What is CrossFit?
The Way of Elite Fitness!
CrossFit is a worldwide fitness phenomenon that offers a pathway to optimal physical conditioning to anyone from wannabe warriors and homemakers to elite professional athletes. All it requires is membership in a CrossFit “box” (the CrossFit version of a gym) and a very serious personal commitment. CrossFit challenges members to push their bodies to the limit and beyond, but rewards the effort with game-changing, even life-changing results.
How serious is CrossFit training? It has become the strength and conditioning program of choice for many police academies and special-operations military units, as well as hundreds of champion athletes around the world. But people who fight fires, fight in the ring, fight the war on terror or fight the daily battle of the bulge have all achieved their best physical fitness using the same CrossFit training methods.
CrossFit works by confronting the body with a different set of training challenges every day. When done correctly, this short, but comprehensive Workout of the Day (WOD) routinely humbles couch potatoes, as well as runners, swimmers, power lifters, power forwards and other athletes that specialize in only one aspect of physical performance. The WOD may vary in scale and intensity depending on the member’s age, experience and physical condition, but everyone follows the same program and meets the challenge according to their individual abilities.
Each member is not only responsible for completing his or her WOD, they are also expected to help motivate and encourage other members to perform, endure and excel. CrossFit members and coaches embrace a team community culture that helps drive everyone to individual success.
The CrossFit Games
In the box, CrossFit members compete against themselves as they continuously drive to set and surpass their personal strength and endurance limits. However, there is an annual series of competitions among of CrossFit members from every corner of the globe. At stake, is a trip to the Reebok CrossFit Games in Carson, California, and a chance to claim the title of World’s Fittest Man and World’s Fittest Woman.
Tens of thousands of CrossFit athletes participate in Open competitions across the US, Canada, Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and South America. Only a fraction of these entrants reach the Regionals, and only an elite few survive the grueling journey to the CrossFit Games. These competitions are based on the standard CrossFit Workout of the Day training model pushed to the bleeding edge of human performance.
A motto of the CrossFit culture is to be “prepared for the unknown and the unknowable.” CrossFit competitions are no exception. The WODs are not announced until just before the competitions take place. The athlete’s have no way to be fully prepared unless they’re ready for everything.
For example, at the 2012 CrossFit Games, the finalists were notified, on the day they arrived, that an entire extra day of competition would be added to the standard three-day schedule. It was not just a few extra WODs. It was a complete triathlon featuring an ocean swim and cross-country cycling and running stages. Clearly, if you’re man or woman enough to compete in the CrossFit Games, you must be prepared for anything in order to win and deserve the title of Fittest on Earth.
