ~6 chopped olives ~4 oz (raw weight) beef, cubed
with Add:
1/4 cantaloupe Deli Sandwich 1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 cup strawberries 1 slice bread 1 cup mushrooms
1/4 cup grapes 3 oz sliced deli meat 1/4 cup tomato sauce
Sprinkled with slivered almonds 2 Tbs avocado Seasoned with garlic, Worcestershire
Smoothie Quesadilla sauce, salt and pepper
Blend together: 1 corn tortilla Chili (serves 3)
1 cup milk 2 oz cheese Saute:
1Tbs protein powder 2 Tbs guacamole 1/3 cup onion
1 cup frozen strawberries Jalapenos, sliced 1 green pepper, chopped in garlic, cumin,
Small scoop of cashews Topped with salsa chili powder, and crushed red peppers
Oatmeal Grilled Chicken Salad Add:
1/3 cup cooked oatmeal (slightly 2 oz grilled chicken 1 cup tomato, chopped
watery) Served over: 1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup grapes 2 cup lettuce 1/2 cup kidney beans
1/4 cup cottage cheese 1/4 tomato, diced ~ 30 olives, chopped
1 tsp walnuts 1/4 cucumber, diced Add fresh cilantro to taste
Spice with vanilla extract and 1/4 green pepper Turkey and Greens
cinnamon 1/4 cup black beans
2 oz roasted turkey breast
Add 1 Tbs protein powder ~1 Tbs salad dressing of Chop and steam:
choice 1 1/4 cup kale
Easy Breakfast
1/2 cantaloupe Easy Lunch Saute:
1/2 cup cottage cheese 3 oz deli meat garlic and crushed red peppers in 2/3
6 almonds 1 apple tsp olive oil, ,
2 macadamia nuts Add steamed kale and mix.
Steak and Eggs 1 peach, sliced, for dessert
1 oz grilled steak Ground Beef or Turkey Burger
1 egg over easy 3 oz ground meat, grilled Easy Chicken Dinner
1 slice toast with 1/2 bun 2 oz baked chicken breast
2/3 tsp butter pickles/mustard/lettuce 1 orange
2 Tbs avocado 2 macadamia nuts

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3 Block Menus
1 corn tortilla 3 oz canned tuna 4 1/2 oz fresh fish, grilled
1/4 cup black beans 3 tsp light mayo Saute 1 1/3 cup zucchini in herbs
1/3 cup onions, chopped 1 slice bread 1 Large salad with 1 1/2 Tbs salad
1 green pepper, chopped Serve with: dressing of choice
2 eggs (scrambled or fried) 1/2 apple 1 cup fresh strawberries for dessert
1 oz cheese
3 Tbs avocado Tacos Chili (serves 3)
2 corn tortillas Saute:
Breakfast Sandwich 1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/2 pita bread 3 oz seasoned ground meat
1 green pepper, chopped, with garlic,
1 egg (scrambled or fried) 1 oz grated cheese
cumin, chili powder, and crushed red
1 oz cheese 1/2 tomato, cubed
peppers
1 oz sliced ham 1/4 cup onion, chopped
Add:
Serve with 1/2 apple and 3 Lettuce, chopped 9 oz ground beef or turkey until browned
macadamia nuts Serve with Tabasco to taste Add:
~ 9 olives, chopped 1 cup tomato sauce
Fruit Salad
3/4 cup cottage cheese Deli Sandwich 3/4 cup black beans
1/4 cantaloupe, cubed 1 slice bread 3/4 cup kidney beans
1 cup strawberries 3 oz sliced deli meat ~30 olives, chopped
1/2 cup grapes Add fresh cilantro to taste
1 oz cheese
Sprinkle with slivered almonds Serve each helping with 1 oz cheese,
3 Tbs avocado
grated
Smoothie Serve with 1/2 apple
Blend together: Turkey and Greens
1 cup milk Quesadilla 3 oz turkey breast, roasted
2 Tbs protein powder 1 corn tortilla Chop and steam:
1 cup frozen strawberries 3 oz cheddar and jack cheese 2 1/2 cup kale
1/2 cup frozen blueberries 3 Tbs guacamole Saute garlic and crushed red peppers
1 scoop cashews Jalapenos, sliced, to taste in 1 tsp olive oil,
Top with salsa Add the steamed kale and mix.
Oatmeal Serve with 1 orange 1 peach, sliced, for dessert
2/3 cup cooked oatmeal (slightly
watery) Grilled Chicken Salad Easy Dinner
1/2 cup grapes 3 oz chicken, grilled 3 oz chiken breast, baked
1/2 cup cottage cheese 2 cups lettuce 1 1/2 orange
1 1/2 tsp walnuts, chopped 1/4 tomato, chopped 3 macadamia nuts
Spice with vanilla extract and 1/4 cucumber, chopped
cinnamon Beef Stew
1/4 green pepper, chopped
Add 1 Tbs protein powder Saute: 1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup black beans
1/4 cup onion, chopped
Easy Breakfast 1/4 cup kidney beans 1/2 green pepper, chopped
3/4 cantaloupe, cubed ~1 1/2 Tbs salad dressing of ~6 oz (raw weight) beef, cubed
3/4 cup cottage cheese choice Add:
9 almonds
Easy Lunch 1 cup chopped zucchini
Steak and Eggs 3 oz deli meat 1 cup mushrooms
2 oz grilled steak 1 oz sliced cheese 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 egg over easy Season with garlic, Worcestershire
1 1/2 apple
1 slice toast w/ 1 tsp butter sauce, salt and pepper
3 macadamia nuts
1/4 cantaloupe, cubed

