WHAT IS CROSSFIT?
CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. It has been designed to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program. As many CrossFitters like to say, “Our specialty is not specializing”.
CrossFit is also an evidence-based fitness program. At CrossFit fitness is defined as increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Capacity is the ability to do real work, which should be measurable. Life is unpredictable (much more so than sport), so real world fitness must be broad and not specialized. Our workouts are designed to maximize this broad, inclusive fitness.
The CrossFit program is a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competency in each of ten recognized fitness domains. These domains are Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy – basically we are creating all around athletes and TRULY FIT people, not just these bodybuilders who may struggle to run a block or endurance athletes who have severely dwindled away in terms muscle mass and so on. The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual’s competency at all physical tasks. CrossFit athletes are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges. The CrossFit formula for achieving success in all of the above is exercise that is constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity.
An important idea behind the CrossFit method is training for the unknown and unknowable–you don’t know how far you’ll need to walk that day, how many groceries you’ll need to carry, how much snow will fall or how intense the game will be. Survival, sports, combat, and most importantly, life– reward this kind of fitness.
CrossFit has proven effective in many different fitness and athletic arenas. Aside from the totality of fitness that the CrossFit Program produces, the program is distinctive, if not unique, in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response (Neuro = Brain & Central nervous system, Endocrine = hormonal), developing real power, using multiple training modalities (using all sorts of exercises to get results, i.e. – gymnastics/body-weight, Olympic lifts, power lifts, many different ‘cardio’ exercises, etc…), training and practicing with functional movements (not just these silly isolated movements you see in your local Globo gym that have no real world application and do next to nothing for your overall strength, fitness and athleticism), and the development of successful diet strategies (we love Zone and Paleo).
CAN I DO CROSSFIT?
The program elicits amazing results from people of any and every type of background. The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. CrossFit routines have been used for elderly individuals with heart disease, soccer moms, individuals looking for challenging and rewarding endeavors, elite athletes and everybody in-between. The needs of Olympic athlete and the needs of our grandparents differ by degree not kind. The CrossFit program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive.
SOME OF THE TRAINING WE DO
CrossFit athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure and competency in each of the three main metabolic pathways. We train our athletes in gymnastics (any body-weight movements) from rudimentary to advanced movements garnering great capacity at controlling the body both dynamically and statically while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility like no other style of exercise can do. We also place an emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting having seen this sport’s unique ability to develop an athletes’ explosive power, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns. And finally we encourage and assist our athletes to explore a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their fitness.
CROSSFIT: THE SPORT OF FITNESS
CrossFit has also championed turning fitness into a sport. Each workout is essentially a competition with yourself and a competition with your fellow CrossFitters within your affiliate and the larger CrossFit community. The reason CrossFit has been called “The Sport of Fitness” is because it re-introduces personal athletic achievement and performance to training. The mindset at the start of each workout is to be stronger, move faster, more efficiently, with better form than ever. This is why even after years of training using CrossFit methods, athlete’s scores and times in workouts continue to drop and athletes continue to improve. CrossFit is hard, fun, exciting, challenging, and will push you to be your absolute best! This healthy competition and the struggle of the CrossFit workout helps create that strong sense of camaraderie and community within the affiliates.
WORLD CLASS FITNESS IN 100 WORDS:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.
~Coach Greg Glassman
IN SUMMARY
For further/more detailed information on what CrossFit is please see the following link from the CrossFit Journal: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-download/Foundations.pdf
WINDSOR CROSSFIT
Windsor CrossFit is Windsor-Essex County’s only official and dedicated CrossFit facility. We provide a superior health & fitness program that produces unrivaled results and encourages us to reach our fullest potential in every facet of human performance and life.
At Windsor CrossFit we take great pride in consistently delivering world class training. This elite training translates to superior health and superior fitness matched by no other fitness program or facility in this region. We accomplish this utilizing a variety of methods. The first would be through CrossFit’s programming. Numerous cases of empirically driven evidence show that CrossFit’s methods of constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity are producing some of the most fit, healthy and athletic people in the world. Another very important aspect of WCF is the concept of community (a concept that cannot be replicated at your average ‘Globo gym’, simply by design).
Aside from providing individuals with a superior fitness program yielding unprecedented and unmatched results, we create an amazing and dedicated community out of our members. ‘The struggle’ that is the CrossFit Workout of the Day (WOD) bring our members together. A strong sense of comradery is shared by each of our members throughout their CrossFit experience. Our members bonds are further strengthened through the encouragement, support, passion and genuine care they display to one another before, during and after each and every workout they conquer. When we take this formula of great programming, a community of determined and passionate individuals and add on the healthy competition (the idea of CrossFit turning fitness into a sport) displayed in each WOD you simply cannot avoid the superior results, lasting friendships, and the all around fantastic and motivating atmosphere consistently seen at Windsor CrossFit.
It is our mission to provide effective, efficient, and elite training. We will provide this in an environment dedicated to striking a unique balance of humility, service, caring, attitude and professionalism. This environment yields unparalleled results, excellence, top athletic performance, elite fitness and, most importantly, superior health of our athletes over broad time. We will achieve all the above while simultaneously creating and maintaining a dedicated community of individuals that support, encourage and celebrate one-another’s triumphs and successes throughout their fitness journeys.
Simply put, at Windsor CrossFit we live our fitness.
