December 2004
ISSUE TWENTY-EIGHT
December 2004
CrossFit PT
- Greg Glassman
page 8
Notes From the “Outside Girl”
How the strength-in-numbers phenomenon can leave you crying for more.
- Linsay Yaw
At 9am on November 12th, I parked my car in front of the Colorado State
Patrol Training Academy in Golden, Colorado, looked at Carolyn Parker
riding shotgun and wondered what we were about to embark upon. As we
ducked between towers of turbo diesel trucks and undercover cop cars on
our way inside I whispered, “Good thing I paid all my speeding tickets, girl,
because they’d probably make us CrossFit for payoff.” As soon as our feet hit
the waxed linoleum floor of the Academy—nice work, boys—and I looked
up and saw a sea of 6-plus foot herculean stouts whose mere raw poundage
could likely break both Carolyn and me in half, my heart rate quadrupled and
my ego dived. “Oh man, I’m going to get throttled this weekend, these dudes
are burly,” I thought to myself. Despite my shrinking physical prowess, I kept
my cool and continued weaving my way through the bulksters and introduced
myself to CrossFit founders, Greg and Lauren and equally legendary moguls
continued page ... 7
continued page ... 2
- Andrew Thompson w/
Anthony Budding
What does CrossFit training
have in common with Stoic
philosophy and the story of
an American Prisoner Of War
(POW)? Mental toughness. The
ability to tolerate discomfort for
a higher purpose. The strength of
will to not be broken by adversity.
Of course, the demands of a
CrossFit workout can’t compare
in intensity to being tortured as
a POW for military secrets, but
it does compare in kind. CrossFit
is all about scalability. As Coach
has always said, the demands of
an elite athlete are different from
a deconditioned senior only in
degree and not in kind.
Vice Admiral (VADM) James
B. Stockdale, United States
Navy (retired, b.1923-), was
the
senior-ranking
Naval
Officer within the Vietnamese
prison camp system. He
spent nearly eight years as a
POW, four of which were in
CrossFit, Stoicism,
and An American
Prisoner of War
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colorado
1
December 2004
like Lani, Eva, Dan John and Coach
Burgener. The funny thing was that
regardless of their girth, height, thigh
circumference or wickedly fast time
on the WOD’s, each firm handshake
was met with a decidedly humble nod
and a welcoming smile. It was then
that I realized these were not your
average gym junkies.
Until this moment, I had only
been exposed to CrossFit on a few
tangential levels. It started with an
evening session in Salt Lake City with
my fiancé’s colleague, Mark Twight
whose 6-minute box jump and
deadlift combo made the ensuing four
days wrought with the pain of hot
daggers piercing my upper hamstrings.
Twight’s enthusiasm and my personal
curiosity led me to write a story
for Outside Magazine where the
“research” gave me hours of excuses
for bugging Greg Glassman on the
phone with quantifiable CrossFit
questions. Since 99 percent of that
information did not make it into the
article (apologies all around for that
one), I began using the unused notes
for experimental and experiential
research on myself and a few friends
willing to submit themselves to
my torture. As I began witnessing
a widening fascination with my
CrossFit-esque sessions in the local
park with no more than a Holiday Inn
notepad and a Suunto stop watch, so
too was the west coast CrossFit crew
watching their philosophy disseminate
via the internet and word of mouth
into big gyms, little gyms, home gyms,
parks, and police training academies
nationwide.
The beauty of this wildfire, however,
was that the CrossFit method
spread not to miracle dieters or
quick-fix soccer moms, but rather
to a swarm of champion athletes
continued page ... 3
Linsay Yaw
...continued from page 2
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colorado
Mark Twight
Mark Twight is an extreme alpinist. His sport
involves spending anywhere from 6 hours to
6 days in some of the harshest environments
on the planet. The nature of his sport requires
power endurance and plain old endurance.
Last year he started incorporating CrossFit into
his regimen and noticed major improvements.
His talk covered the metabolic adaptations
necessary for his sport and other endurance
events.
