Coach Glassman, 'Routine is the enemy'.

Regular training is essential in propagating any increase in health and physical fitness. However by their very nature, CrossFit sessions are hard to summarise to the uninitiated. And harder still to generalise. Routine is an anathema to the entire crossfit philosophy of 'constantly varied functional movements performed with intensity' so with that in mind how can we loosely describe CrossFit Sessions?

Crossfit sessions may be themed say cardio, calisthenics or strength training. Sessions typically combine these training modalities into a single workout as CrossFit specializes in not specializing. Why, when you specialize its always at the cost of something else, something significant. 

Ask a marathon runner to lift his body weight over head or a power lifter to run 10 miles. These are both specialists and have both compromised overall ability to excel in a small niche. Ask the marathon runner to sprint compared to the power lifter and typically the power lifter would win even though it’s nearer the runner’s specialty. To quote coach Glassman, 'nature punishes the specialist. Whether its survival, combat, lifelong health or competition, specialization is a risky strategy. 

CrossFit Athletes warm up prior to the WOD (work out of the day), and then commence a short intense work out lasting between 4 and 30 minutes. The shorter the work out, the more intense it is. It is entirely possible to utterly fatigue even an elite athlete within 2 or 3 minutes with a really tough Crossfit work out. The intensity of the trainees work out is dependant on their level of fitness so initially we encourage beginners to limit themselves to 50% of their capacity, then 70% then of course 100%.

After the workout there will be a brief warm down and notes are taken off atheletes performance. These are then posted so athletes can measure their performance.

However what is hard to describe is the sheer effort and positive atmosphere of communal support. CrossFit is highly varied but the one constant, is always intense effort. This combined with the variety of functional movements is what generates Crossfits' outstanding results.

Paul Grey
Crossfit Bristol