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4 Block Menus
1 corn tortilla 4 oz canned tuna 6 oz fresh fish, grilled
1/2 cup black beans 4 tsp light mayo Saute: 1 1/3 cup zucchini in herbs
1/3 cup onions, chopped 1 slice bread 1 Large salad with 2 Tbs salad dressing
1 green pepper, chopped Serve with 1 apple of choice
2 eggs (scrambled or fried) 2 cups fresh strawberries
2 oz cheese Deli Sandwich
4 Tbs avocado 2 slices of bread Beef Stew
4 1/2 oz sliced deli meat Saute:
Breakfast Sandwich 1 oz cheese 1 1/3 tsp olive oil
1/2 pita bread 1/4 cup onion, chopped
4 Tbs avocado
2 eggs (scrambled or fried) 1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 oz cheese Quesadilla ~8 oz (raw weight) beef, cubed
1 oz sliced ham 1 corn tortilla Add:
Serve with 1 apple 4 oz cheese 1 cup zucchini, chopped
4 Tbs guacamole 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
Fruit Salad 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup cottage cheese Jalapenos, sliced
Top with salsa Season with garlic, Worcestershire
1/2 cantaloupe, cubed sauce, salt and pepper
1 cup strawberries Serve with 1 1/2 oranges
Serve with 1 cup fresh strawberries
1/2 cup grapes Tacos
Sprinkled with slivered almonds Chili (serves 3)
2 corn tortillas
Saute:
Smoothie 4 1/2 oz seasoned ground meat
2/3 cup onion, chopped
Blend together: 1 oz cheese, grated
2 green peppers, chopped, in garlic,
2 cups milk 1/2 tomato, cubed cumin, chili powder, and crushed red
2 Tbs protein powder 1/4 cup onion, chopped peppers
1 cup frozen strawberries Lettuce, chopped Add:
1/2 cup frozen blueberries Serve with Tabasco to taste 18 oz ground meat until browned
Large scoop cashews ~20 olives chopped Add:
1/2 apple 2 cups tomato sauce
Oatmeal
1 cup cooked oatmeal (slightly 1 cup black beans
Grilled Chicken Salad
watery) 1 cup kidney beans
4 oz chicken, grilled
1/2 cup grapes ~40 chopped olives
2 cups lettuce
3/4 cup cottage cheese Fresh cilantro to taste
1/4 tomato, chopped
2 tsp walnuts 1/4 cucumber, chopped Turkey and Greens
Spice with vanilla extract and 4 oz turkey breast, roasted
1/4 green pepper, chopped
cinnamon 2 1/2 cup kale, chopped and steamed
1/2 cup black beans
Add 1 Tbs protein powder Saute garlic and crushed red peppers
1/4 cup kidney beans
Easy Breakfast ~2 Tbs salad dressing of choice in 1 1/3 tsp olive oil,
1 cantaloupe Add kale and mix.
1 cup cottage cheese Easy Lunch 2 peaches, sliced, for dessert
12 almonds 4 1/2 oz deli meat
1 oz cheese Easy Dinner
Steak and Eggs Serve with: 4 oz chicken breast, baked
3 oz steak, grilled 1 apple 2 oranges
1 egg, over easy 4 macadamia nuts
1 grapefruit
1 slice bread with 1 1/3 tsp butter 4 macadamia nuts
1/2 cantaloupe

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5 Block Menus
2 corn tortillas 5 oz tuna, canned 7 1/2 oz fresh fish
1/2 cup black beans 5 tsp light mayo Saute:
1/3 cup onions, chopped 1 slice bread 1 1/3 cup zucchini in herbs
1 green pepper, chopped Serve with 1 1/2 apple Serve with 1 large salad with 2 1/2 Tbs
3 eggs (scrambled or fried) salad dressing of choice
2 oz cheese Deli Sandwich 1/4 cup black beans
5 Tbs avocado 2 slices bread 2 cups fresh strawberries for dessert
4 1/2 oz deli meat
Breakfast Sandwich Beef Stew
2 oz cheese Saute:
1/2 pita bread 5 Tbs avocado 1 2/3 tsp olive oil
2 eggs (scrambled or fried)
1/2 apple 1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 oz cheese
1 oz ham, sliced Quesadilla 1/2 green pepper, chopped
Serve with 1 1/2 apple ~10 oz (raw weight) beef, cubed
2 corn tortillas
Add:
Fruit Salad 5 oz cheese 1 cup zucchini, chopped
1 1/4 cup cottage cheese 5 Tbs guacamole 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cantaloupe, cubed Jalapenos, sliced, to taste 1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup strawberries Serve with 1 1/2 orange Season with garlic, Worcestershire
1 cup grapes sauce, salt and pepper
Tacos
Sprinkle with slivered almonds Serve with 2 cups fresh strawberries
2 corn tortillas
Smoothie 6 oz seasoned ground meat Chili (serves 3)
Blend together: 1 oz cheese, grated Saute:
2 cups milk 1/2 tomato, cubed 1 cup onion, chopped
3 Tbs protein powder 1/4 cup onion, chopped 2 1/2 green peppers in garlic, cumin,
2 cups frozen strawberries Lettuce, chopped chili powder and crushed red peppers
1/2 cup frozen blueberries Serve with Tabasco to taste Add:
Extra large scoop cashews ~20 olives, chopped 22 1/2 oz ground meat, browned
1 apple Add:
Oatmeal 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup cooked oatmeal (slightly Grilled Chicken Salad 1 1/4 cup black beans
watery) 5 oz chicken, grilled 1 1/4 cup kidney beans
1 cup grapes 2 cups lettuce ~50 olives, chopped
1 cup cottage cheese 1/4 tomato, chopped Add fresh cilantro to taste
2 1/2 tsp walnuts 1/4 cucumber, chopped
Spice with vanilla extract and Turkey and Greens
1/4 green pepper, chopped 5 oz turkey breast, roasted
cinnamon
1/2 cup black beans 2 1/2 cup kale, chopped and steamed
Add: 1 Tbs protein powder
1/2 cup kidney beans Saute garlic and crushed red peppers
Easy Breakfast 2 1/2 Tbs salad dressing of in 1 2/3 tsp olive oil,
1 1/4 cantaloupe choice Add steamed kale and mix.
1 1/4 cup cottage cheese Serve with 3 peaches, sliced
~ 15 almonds Easy Lunch
4 1/2 oz deli meat Easy Dinner
Steak and Eggs 2 oz cheese 5 oz chicken breast, baked
3 oz steak, grilled Serve with: 2 1/2 oranges
2 eggs, over easy 2 1/2 apples 5 macadamia nuts
1 slice bread with 1 2/3 tsp butter 5 macadamia nuts
1 1/2 apple