He covered concepts such as VO2 Max, stroke
volume and lactate turn point. Most people in
fitness think of lactic acid as an evil byproduct
of hard exertions. But Mark explained lactate
(a product of glycolysis) is produced in the
muscles as sodium lactate, which you could
inject into the bloodstream without causing detrimental effects. Furthermore, lactate
is reused as an energy source by the heart, kidneys, inactive muscles and the liver. It
is the hydrogen ions—also a byproduct of gylcolysis—that are acidic and detrimental
to continued muscular contraction. He explained that CrossFit training improves the
body’s capacity to buffer, tolerate and clear acidity during high intensity exercise.
He also covered the Central Governor Theory. Because the heart is unable to
produce energy anaerobically, it must always have a continuous supply of oxygen. As
a result, it is believed that the body downregulates muscular recruitment and power
output to ensure that the heart is never dangerously low on oxygen. This is one
reason an athlete cannot maintain peak power output indefinitely. Through intense
training, Mark believes that it is possible to increase the threshold at which the central
governor kicks in, thus increasing your ability to sustain a high power output.
The most interesting part of Mark’s presentation was his own training regimen. His
CrossFit workouts rarely lasted more than 20-25 minutes, with an average of 10-15
minutes, but his event lasts for many hours. While his experience shows that CrossFit
alone can prepare an athlete to excel during efforts lasting two to four hours (and
more), he has tweaked CrossFit to include regular training sessions in the realm of
high endurance. Following several months of doing only CrossFit, he began including
2-3 days of training at low intensity for long duration in his weekly schedule. Only
these long, endurance sessions will provide some of the specific adaptations required
for his sport: muscle fiber type conversion, improved oxygen efficiency, fat metabolism
and economy of effort to name a few. As these longer days were incorporated, peak
power declined, but his ability to maintain high rates of work for long periods of time
improved, and more importantly, he began recovering more quickly from lengthy
(up to 24-hour) efforts. Twight believes that this type of hybrid training program,
combining CrossFit with sports-specific endurance will be the way the best athletes
of the future are trained.
Mark Twight eats a “40-30-200” diet to provide fuel for his efforts. A diet high in fat
is essential to fuel efforts executed at predominantly fat-burning intensity. Oxidation
of fat does not produce acid, while glycolysis (anaerobic conversion of carbohydrate)
produces acid. Training and fueling to use fat as the main source of energy (even at
high rates of work) spares glycogen, maintains balanced muscle pH and allows the
athlete to maintain output “forever”.
- Tyler Hass
2
December 2004
and biomechanical experts whose
impact is unmatched in the world of
sport, combat and fitness and whose
geographical locations were as varied
as their professions. And on November
12th, upon walking into the room full
of 85 elite I finally realized what Greg
Glassman had been hammering into
my head over the phone months
before—that this cadre of people who
call themselves kin to CrossFit is where
the magic lies. The room was filled with
world-class coaches, jiu-jitsu masters,
Olympians, national record-holders
in a range of sports, climbing legends
and then me, the “Outside [Magazine]
girl.” But what struck me as the most
fascinating was, despite the diversity of
passions, vulnerabilities, strengths, and
weaknesses, everyone gave each other
the latitude and confidence to make
their differences known even in a large
group such as this. Rarely do you find
a celebration of physical disparities as
I did in the CrossFit community that
weekend.
The first day of the seminar, I
maintained a witness standpoint
in an attempt to soak in why and
how CrossFit had become a sort of
antithetical fitness movement whose
popularity was uncannily sweeping. After
watching ten involuntary volunteers do
“Fran” in front of 75 screaming cohorts,
it started making sense. Upon interview
after the workout, five out of six people
acquiesced that had there not been a
gym full of echoing encouragement,
“Fran” would have taken them longer,
they wouldn’t have pushed as hard
and strength gains would have fallen.
The second day, I experienced this
drive personally as myself and 85
others contributed to the symphony of
wallowing grunts during the bottom-to-
bottom Tabata Squat session. Indeed, I
was grinding my molars in pain during
continued page ... 4
Elite gymnastics coach Christopher
Sommer presented his methods
for training gymnasts and gave
us a hands-on demo of how
he warms up his athletes and
some of the exercises he uses.
The primary difference between
Sommer’s approach and that of
other gymnastics coaches is that
he emphasizes preparing the body
before developing high level skills.
