Crossfit Journal

The No. 1 goal of a good strength-and-conditioning program is to increase speed. The No. 2 goal is getting athletes to replicate that.

“Replicate speed, replicate speed, replicate speed,” says CrossFit Football trainer Raphael Ruiz.

“It’s a very, very difficult pill for us to swallow as gym rats because, oftentimes, how many of us have ever been going through a workout or WOD where you know, ‘This isn’t as fast as I can go’? You know that, ‘This isn’t the best that I can possibly do. I just want to get through it.’”

When training athletes, however, the intent should be for them to perform as best as possible in their sport. That’s accomplished through the right kind of training, Ruiz says.

“You will always fall back on your level of training,” he says. “I want to make sure that my ‘default’ is as good as it can possibly be.”

Likewise, great coaches are able to train the emotional response, Ruiz explains.

“One of the things that we always tell the athletes is ‘be a bullet in a gun.’ No matter if you’re on field, no matter if you’re in the weight room, you’re trying to develop the mentality that you’re a bullet in a gun,” he says. “Squeeze the trigger, the bullet does what? Does it think? Does it hesitate? Does it go slow? It goes as hard, as fast as it can possibly go—no matter what.”

Click here for more information and a list of upcoming CrossFit Football Trainer Courses.

7min 34sec

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Additional reading: The Deeper Side of Coaching by Ben Bergeron, published on Dec. 2, 2011.

Dark horses make the Reebok CrossFit Games Open a great race. Hilary Achauer talks to two of many who are hoping to get to the regional level.

Skeleton racing is a sport that involves hurtling headfirst down an icy track at speeds of more than 70 miles per hour with no steering or braking mechanism. It’s something nobody in his or her right mind would do.

When Ryan Fischer heard about an open call for a spot on the Olympic skeleton team in 2007, he signed up to try out right away. Fischer kept getting hurt with skeleton and bobsled racing, tearing his hamstring and later his ACL, so in 2010 he was looking for something new when he wandered into Ute CrossFit. Given Fischer’s Olympic-weightlifting background, it wasn’t long before he was coaching and then competing.

Like many successful CrossFit athletes, 31-year-old Tiffany Hendrickson has a background in college gymnastics. After college, Hendrickson moved to England for four years with her husband, where she focused on raising her three children. Hendrickson remained active with rock climbing and cycling, but nothing fueled her competitive fire until she saw a CrossFit gym near her home in Utah in February 2010. Hendrickson didn’t know anybody who did CrossFit, but she was immediately hooked.

Who are your dark horses in the 2012 Reebok CrossFit Games Open? Post names and details to comments.

Clad in a sequined beret, a spaghetti-strap tank top, compression shorts and a pink boa, one member of CrossFit New Haven says you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously.

During the box’s October Barbells for Boobs event, the bearded man decided to “dress it up, booty short it up” all in pink.

“Too many competitions, too much seriousness—gotta bring it back to basics,” he says with a smile.

More than 100 people last year registered for the affiliate’s two-hour event, and co-owner Eric O’Brien says charity is important to the people at the box.

“Our members really get behind causes,” he says. “It’s just great the energy around—guys struggling, RXing it for the first time.”

And the encouragement is constant—regardless of whether the person finishes first or last.

“That’s the spirit of CrossFit—that’s what it’s all about,” O’Brien says.

Having worked for a nonprofit for many years, another member says the kind of energy at CrossFit New Haven is difficult to find elsewhere.

“When you have people who care so much about each other … ,” she starts. “If one person in this gym is sick, we all feel that and we all rally and do anything we can to support them.”

6min 50sec

Additional reading: CrossFit—and My 10-Year-Old—Helped Me Beat Leukemia by Rick Reifenberg, published Dec. 19, 2011.

Mikki Lee Martin and Keegan Lee Martin explain how CrossFit Kids Preteen Class is a bridge between Kids and Teen/Advanced classes.