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1 Block Snacks
1 hard-boiled egg 1/4 cup cottage cheese 1 oz sardines
1/2 orange 1/2 carrot 1/2 nectarine
Sprinkled w/ peanuts 3 celery stalks 5 olives
5 olives

1/2 cup plain yogurt 1 1/2 oz feta cheese
Sprinkled w/ pecans 3 oz marinated and baked tofu 1 cup diced tomato
1/2 apple 5 olives
1/2 tsp peanut butter
1 oz cheese
1/2 apple 1 1/2 oz salmon
1 macadamia nut 1 oz tuna 12 asparagus spears
1 large tossed salad 1/3 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salad dressing of choice
1 oz canned chicken or tuna
1 peach 1 1/2 oz shrimp
1/2 tsp peanut butter 1 hard boiled egg 2 cups broccoli
1 large spinach salad 6 peanuts
1 tsp oil and vinegar dressing
1 1/2 oz deli-style ham or turkey
1 carrot 1 oz Canadian bacon
5 olives 1 oz grilled turkey breast 1 plum
1/2 cup blueberries 1 macadamia nut
3 cashews
1 oz mozzarella string cheese
1/2 cup grapes 1 1/2 oz deli-style turkey
1 Tbs avocado Blend: 1 tangerine
1 cup water 1 Tbs avocado
1 Tbs protein powder
1 oz jack cheese 1/2 cup grapes
1 Tbs guacamole 1/3 tsp canola oil 1/4 cup cottage cheese
1 tomato 1 cup sliced tomato
1/3 tsp olive oil
Blend:
1 oz hummus 1 cup water
1/2 tomato 1Tbs spirulina 1 1/2 oz scallops
1 1/2 oz feta cheese 1 cup frozen berries 1 sliced cucumber
3 cashews 1/2 tsp tartar sauce

1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup cottage cheese 1 oz cheddar cheese melted over 1 oz lamb
1 macadamia nut 1/2 apple 1/4 cup chick peas
Sprinkled w/ walnuts 1/3 tsp sesame butter

1 poached egg
1/2 slice bread 1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/2 tsp peanut butter 1/2 cup pineapple
6 peanuts

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limited to those who have at least at first weighed and 2-, 3-, 4-, or 5-block meals, and the “block chart” gives
measured their food. quantities of common foods equivalent to 1 block of
protein, carbohydrate, or fat.
For a decade we’ve experimented with sizing and
portioning strategies that avoid scales, and measuring Once you determine that you need, say, 4-block meals,
cups and spoons, only to conclude that natural variances it is simple to use the block chart and select four times
in caloric intake and macronutrient composition without something from the protein list, four times something
measurement are greater than the resolution required from the carbohydrate list, and four times something
to turn good performance to great. Life would be much from the fat list every meal.
easier for us were this not so!
One-block snacks are chosen from the block chart at
The “meal plans” and “block chart” below have been face value for a single snack of protein, carbohydrates,
our most expedient approach for eliciting athletes’ best and fat, whereas two block snacks are, naturally, chosen
performances and optimal health. composed of twice something from the carbohydrates
list combined with twice something from the protein list,
Even discounting any theoretical or technical content, and twice something from the fats.
this portal to sound nutrition still requires some basic
arithmetic and weighing and measuring portions for the Every meal, every snack, must contain equivalent blocks
first week. of protein, carbohydrate, and fat.
Too many athletes, after supposedly reading Sears’s book If the protein source is specifically labeled “non-fat”, then
Enter the Zone still ask,“So what do I eat for dinner?” They double the usual fat blocks for that meal. Read Enter the
get meal plans and block charts. We can make the Zone Zone to learn why.
more complicated or simpler but not more effective.
For those eating according to zone parameters, body
We encourage everyone to weigh and measure portions fat comes off fast. When our men fall below 10 percent
for one week because it is supremely worth the effort, not body fat and start approaching 5 percent, we kick up the
because it is fun. If you choose to “guesstimate” portions, fat intake. The majority of our best athletes end up at X
you’ll have the result of CrossFit’s top performers only if blocks of protein, X blocks of carbohydrate, and 4X or
and when you are lucky. 5X blocks of fat. Learn to modulate fat intake to produce
a level of leanness that optimizes performance.
Within a week of weighing and measuring, you’ll have
developed an uncanny ability to estimate the mass of The Zone diet neither prohibits nor requires any
common food portions, but, more importantly, you’ll have particular food. It can accommodate paleo or vegan,
formed a keen visual sense of your nutritional needs.This organic or kosher, fast food or fine dining, while delivering
is a profound awareness. the benefits of high-performance nutrition.
In the Zone scheme, all of humanity calculates to either 2-,
3-, 4-, or 5-block meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with
either 1- or 2-block snacks between lunch and dinner and
again between dinner and bedtime. We’ve simplified the
process for determining which of the four meal sizes and
two snack sizes best suits your needs.We assume that you
are CrossFitters, i.e., very active.
Being a “4-blocker”, for instance, means that you eat
three meals each day where each meal is composed of 4
blocks of protein, 4 blocks of carbohydrate, and 4 blocks
of fat. Whether you are a “smallish” medium-sized guy or
a “largish” medium-sized guy would determine whether
you’ll need snacks of one or two blocks twice a day.
The “meal plans” we give below stand as examples of