Once the physical development
is in place and air awareness is
developed through trampoline
work, skills can be acquired rapidly.
In the physical preparation of his athletes he stresses 5 areas: limit strength, static
strength, support/hang strength-endurance, plyometric strength and joint preparation/
active flexibility. Limit strength is developed by adding resistance to dynamic exercises
such as muscle-ups. Similar to the progressive resistance used in weight training, he
adds loads to gymnastics specific movements. Static strength is developed in positions
such as the front lever, planche and cross. Support/hang strength-endurance is
developed by handstand training, swing work and holding supports on parallel bars
and rings. This type of strength training was actually more effective for him in getting
his young athletes to perform dips than directly practicing dips. He prepares his
athletes for plyometric loading using progressively more difficult hopping and bouncing
and swinging exercises for the lower and upper body. Lastly, he carefully prepares
the joints for the demands of high level training with a special joint preparation/active
flexibility program.
The hands-on session began with a total body warm-up. For the wrists we laid
our hands flat on the floor, fingertips forward and we rocked our weight back and
forth. Then we turned our hands to face the fingertips backwards and rocked back
forth. We then turned the hand over and did the same with fingertips pointing back.
Another pair of interesting warm-up exercises involved using a dowel. Normally these
are done with barbells, however on a first exposure the dowel is more comfortable.
The first was like a toe-touch stretch, but you hold the dowel behind your back and
then stretch forwards. Your straight arms travel as far as possible in an arc towards the
ground. The second was a shoulder dislocate exercise. Holding the dowel behind you
with palms pointing backwards, you bring the bar to the front of your body without
bending your arms. A wide grip may be necessary.
The bodyweight exercises were one of the most interesting parts of the presentation.
One of the more interesting ones was a dynamic abdominal exercise. From a pushup
position, lower your hips to the ground, but keep your arms and legs straight. From
here, explosively lift your hips, causing your whole body to jump from the ground
into a piked position. Absorb the landing by lowering your hips back down, but not
bending your arms. Use this lowering phase to load up for the next jump. Repeat this
pattern and hop sideways across the floor. Another interesting one is a variation of
crawling. From a seated position, push yourself across the floor. Do not pull yourself
with your legs. Push from your arms only. A more advanced variation of this exercise
is to walk in an L-sit. There were too many exercises to cover here, but they will all be
in his upcoming books.
- Tyler Hass
Christopher Sommer
...continued from page 2
Linsay Yaw
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colorado
3
December 2004
the four excruciating minutes, but
knowing that the red-haired Seal next
to me—who also forewarned me that
these squats “put the uck in suck”—was
equally hurting made me forge through
to a higher level of pain and power.
Although this does hurt for a few days,
it’s worth it in the end. Ah, yes, strength
in numbers; the beauty of CrossFit lies
in it’s pupils and their ability to team
up to reach higher levels of potential
strength.
That potential is where CrossFit airs
on miraculous. In just under four years,
Greg, Lauren and those willing to subject
themselves to experiential (or “clinical”
as Greg calls it) research have forged
an ironclad grip on what it means to be
fit. They’ve unintentionally spawned an
entirely progressive physical revolution
that has cemented a gap in elite fitness
and offered a solution to a large group
of willing individuals—individuals whose
collective potency is reason for their
compounding success. Nowhere else
can you find such dedicated pupils
and being witness to this brother- and
sisterhood only fueled the fire within
me to become a dedicated citizen in
the CrossFit community.
end.
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colorado
Linsay Yaw
...continued from page 3
Mike Burgener is Senior International level Olympic weightlifting coach and a
close friend of the CrossFit family. To help him demonstrate the Olympic lifts he
brought along 3 world class Olympic lifters who reside at the Olympic Training
Center, including his son Casey! We were also fortunate enough to have two more
competitive lifters assisting, Josh Everett and Dan John. We went through Mike’s entire
learning progression for the snatch using only a piece of PVC pipe.
To start off, we learned the very basic stances: the jump position and the landing
position. The jump position is the same foot placement as the take-off for a jump,
feet underneath the hips. The landing position is slightly wider, with the feet outside of
the hips by 2” or so, with knees bent and weight on the heels. The hook grip involves
putting your thumb on the bar and wrapping your fingers around the thumb. The grip
should be set so that the bar is 8-12” over your head in the overhead position.