There is a natural division within the gaggle of children in our CrossFit Kids classes. They generally divide by friendships, which tend to be consistent with age. Given the very broad age range we suggest for a CrossFit Kids program (5 to 12), dividing into groups makes sense as it keeps friends together.

Often for the WOD, we end up with an A group and a B group, offering two versions of a workout to engage both age groups. This is repeated with the game, where two versions are offered, one of which is designed to challenge the older and often more capable kids. However, as our CrossFit Kids class grew in size, we began to see the need to divide the group more formally by age to optimize the time with both.

The Preteen Class (ages 10 to 12) acts as a bridge between the CrossFit Kids Class and the Teen/Advanced Class. Although many preteens are beginning to feel they no longer belong with younger kids, they are usually not ready for the emotional and social context of the Teen/Advanced Class. That bears repeating: for optimum success—and CrossFit is all about optimization—putting a child younger than 12 into the Teen Class should be done with extreme caution and definitely only after discussion with both the child and the parents. In addition to being socially and emotionally immature for the Teen/Advanced Class, many 10-12-year-olds are not yet physically prepared.

Launching a CrossFit Kids program can seem daunting. Luckily, Seminar Staff members John and Kelly Brown, Aimee Lyons, and Todd Widman—as well as CrossFit New England’s Heather Bergeron—have advice.

Start classes with the age group you’re most comfortable with, Widman says. And only begin with three children whose parents are already CrossFitters.

“You don’t have to sell those parents on anything,” he explains. “They’re like, ‘Sweet. CrossFit Kids class? Do it. Can’t wait. How much? I’ll pay whatever you want.’”

For the first month, make it free, Widman says.

As the class grows, be mindful of trainer ratios, Kelly Brown says. For preschoolers, one trainer ideally coaches six; for older children and teen groups, one trainer ideally coaches 15, she says. Bergeron advises combining kids and teens so the two groups begin and end playing a game together but are separate in the middle with a coach dedicated to each group.

“For parents, it’s awesome because they can drop both kids off at one time and know they’re both getting the appropriate coaching and training,” she says.

The Browns found that offering a family rate got not only kids but also more adults in their box.

Video by Again Faster.

8min 48sec

Additional reading: CrossFit Kids “Switch” by Mikki Lee Martin, published Jan. 3, 2012.

Dan Edelman visits the CrossFit Kids Gauntlet and finds the missing link between fitness and the zombie apocalypse.

My mind zeroed out the moment I was asked to write a piece on the second CrossFit Kids Gauntlet, which went down at the Los Angeles Fitness Expo on Jan. 28 and 29.

I didn’t panic, mostly because I didn’t have the time or energy to spare. See, I consider my prime mission for CrossFit Kids to be communicating the substance and significance of the program to the CrossFit community (and beyond), but this weekend my main job was to help ensure that the Gauntlet ran as smoothly—and above all safely—as possible. I am lucky and honored to be working among great people, so my work was easy, if seemingly non-stop.

By all accounts, the competition was a success, and at the end of Day 2, we were adrift in that exhilarated state of exhaustion that comes after completing what we believe is essentially a good thing. And I was story-less. But not for lack of potential topics.

So I made my way home, thoughts tangling on the rocks of responsibility at home and CrossFit Brand X. And then, driving beneath the pastel Popsicle light of the westering sun, a story shambled out of the muck: Zombies.

CrossFit Santa Cruz’s Laurie Galassi is a gymnast and CrossFit coach. In this instructional video, she breaks down that most challenging CrossFit movement: the muscle-up.

Focusing first on body shapes and hand position, Galassi explains how very small adjustments can make a big difference on the rings.

Of course, the false grip is critical to success, and no, it isn’t very comfortable. For those who tend to get red and raw wrists, Galassi has a quick-and-easy taping technique that will help you avoid leaving blood on the rings.

8min 4sec

Additional reading: The Muscle-Up by Greg Glassman, published Nov. 1, 2002.