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N OT E S

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Programming & Scaling
A Theoretical
A Theoretical Template for Template for CrossFit’s
CrossFit’s Programming Programming
Page 77

Introduction Girls for Grandmas
Page 82
The October 2002 issue of The CrossFit Journal entitled “What is Fitness?”
explores the aims and objectives of our program. Most of you have a clear
understanding of how we implement our program through familiarity with
the Workout of the Day (WOD) from our website. What is likely less clear
is the rationale behind the WOD or more specifically what motivates the
specifics of CrossFit’s programming. It is our aim in this issue to offer a
model or template for our workout programming in the hope of elaborating
on the CrossFit concept and potentially stimulating productive thought on
the subject of exercise prescription generally and workout construction
specifically.
So what we want to do is bridge the gap between an understanding of our
philosophy of fitness and the workouts themselves, that is, how we get from
theory to practice.
At first glance the template seems to be offering a routine or regimen.This may
seem at odds with our contention that workouts need considerable variance
or unpredictability, if not randomness, to best mimic the often unforeseeable
challenges that combat, sport, and survival demand and reward. We’ve often
said, “What your regimen needs is to not become routine.” But the model
we offer allows for wide variance of mode, exercise, metabolic pathway, rest,
intensity, sets, and reps. In fact, it is mathematically likely that each three-day
cycle is a singularly unique stimulus never to be repeated in a lifetime of
CrossFit workouts.
The template is engineered to allow for a wide and constantly varied stimulus,
randomized within some parameters, but still true to the aims and purposes
of CrossFit as described in the “What is Fitness?” issue. Our template contains
sufficient structure to formalize or define our programming objectives while

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CrossFit Training Guide | Programming and Scaling
A Theoretical Template for CrossFit’s Programming ...continued

Table 1 - Template Macro View
3 days on, 1 day off
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
M G M OFF G W G OFF W M W OFF
W G M W G M
W M G

5 days on, 2 days off
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
wk 1 M G M M W OFF OFF Modalities
W G G M = monostructural metabolic
W conditioning or “cardio”
wk 2 G W G G M OFF OFF
M W W G = gymnastics, bodyweight
M exercises
wk 3 W M W W G OFF OFF W = weightlifting, powerlifting and
G M M olympic lifts
G

not setting in stone parameters that must be left to possible for three straight days, but by the forth day both
variance if the workouts are going to meet our needs. neuromuscular function and anatomy are hammered to
That is our mission – to ideally blend structure and the point where continued work becomes noticeably
flexibility. less effective and impossible without reducing intensity.
It is not our intention to suggest that your workouts The chief drawback to the three-day-on, one-day-off
should or that our workouts do fit neatly and cleanly regimen is that it does not sync with the five-day-on, two-
within the template, for that day-off pattern that seems to
is absolutely not the case. govern most of the world’s
But, the template does offer work habits. The regimen is
sufficient structure to aid ...the model we offer allows for at odds with the seven-day
comprehension, reflect the wide variance of mode, exercise, week. Many of our clients
bulk of our programming are running programs within
concerns, and not hamstring metabolic pathway, rest, intensity, professional settings, often
the need for radically varying sets, and reps. academic, where the five-day
stimulus. So as not to seem workweek with weekends
redundant, what we are saying off is de rigueur. Others have
here is that the purpose of found that the scheduling
the template is as much descriptive as prescriptive. needs of family, work, and school require scheduling
workouts on specific days of the week every week. For
Template Macro View these people we have devised a five-days-on, two-days-off
In the broadest view we see a three-day-on, one-day- regimen that has worked very well.
off pattern. We’ve found that this allows for a relatively The workout of the day was originally a five-on, two-off
higher volume of high-intensity work than the many pattern and it worked perfectly. But the three-on, one-
others that we’ve experimented with. With this format off pattern was devised to increase both the intensity
the athlete can work at or near the highest intensities and recovery of the workouts and the feedback we’ve

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Table 2 - Exercises by Modality

Gymnastics Metabolic Conditioning Weightlifting
Air Squat Run Deadlifts
Pull-up Bike Cleans
Push-up Row Presses
Dip Jump Rope Snatch
Handstand Push-up Clean and Jerk
Rope Climb Medicine Ball Drills
Muscle-Up Kettlebell Swing
Press to Handstand
Back Extension
Sit-up
Jumps
Lunges

received and our observations suggest that it was and powerlifting, where the aim is primarily to increase
successful in this regard. strength, power, and hip/leg capacity.
If life is easier with the five-on, two-off pattern, don’t Table 2 gives the common exercises used by our program,
hesitate to employ it.The difference in potential between separated by modality, in fleshing out the routines.
the two may not warrant restructuring your entire life to
For metabolic conditioning the exercises are run, bike,
accommodate the more effective pattern.There are other
row, and jump rope. The gymnastics modality includes
factors that will ultimately overshadow any disadvantages
air squats, pull-ups, push-ups, dips, handstand push-ups,
inherent in the potentially less effective regimen, such as
rope climb, muscle-ups, presses to handstand, back/hip
convenience, attitude, exercise selection, and pacing.
extensions, sit-ups, and jumps (vertical, box, broad, etc.).
For the remainder of this article the three-day cycle is the The weightlifting modality includes deadlifts, cleans,
one in discussion, but most of the analysis and discussion presses, the snatch, the clean and jerk, medicine ball drills
applies perfectly to the five-day cycle. and throws, and kettlebell swings.