We first learned how to reach full extension in the second pull. Holding the barbell
at the waist with a slight bend in the knees, we extend our ankles, knees and hips
(triple extension) and shrug upwards with our shoulders. We practiced this in several
sets of three. Next, we practiced this from progressively lower hangs. The final step
in this section was pulling from above the knees. Mike emphasized that this motion is
exactly like a jump. The next step was the muscle snatch, which mimics the 3rd pull.
This is a pull from a high hang to overhead. However, it reaches overhead without
a rebend of the knees. In other words, once your legs reach extension, they remain
straight. The barbell should stay close to the body and lock out overhead. Next we
learned the overhead squat. It is important to learn this in order to establish a context
for completing this lift. Then we learned how to perform three variations of the snatch
balance. In this exercise, you stand with the barbell behind your neck and propel
it upwards with a slight knee dip. In the pressing snatch balance, you press yourself
slowly away from the bar. The heaving snatch balance is a quicker movement. The
drop snatch is the quickest of the three. You drive yourself under the bar as fast as
possible and catch it in the overhead squat position. Once comfortable with the drop
snatch, we practiced the full snatch from a high hang. As we got better with this, the
bar was pulled from lower and lower positions, such as from the thighs, slightly above
the knees and finally from the floor. Once you have completed this progression, you
have a snatch. It is also a great warm-up. Coach Burgener recommend hammering
yourself with PVC pipe for a long time before adding very modest amounts of weight
to the bar.
The clean was taught second because it is the easier of the two lifts to learn.
We started off by learning the front squat. The rack position is a key part of this.
Sometimes a light weight, such as an empty barbell is good to help an athlete feel the
rack position. Mechanically, the front squat was very similar to the overhead squat, so
it was very easy for most people to understand this part. Once our front squats were
looking good, Mike told us to start from a high hang and then JUMP with the barbell
and land in a front squat. That’s it, the clean. Instruction on the jerk followed this. Mike
had us first performed push presses and power jerks to get the idea of the hip drive.
He then had us perform his daughter Sage’s progression for learning the jerk landing
position. This progression is simply the walking lunge. To do this, you simply hold the
bar (PVC) overhead and step forward into a lunge. Then you step forward with the
other leg. After this, we were all ready to jerk. With only two hours of instruction, we
were all performing the Olympic lifts!
Mike Burgener
- Tyler Hass
4
December 2004
Tyler Hass
Founder of Dynamax, Dr. Jim Cawley is the world’s leading exponent on medicine ball
training. His classroom presentation covered a variety of principles gleaned from his
experience as a lifelong track and field competitor and coach. One of the key principles
is to train everyone like an athlete. One of CrossFit’s foundations is that the needs of
regular people and elite athletes differ only in degree, not kind. Dr. Cawley also stressed
the importance of building a base through metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, track and
field and finally sports.
His presentation on medicine balls demonstrated the versatility of this tool. A variety
of throwing drills were presented. The first was to develop rotational strength and
involved throwing it to a partner. Standing back to back with your partner, you receive
a hand-off and then explode, tossing the ball behind you on the other side of your body
via a quick twist of the torso initiated from the ground up. Your partner catches it and
then hands it off again to the same side where you started. Another drill for developing
an explosive hip drive involved making large strides across the floor and kicking the ball
with your knee. You would hold the ball in front of you at all times at approximately
navel height. You then simultaneously drop the ball as you thrust your knee upwards and kick the ball back into your hands. It is a
quick movement and is repeated all the way across the floor. The medicine ball sit-up toss was also demonstrated. Lying flat on your
back with the medicine ball over your head, you toss it to your partner. He absorbs the catch by falling backwards, thus loading up to
throw the ball back to you. Each of these exercises was performed using a ball weighing 8 lbs or less.