Mike Riepenhoff’s CrossFit Story begins with the 2007 movie 300. After he and his wife went to see the film with another couple, his friend began researching the workouts that gave the actors their sculpted physiques.

“Backtracked it all the way to CrossFit,” Riepenhoff says.

The other couple then found CrossFit Atlanta. And thus the addiction began.

“Anything and everything was CrossFit. When we were at dinner, when we were at lunch, when we’d go out to the bar, they were talking CrossFit,” he says.

One month later, Riepenhoff and his wife started at the box, too.

“It’s been the best moments of our lives as far as (a) workout and getting in shape,” he says.

As for Riepenhoff’s wife, she’s been getting the best of him, he says with a smile.

“She beat me on the first workout,” he says. “She continues to beat me on workouts.”

9min 59sec

Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Weekend Edition 9 by Dave Young, published April 29, 2009.

In 2008, 32-year-old Rob Orlando was reaching the end of his personal-training career. It was time to find another way to make a living, he says. Then the question came from a client he had been privately training at local gyms: “‘What’s stopping you from just doing this on your own?’”

Orlando’s response: $50,000.

“He just took out his checkbook and wrote me a check. He basically told me to shut up, find some space and open a gym.”

Hybrid Athletics was born in May 2008, and it became a CrossFit affiliate later that year.

In Part 1, Orlando talks about opening his gym and his entrance into the CrossFit community.

In Part 2, take a tour of the Stamford, Conn., facility.

Orlando often says if the typical box has 100 toys, Hybrid has 107. There are tires weighing 750 and 1000 lb., a 330-lb. piece of timber that washed up on shore during a hurricane, 11-ft. axles, and kegs as heavy as 250 lb.—for starters.

And there’s the so-called “Globo Gym Graveyard,” where dozens of plastic key-ring cards are nailed to the wall.

“This is where people have kind of finally seen the light and they come in and they turn in their card on my desk and I hang it up,” Orlando says with a smile. “Love that.”

Click here for more information and a list of upcoming CrossFit Strongman Trainer Courses.

Part 1
7min 4sec

Part 2
8min 11sec

Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 202 by Justin Judkins, published Dec. 14, 2011.

Michael Campi explains how to behave as a stranger in a strange land.

The benefits of belonging to an affiliate are clear: quality coaching, a sense of community and working with a group of people who have a common purpose. But what if an affiliate is not available to you for whatever reason?

There are a couple of routes you can follow: you can start to accumulate your own equipment and build a garage gym, you can follow the never-gym-less philosophy popularized by Ross Enamait, or you can head to the neighborhood Globo.

For the economically challenged or those who don’t live near an affiliate, joining a big box gym is usually cheap. Other perks include showers, and most of them have pools and lots of weights, and some of the people there—although misled by the mainstream fitness philosophy—are quite friendly. So if you are a self-starter with built-in motivation, then it is possible to thrive as a CrossFitter in a Globo environment.

In 2010, Scott Horton was more than 330 lb. and riddled with health issues.

“My doctor basically told me that if I didn’t start losing some weight, I was going to have some real problems,” he says.

So Horton did some research and ended up being paired with a trainer at a Globo Gym. That trainer—Atom Ziniewicz—introduced him to CrossFit.

“It just made sense,” Horton says. “It was just a really great, balanced workout.”

A few months later—in December— Ziniewicz opened a box of his own, CrossFit Liberation.

Since April 2010, Horton has lost 85 lb. and now weighs 256 lb.

“It’s probably the first time in my life that I’ve ever been really excited to get up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the box and knock out a WOD,” he says.

Those are impressive words from a man who once couldn’t even run 50 yards “let alone a mile without seriously almost passing out.”

And the 46-year-old has a 500-lb. deadlift.

“I think that if I hadn’t found Atom Ziniewicz and CrossFit Liberation I probably would still be… ,” he starts. “Who knows? I might not even be here.”

10min 8sec

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Additional reading: Tales of a 40-Year-Old Superhero by Lisa Erickson, published Jan. 12, 2012.