Elements by Modality The elements, or exercises, chosen for each modality
were selected for their functionality, neuroendocrine
Looking at the Template Macro View (Table 1) it can response, and overall capacity to dramatically and broadly
readily be seen that the workouts are composed of impact the human body.
three distinct modalities: metabolic conditioning (“M”),
gymnastics (“G”), and weightlifting (“W”). The metabolic Workout Structure
conditioning is monostructural activities commonly
The workouts themselves are each represented by
referred to as “cardio,” the purpose of which is primarily
the inclusion of one, two, or three modalities for each
to improve cardiorespiratory capacity and stamina. The
day. Days 1, 5, and 9 are each single modality workouts
gymnastics modality comprises body weight exercises/
whereas days 2, 6, and 10 include two modalities each,
elements or calisthenics and its primary purpose is
and finally, days 3, 7, and 11 use three modalities each.
to improve body control by improving neurological
In every case each modality is represented by a single
components like coordination, balance, agility, and
exercise or element, i.e., each M, W, and G represents a
accuracy, and to improve functional upper body capacity
single exercise from metabolic conditioning, weightlifting,
and trunk strength. The weightlifting modality comprises
and gymnastics modalities respectively.
the most important weight training basics, Olympic lifts

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Table 3 - Workout Structure
Days Single-Element Days Two-Element Days Three-Element Days
(1, 5, 9) (2, 6, 10) (3, 7, 11)

Priority Element Priority Task Priority Time Priority

Structure M: Single Effort Couplet repeated 3-5 Triplet repeated for 20
(set structure) G: Single Skill times for time minutes for rotations
W: Single Lift

M: Long, Slow Distance Two moderately to Three lightly to mod-
(intensity) G: High Skill intensely challenging erately challenging
W: Heavy elements elements

Work Recovery Char- Recovery not a limiting Work/rest interval man- Work/rest interval
acter factor agement critical marginal factor

When the workout includes a single exercise (days 1, 5, For the two-element days (2, 6, and 10), the structure
and 9) the focus is on a single exercise or effort.When the is typically a couplet of exercises performed alternately
element is the single “M” (day 1) the workout is a single until repeated for a total of 3, 4, or most commonly 5
effort and is typically a long, slow, distance effort.When the rounds and performed for time. We say these days are
modality is a single “G” (day 5) the workout is practice of “task priority” because the task is set and the time varies.
a single skill and typically this skill is sufficiently complex The workout is very often scored by the time required
to require great practice and to complete five rounds. The
may not be yet suitable for two elements themselves
inclusion in a timed workout are designed to be moderate
because performance is not to high intensity and work-
yet adequate for efficient The template encourages new rest interval management is
inclusion. When the modality skill development, generates critical. These elements are
is the single “W” (day 9) the made intense by pace, load,
workout is a single lift and unique stressors, crosses modes, reps or some combination.
typically performed at high incorporates quality movements, and Ideally the first round is
weight and low rep. It is worth hard but possible, whereas
repeating that the focus on
hits all three metabolic pathways. the second and subsequent
days 1, 5, and 9 is single efforts rounds will require pacing,
of “cardio” at long distance, rest, and breaking the task
improving high-skill more up into manageable efforts. If
complex gymnastics movements, and single/low rep the second round can be completed without trouble, the
heavy weightlifting basics, respectively. This is not the day elements are too easy.
to work sprints, pull-ups, or high rep clean and jerk - the
For the three-element days (3, 7, and 11), the structure
other days would be more appropriate.
is typically a triplet of exercises, this time repeated for
On the single-element days (1, 5, and 9), recovery is not a 20 minutes and performed and scored by number of
limiting factor. For the “G” and “W” days rest is long and rotations completed in twenty minutes. We say these
deliberate and the focus is kept clearly on improvement workouts are “time priority” because the athlete is kept
of the element and not on total metabolic effect. moving for a specified time and the goal is to complete

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Table 4 - Workout Examples
Days
1 M Run 10K
2 GW (5 handstand push-ups/225 x 5 deadlifts + 20 lbs/round) x 5 for time
3 MGW Run 400m/10 pull-ups/”Thruster” 50% BW x 15 for 20 min for rotations
4 OFF
5 G Practice handstands for 45 minutes
6 WM (Bench press 75% BW x 10/Row 500m) x 5 for time
7 GWM Lunges 100ft./push-press 50% BW x 15/row 500 m for 20 min for rotations
8 OFF
9 W Deadlift 5-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 reps
10 MG (Run 200m/box jump 30 in x 10) x 5 for time
11 WMG Clean 50% BW x 20/bike 1 mile/15 push-ups for 20 min for rotations
12 OFF

