CrossFit is designed to help you become the fittest and healthiest you possible. It is a fitness methodology geared towards enhancing the level of fitness and health for any and all individuals. Whether your goal is to get faster/stronger for a sport, to lower your blood pressure, or to simply play with your grandchildren, CrossFit will help you reach your goal(s). Each person’s needs vary by degree, not by type. We all need to have strength, stamina, balance, and flexibility to some degree in our daily lives. Every CrossFit workout is scalable or adaptable to your capabilities which means that no matter what your experience level, CrossFit can be beneficial for you.
The definition of CrossFit according to crossfit.com is “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.”
‘Constantly varied’ means that the WOD (workout of the day) is different from day to day and week to week. You never know what life will throw your way so it’s smart to train all 10 domains of fitness (cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy).
‘Functional movements’ means that during a CrossFit workout, each exercise will be beneficial for improving daily life. Training functional movements such as weightlifting, gymnastics, aerobics, and running will make daily tasks such mowing the yard, taking out the trash, or carrying in the groceries easier.
Training with ‘high intensity’ is important because high intensities do the best job of producing adaptations, and these adaptations can include getting stronger, more flexible, faster, better balance, etc. It is important to remember that high intensity is relative to each individual. What may be a high intensity workout for a mother of three probably won’t be high intensity for the high school football player trying to earn a starting position, but each of them need to train at their relative high intensities to produce the adaptations they desire.