Jeremy Striffler applies the concept of tribal culture to CrossFit and examines the five stages of the CrossFit tribe.

On a crisp, cold Saturday morning in early December, I showed up at TwinTown CrossFit in Minneapolis, Minn., to participate in the preliminary round of the Winter PR Challenge. The sight of 30-plus members of the gym preparing to do the CrossFit Total welcomed me.

For close to three hours, our group cheered each other on as we made our individual attempts at each element. A countless number of personal records were achieved, and the atmosphere was fun and celebratory and transcended any other experience I have ever had in the past at a gym or on a sports team. I was overwhelmed by the group’s commitment to each other’s success, which seemed more paramount than any individual worrying about his or her own accomplishments.

What I had suspected over my past six months since joining the gym was finally confirmed that day—we are a tribe.

On Episode 211 of CrossFit Radio, host Justin Judkins interviewed CrossFit 1525 owner Nikki Goldin and CrossFit Gymnastics subject-matter expert Jeff Tucker. This episode was webcast live at 6 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012.

The WOW (Workout of the Week) is from CrossFit Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Complete 10 rounds for time of:
315-lb. deadlifts, 3 reps
6 burpees
9 toes-to-bars

1:35 Nicole “Nikki” Goldin owns CrossFit 1525 in Houston, Texas. She has approximately 285 members and explained what she’s done to be so successful. Goldin talked about social media and using Facebook to build her community culture by uploading photo albums weekly. She described how she started CrossFit and how she has gained as much knowledge as possible through the CrossFit Journal and other people with more experience. As a successful affiliate owner, she gave advice to those who want to build a positive and connected culture at their own boxes. Finally, Nikki described what she plans on doing for the Reebok CrossFit Games Open and how she’s encouraged the average CrossFitters at her box to participate.

26:15 Jeff Tucker is CrossFit’s gymnastics expert, and the Texan has several big projects in the works. He described the space-saving “exercise sculpture” he has created to allow CrossFitters to do over 300 different exercises, and he also talked about putting the finishing touches on his book that will serve as a reference tool for CrossFitters looking to improve their gymnastics skills. Tucker went on to explain what his affiliate, GSX CrossFit, will be doing for the Open competition, then moved on to online coaching. As an in-demand coach, Tucker is experimenting with training athletes online, and he talked about the pros and cons he has seen in the short time he’s been doing it.

52min 24sec

In the CrossFit Kettlebell Trainer course, Jeff Martone says a good kettlebell swing has four key elements: weight on the heels, neutral neck, straight back and purposeful breathing. He emphasizes kinesthetic drills to help athletes understand the right and wrong ways to move their bodies.

He has course attendees do several reps of kettlebell deadlifts while keeping their weight on their heels, their necks neutral and their backs flat.

What’s often forgotten is breathing.

“Just kind of gettin’ that air in there will really take some pressure off that lower back,” Martone says.

Breathing will also help the body and mind relax and lead to better performance.

“To get max power … you gotta be relaxed,” he says. “So if you’re tense, it’s going to rob of you of speed, endurance and power.”

Click here for more information and a list of upcoming CrossFit Kettlebell Trainer Courses.

13min 57sec

Additional reading: Rugby and the Rotational Kettlebell Swing by Nicolas Rithner, published Oct. 5, 2009.

Elite weightlifter Erin Okonek explains how she’s fitter and happier now that she’s doing CrossFit.

What is CrossFit and why is it better than other workout programs?

By definition, CrossFit workouts are constantly varied functional movements performed at a high intensity. More simply stated, “It is hard as fuck!”

Yet these attributes do not sufficiently capture the true meaning of CrossFit and inadequately define CrossFit vs. the copious other workout programs people are bombarded with on a daily basis.

Overall, CrossFit is not a workout program; it is a lifestyle. I would personally go even further to state that it is my religion and therapy. Granted, for some of us CrossFit addicts, it’s about “chasing the rabbit,” competing and becoming a firebreather. But most importantly, CrossFit, unlike other workout programs, makes us better overall people by creating strong, confident and dedicated individuals.