as many cycles as possible. The elements are chosen in Typically our most effective workouts, like art, are
order to provide a challenge that manifests only through remarkable in composition, symmetry, balance, theme,
repeated cycles. Ideally the elements chosen are not and character. There is a “choreography” of exertion
significant outside of the blistering pace required to that draws from a working knowledge of physiological
maximize rotations completed within the time (typically response, a well-developed sense of the limits of
20 minutes) allotted. This is in stark contrast to the two- human performance, the use of effective elements,
element days, where the elements are of a much higher experimentation, and even luck. Our hope is that this
intensity. This workout is tough, extremely tough, but model will aid in learning this art.
managing work-rest intervals is a marginal factor.
The template encourages new skill development,
Each of the three distinct days has a distinct character. generates unique stressors, crosses modes, incorporates
Generally speaking, as the number of elements increases quality movements, and hits all three metabolic pathways.
from one to two to three, the workout’s effect is due less It does this within a framework of sets and reps and a
to the individual element selected and more to the effect cast of exercises that CrossFit has repeatedly tested and
of repeated efforts. proven effective. We contend that this template does
a reasonable job of formally expressing many CrossFit
Application objectives and values.
The template in discussion did not generate our
Workout of the Day, but the qualities of one, two, and
three element workouts motivated the template’s design.
Our experience in the gym and the feedback from our
athletes following the WOD have demonstrated that
the mix of one, two, and three element workouts are
crushing in their impact and unrivaled in bodily response.
The information garnered through your feedback on the
WOD has given CrossFit an advantage in estimating and
evaluating the effect of workouts that may have taken
decades or been impossible without the Internet.

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“The Girls” for Grandmas
In the September 2003 issue of the CFJ we introduced
six benchmark workouts to test performance and “Angie”
improvements through repeated, irregular appearances in Original Modified
the WOD. These workouts were given the names Angie,
Barbara, Chelsea, Diane, Elizabeth, and Fran. For time: For time:
100 pull-ups 25 ring rows
We figured these six workouts were as good as any to 100 push-ups 25 push-ups off the knees
demonstrate our concept of scalability. Here we offer 100 sit-ups 25 sit-ups
versions of those workouts that have been “tuned 100 squats 25 squats
down” in intensity and had exercises substituted to
accommodate any audience.

“Barbara” “Chelsea”
Original Modified Original Modified
5 rounds for time of: 3 rounds for time of: 5 Pull-ups 5 Ring rows
20 Pull-ups 20 Ring Rows 10 Push-ups 10 push-ups
30 Push-ups 30 push-ups 15 Squats 15 squats
40 Sit-ups 40 sit-ups
Each minute on the Each minute on the
50 Squats 50 squats
minute for 30 minute for 20
3 minutes rest between 3 minutes rest between
minutes minutes
rounds rounds

Ring Rows

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“The Girls” for Grandmas ...continued

Push-ups off the knees

Sit-ups

Squats

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“Diane” “Elizabeth”
Original Modified Original Modified
For time: For time: For time: For time:
Deadlift 225 lbs Deadlift 50 lbs Clean 135 lbs Clean 25 lbs
Handstand pushups Dumbbell shoulder Ring dips Bench dips
press 10 lbs
21-15-9 reps 21-15-9 reps 21-15-9 reps
21-15-9 reps

Dumbbell shoulder press

The Clean

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“Fran”
Original Modified
For time: For time:
Thruster 95 lbs Thruster 25 lbs
Pull-ups Ring rows
21-15-9 reps 21-15-9 reps

Bench Dips

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Training & Coaching
Fundamentals, Virtuosity, Fundamentals,
Virtuosity, and Mastery
and Mastery Page 87

Professional Training
Page 89

Scaling Professional
An Open Letter to CrossFit Trainers Training
Page 91
In gymnastics, completing a routine without error will not get you a perfect
score, the 10.0—only a 9.7. To get the last three tenths of a point, you must
demonstrate “risk, originality, and virtuosity” as well as make no mistakes in
execution of the routine.

Risk is simply executing a movement that is likely to be missed or botched;
originality is a movement or combination of movements unique to the
athlete—a move or sequence not seen before. Understandably, novice
gymnasts love to demonstrate risk and originality, for both are dramatic,
fun, and awe inspiring—especially among the athletes themselves, although
audiences are less likely to be aware when either is demonstrated.

Virtuosity, though, is a different beast altogether. Virtuosity is defined in
gymnastics as “performing the common uncommonly well.” Unlike risk
and originality, virtuosity is elusive, supremely elusive. It is, however, readily
recognized by audience as well as coach and athlete. But more importantly,
more to my point, virtuosity is more than the requirement for that last tenth
of a point; it is always the mark of true mastery (and of genius and beauty).

There is a compelling tendency among novices developing any skill or art,
whether learning to play the violin, write poetry, or compete in gymnastics,
to quickly move past the fundamentals and on to more elaborate, more
sophisticated movements, skills, or techniques.This compulsion is the novice’s
curse—the rush to originality and risk.

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CrossFit Training Guide | Training & Coaching
Fundamentals,Virtuosity, and Mastery ...continued
The novice’s curse is manifested as excessive adornment, PR or max lift, discuss and critique the athletes’ efforts,
silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, marked and then pound out a tight little couplet or triplet
lack of virtuosity and delayed utilizing these skills or just
mastery. If you’ve ever had the play. Play is important. Tire
opportunity to be taught by What will inevitably doom a flipping, basketball, relay
the very best in any field you’ve races, tag, Hooverball, and
likely been surprised at how physical training program and the like are essential to good
simple, how fundamental, how dilute a coach’s efficacy is a lack of programming, but they are
basic the instruction was. The seasoning—like salt, pepper,
novice’s curse afflicts learner
commitment to fundamentals. and oregano. They are not
and teacher alike. Physical main courses.
training is no different.
CrossFit trainers have the tools to be the best trainers
What will inevitably doom a physical training program on earth. I really believe that. But good enough never is,
and dilute a coach’s efficacy is a lack of commitment and we want that last tenth of a point, the whole 10.0.
to fundamentals. We see this increasingly in both We want virtuosity!!
programming and supervising execution. Rarely now do
we see prescribed the short, intense couplets or triplets
that epitomize CrossFit programming. Rarely do trainers
really nitpick the mechanics of fundamental movements.
Yours Truly
I understand how this occurs. It is natural to want to
teach people advanced and fancy movements.The urge to Greg Glassman
quickly move away from the basics and toward advanced
movements arises out of the natural desire to entertain
your client and impress him with your skills and knowledge.
But make no mistake: it is a sucker’s move. Teaching a
snatch where there is not yet an overhead squat, teaching
an overhead squat where there is not yet an air squat, is a
colossal mistake. This rush to advancement increases the
chance of injury, delays advancement and progress, and
blunts the client’s rate of return on his efforts. In short,
it retards his fitness.