Fun, quality of movement and the prescription—those are the three elemental pillars part and parcel to the CrossFit Kids program.

“It is imperative that you pair fitness with fun—has to happen,” Todd Widman says during a CrossFit Kids Trainer Course at CrossFit New England. “If they do not have fun, you have ruined them for life.”

Just remember that fun changes as preschoolers become preteens and then teenagers.

Quality of movement is also paramount.

“We’re training children how to move so that we can embed these movement patterns for life,” he explains.

Children primarily become stronger by building muscle-to-brain connections. Thus, it’s essential for coaches to place emphasis on good movements—not the amount of weight children are moving, Widman says.

Finally, the CrossFit Kids prescription is similar to that of the adult program: constantly varied functional movement executed at high intensity. But Widman says the timeline is different. For children, years should be spent on mechanics and consistency before moving to intensity.

“For children, do less better,” he says. “We’re not trying to load them up. We’re not trying to get them to go fast and hard. We’re trying to get them to move better for years.”

Video by Again Faster.

14min 44sec

Additional reading: Throwing Down the Gauntlet by Hilary Achauer, published Nov. 19, 2011.

We have gingerbread houses for Christmas, barbecued fare on the Fourth of July, turkey for Thanksgiving, chocolate bunnies for Easter and cake on your birthday—but what about Valentine’s Day?

Start a new tradition and serve heart-shaped food! Your kids (and spouse) will get a kick out of these cute eggs.

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to evaluate movement at CrossFit South Bay.

Working on the hip, Starrett delivers a “shaman’s blow” of a test: a three-part quick-and-dirty movement drill designed to instantly assess hip mobility.

The test, of course, is not the be-all and end-all of movement analysis, because it’s staged unlike the natural movements of a squat or deadlift. But the test can very quickly identify issues including imbalances between legs. According to Starrett, side-to-side imbalance is the No. 2 predictor of low-back pain, so evidence of imbalance can be very important info.

From there, Starrett advises against some mobility techniques that put athletes in bad positions or cause numbness or pain.

“What’s the rule? Don't mobilze in a bad position.”

Click here more information and a list of upcoming CrossFit Movement and Mobility Trainer Courses.

8min 35sec

Additional reading: Hamstrung by Kelly Starrett, published July 1, 2007.

St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock embraces the CrossFit Life. Mike Warkentin reports.

Ken Hitchcock is a hockey guy.

He’s coached over 1,000 games behind the benches of four NHL teams, and he’s won over 500 of them. He’s been a coach at three NHL All-Star Games, and he’s been a part of two Canadian teams that won gold medals at the Olympics.

Hitchcock has also hoisted hockey’s Holy Grail, the Stanley Cup, while coaching the Dallas Stars in 1998-99.

“Hitch” is a hockey guy through and through.

He’s also a CrossFit guy.

HQ Seminar Staff member Todd Widman says everyone should attend a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course—even the person who just heard of the training methodology and has never attended a class.

“It doesn’t matter what seminar you go to; the Level 1 courses are just stocked full of amazing trainers,” he says while at a seminar at CrossFit Oahu.

Widman got hooked on CrossFit several years ago when he was a captain in the Marine Corps. As part of CrossFit’s Seminar Staff, he says he finds his job highly rewarding. Likewise, he encourages everyone in the community to give coaching a try before shouldering the responsibility of owning an affiliate.

“When you give people the power of doing something—a pull-up, a push press, a squat, whatever it is—they figure out that they can do that by their will. They can then start to take care of this,” Widman says, pointing with both index fingers to his head.

He adds: “I love that stuff because they realize that they’re still in control of their life, that it’s not just all downhill for the rest of their life. It’s shocking and humbling and beautiful.”

9min 22sec

Additional reading: The Best of the Best by Mike Warkentin, published Nov. 23, 2011.