If you insist on basics, really insist on them, your clients
will immediately recognize that you are a master trainer.
They will not be bored; they will be awed. I promise
this. They will quickly come to recognize the potency of
fundamentals. They will also advance in every measurable
way past those not blessed to have a teacher so grounded
and committed to basics.

Training will improve, clients will advance faster, and you
will appear more experienced and professional and garner
more respect, if you simply recommit to the basics.

There is plenty of time within an hour session to warm
up, practice a basic movement or skill or pursue a new

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Professional Training
The lessons learned through physical training
are unavoidable. The character traits required
and developed through physical training
are universally applicable to all endeavors.
Perseverance, industry, sacrifice, self-control,
integrity, honesty, and commitment are best
and easiest learned in the gym. Even clients
who have found spectacular success in
business, sport, war, or love find their most
important values buttressed, refined, and
nourished in rigorous training.

Being a professional, I believe that my
competency is solely determined by my
efficacy. My methods must be second to none.
Accordingly, fitness trends and fashions are
distractions, not attractions. To the extent
that my methods are often unconventional,
unaccepted, or unique, they reflect the margins
by which I dominate my industry, and I take
those margins to the bank. A trainer who lusts
for popular approval is chasing mediocrity or
worse.

Committed to unrivaled efficacy, I’ve often had
to develop new tools and methods.This cannot
be done without study and experimentation;
consequently, a lot of my work is done not in
the gym but in books and scientific literature
and in communication with other trainers and
I am a fitness trainer. My practice is more than just a job; coaches.
it is my passion. My clients are my top priority and their
successes are my life’s work—I am a professional. My competency is determined by my efficacy, which is
ultimately determined by my athletes’ performance—
On the surface, my job is to shepherd my athletes (I view performance that must be measured. Competition,
all my clients as athletes regardless of their age or ability) testing, and recordkeeping let me know the difference
toward physical prowess, but I recognize a purpose to my between merely looking or feeling good and actually
efforts and an impact on my athletes that transcends the being good at what I do.
physical. I view training as a physical metaphor for habits
and attitudes that foster success in all arenas. I stress My commitment to my athletes is clearly expressed and
that point to all who train with me and I know I’ve been perceived in our first meeting. I am all theirs. They are
successful only after they bring back concrete examples. the object of my focus and the focus of my conversation.
They come back not because of my physical capacity but

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Professional Training ...continued
because they believe in my capacity to develop theirs. Being a voracious reader of books, newspapers, and
World-class athletes rarely make world-class trainers. magazines, I have no shortage of conversation, ideas, and
knowledge to share, and so you’ll find me at my clients’
I understand that the modern and near-universal trend
parties, weddings, and family gatherings. Indeed, I am a
of skill-less and low-skill programming delivers inferior
personal friend to nearly every one of my clients. This is
results and makes cheerleaders of trainers. I’ll have
extremely gratifying work and often emotionally charged,
none of it. I have to understand the mechanics, cues, and
but that’s all right because I am an integral part of my
techniques of complex movements and to be able to
athlete’s lives, and life is full of laughter, tears, and hope.
teach them to others. I bring a skill set to my training
that scares off most trainers. Our friendship, the fun we have, and the frequency of
our contact, coupled with the scope of fitness’s impact
Keeping up with my athlete’s progress demands that
and the technical merits of my training, contribute to a
I continue to refine and advance my understanding of
professional relationship with my clients that they value
advanced skills. If a trainer’s clients aren’t testing the
uniquely.
limits of his knowledge, he’s not doing a good enough
job with them. The master trainer is eager and proud In appreciation, they do all my marketing. I don’t advertise,
to have a student exceed his abilities but seeks to delay promote, or market. I train very, very well. The more
it by staying ahead of the athlete’s needs rather than by clients I get, the more clients they bring. I don’t have time
retarding the athlete’s growth. for promotion; I’m too busy training.

Because I want my clients’ training experience to
transcend the physical realm, I am obligated to understand
their jobs, hobbies, families, and goals. Motivating clients
to transcend fitness requires that I be involved in their
lives. This isn’t going to happen without my being both
interested in them and interesting to them.

If a trainer’s clients aren’t testing the limits of his knowledge,
he’s not doing a good enough job with them.

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Scaling Professional Training
The standards expressed in “Professional Training” in this The second drawback is that the reduced trainer to
issue—unyielding commitment to client and efficacy— trainee ratio can dilute the professional training standards
have guided everything that Lauren and I have done. that we’ve embraced. This natural dilution can, however,
More than just the backbone of CrossFit’s strength and be compensated for by the trainer’s development of a
successes, it has been, we believe, the primary reason for skill set that is only very rarely found.
our success.
To run group classes without compromising our
Using this template we built a practice that kept us both hallmark laser focus and commitment to the athlete, the
busy from roughly 5:00 to 10:00 a.m., Monday through trainer has to learn to give each member of the group
Saturday. That schedule produced a low-six-figure the impression that he is getting all the attention that
income, which is really amazing given that we got to he could get in one-on-one training, and that requires
work together, with our friends, having a positive impact tremendous training skill.
on people’s lives, and keep afternoons free for family,
We’ve seen this skill fully and adequately developed by
recreation, and study.
only one path—gradually migrating from one-on-one
Training with the attention and commitment that we bring to group sessions. The trainers who are running group
to our practice, though fun and immensely rewarding, is classes without growing into them are typically not
also draining, and five appointments per day is about all working to the professional training standards that we’ve
we could handle without an unacceptable drop in energy, described. They also seem to have an inordinate difficulty
focus, and consequently, professional standards. filling their classes.

Eventually, the demand for our training exceeded the This is exactly how Lauren and I built our group classes.
time we were professionally able or willing to allot. In an After working for years at the limit of our one-on-one
effort to accommodate more athletes, we began to hold capacity, we started accepting new clients by doubling
group classes. them up with other one-on-one clients to form one-on-
two appointments.
We had used group classes to train some of our athletic
teams and everyone loved them, trainers and athletes We introduced the shift to group classes by telling the
alike. The social dynamic of group classes is extremely existing one-on-one clients that we had good news for
powerful. Run correctly, they motivate an athletic output them: “Your training rate is going to go down and we’re
that is only rarely matched in one-on-one training. going to introduce you to a new friend.” Where there
The competition and camaraderie of the group classes was resistance to sharing the time we asked for a trial
motivated our line “Men will die for points” and the period. It went swimmingly well.
recognition that CrossFit is “the sport of fitness.”
We structured payment so that a client who was paying,
Group classes also dramatically increase training say, $75 per session would now be paying only $50. This
revenues! drives the trainer’s hourly revenue up and reduces the
clients’ costs per session. This prompted many to come
There are, however, two drawbacks to group classes. The
more often. When our schedules filled and it became
first is space—more athletes require more space to train,
necessary to bring a third person to each group we
but, fortunately, the space required to train ten people is
brought the individual rate to $40 per session and again
not ten times that required for one, and space adequate
the trainer’s hourly rose and the client’s costs fell. With
for one athlete can serve three or four athletes well.
the addition of each new athlete to the session, the

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Scaling Professional Training ...continued
rates fall for the athlete and rise for the trainer, and it we both kept a couple of choice one-on-one clients. We
all works perfectly unless there’s a perceived reduction charged $15 per class and averaged ten to fifteen athletes
in attention. per session.

All the demands on the trainer skyrocket in this situation This substantially raised our income. It also gave a much-
however. Attention, enthusiasm, voice projection, and noticed boost to the stability of our practice. Seasonal
engagement all have to escalate. It is an acquired skill—an fluctuations due to summer and Christmas vacations
art, really. Our goal is too give so much attention and largely disappeared. With a one-on-one practice, when
“in your face” presence to each participant that each is three clients you see two or three times per week are,
actually grateful that he didn’t get more attention. The by coincidence, on vacation simultaneously, income takes
essential shift is that the level of scrutiny and criticism is a hit. Not so with group classes.
ratcheted up along with the rate of praise and input for
At the same time we started converting our practice
each client. The trainer becomes extremely busy. There’s
from one-on-one to group classes we launched
no way a new trainer can walk into this environment
CrossFit.com. The launch of the website was motivated
and do well. (Imagine the decline in standards for those
by the same commitment to client and efficacy that
trainers who are participating in their classes while trying
motivated our training. We were looking not to increase
to lead them. We see this too often, and the training is
our revenues but to favorably impact more people with
always substandard.)
our training. The difference may seem inconsequential,
Within two years Lauren and I had morphed our one- but the public clearly knows the difference.
on-one practice to all group classes without increasing
The group classes, the website, this journal, our seminars,
the number of hours we worked each week, although
and our affiliate program were all introduced to bring
more quality training to more
people. Each of these additions
also increased CrossFit’s value
for everyone involved. It was our
original one-on-one clients who
initially came to and benefited
from the group classes, subscribed
to the journal, visited the website,
and attended the seminars. Every
CrossFit expansion has served
the entire community.

Lauren and I, and CrossFit, are
in pursuit not of money but of
excellence. The difference, we
believe, is the difference between
success and failure. The pursuit
of excellence is the heart of our
business plan.

Money is,for many,elusive because
markets are unknowable. But
while markets are unknowable,

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Scaling Professional Training ...continued
excellence is obvious to most everyone, especially free, “Will it improve the quality of the programming and
and large, markets. the training experience?” the answer was a resounding
“Yes!” On expansion, the CrossFit Santa Cruz numbers
If you can accept the three premises that:
tripled within six months and the extra space allowed
1. markets are largely unknowable for some refinements and additions to our programming
that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
2. excellence is obvious to everyone, and
As our seminars, journal, website, and affiliate program
3. free markets reward excellence
grew, we handed off the group classes to a new generation
it becomes obvious that the most effective business plan of CrossFit trainers who now cover most of the overhead
comes from achieving excellence and letting the market costs of CrossFit Santa Cruz. This has afforded Lauren
bring the money to you. The efficiency and effectiveness and me time and opportunity to commit more energy
of this paradigm is breathtaking. and resources to new projects that support and develop
the CrossFit community.
We’ve used the pursuit of excellence to guide our every
move. For instance, when we were considering the last
expansion of CrossFit Santa Cruz we couldn’t determine
whether it would be financially feasible or not. The
variables were too numerous and the assumptions too
uncertain to convince any accountant of the wisdom
of expansion, but when we asked the simple question,

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Manual nivel 4 cross fit

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