Jim Cawley
- Tyler Hass
Nick Nibler and Dave Werner of CrossFit North presented the mechanics of
the kettlebell swing. The swing is the fundamental component of all kettlebell
lifting. Learning the basics on this lift will cement the foundation for learning the
clean, snatch and Hand2Hand exercises taught by Jeff Martone. The basics are
actually very similar to Olympic lifting- weight on the heels, butt back, load the
hamstrings, etc. The only major differences are made to accommodate the fact
that the kettlebell travels along an arc, whereas the barbell travels straight up
and down. The arms remain straight and loose; they act like chains attached to
the kettlebell. It is not a front shoulder raise!
One of the best moments of the workshop was when Greg Amundson
performed swings with the 1.5 pood (53 pounds) Kettlebell. He literally ripped
that bell up and down so fast that they took it away from him, fearing that
he might let go of it and put it through the ceiling. Then they handed him a
2 pood (71 pounds) Kettlebell and he did the same thing! He could not have
swung it any faster if it was hollowed out.
After teaching the swing, they covered a variety of kettlebell exercises including cleans and snatches, the windmill and under the leg
pass variations. One such variation is the slingshot. In this exercise you pass the kettlebell around your body at a rapid pace and pass
the kettlebell from hand to hand both in front and back of your body. You then switch directions and circle the bell around your
body in the opposite direction. A similar drill is the Hot Potato. To do this, you hold the kettlebell in front of your chest, gripping it by
the ball (rather than the handle) with both hands. You then pass the bell from hand to hand in front of your body, using a shotput-
like drive to propel the weight. The most exciting part of the presentation was Jeff Martone’s demonstration of his kettlebell juggling.
He tossed the kettlebell from under his knee, around his back and over his head in a smoothly connected sequence of moves. If you
can imagine a gymnastics routine performed with a kettlebell, then you will have an idea of what Jeff Martone’s Hand2Hand kettlebell
drills are all about.
Dave Werner, Nick Nibler and Jeff Martone
- Tyler Hass
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colorado
5
December 2004
Julia Atkins, “Helen”,
and Scalability
Six-year-old Julia Atkins performed
“Helen” in Colorado, to a cheering
throng of warriors, athletes, and
coaches,
demonstrating
CrossFit
scalability. “We scale load and intensity;
we don’t change programs.”
Tyler Hass
CrossFit Certification Seminar - Colo
rado
Master lifter and thrower Dan John presented a lecture on a variety of topics
including lifestyle, recovery and throwing. One of the important points in Dan’s
presentation is that a person must strike a balance between work and rest, play and
prayer. The first is obvious, if you have not recovered from previous work, future
work will suffer. However, play and prayer are not often thought of in the context of
optimizing performance. Russian lifters used to spend two months a year playing elite
level volleyball. This cross-training period provided a break from lifting that restored
not only the body, but the enthusiasm for lifting. What prayer means is up to the
individual. It can be prayer in the religious sense, or simply “alone time”. Finding quiet,
peaceful time is a great way to collect your thoughts and clear your head. A balanced
lifestyle must include all four elements.
Recovery is a topic often ignored by most coaches and athletes. There is a saying that
there is “no such thing as overtraining, only under recovery.” Dan had an interesting
system to quantify recovery, which he first learned from Lonnie Lowery. Points are
awarded for nutrition (8), hydration (2), sleep (3), rest (1), meditation/relaxation (1),
emotional support/relationships (2), warm-up (2), stretching (1). This adds up to a
total of 20 points. Workouts are also quantified on this scale. Meeting Pukie is a 20
and a lighter workout would be fewer points. The overall idea is that if you are racking
up several consecutive 20 workouts, while only earning 15 recovery points, you will
have a –15 deficit after three days. You have entered into a state of overtraining and
your performance will decline until you have restored yourself.
Dan gave us a hands-on throwing seminar, which included several of his throwing
implements- discus, heavy and light weight and “javelins”. You can read the handout
given to us by Dan for a more clear distillation of his throwing wisdom than I can
provide:
http://danjohn.org/101.pdf.
Beware that it was copied into pdf by a
Vonnegut-wannabe, so be sure to read it in a zig-zag down the page and then back up
to the top.
Dan John
- Tyler Hass
6
December 2004
mindset to not be disturbed by things.
He actively chose a view that provided
tremendous inner strength.
Elite fitness requires a similar mental
approach. Each workout requires us
to manage high levels of discomfort.
We don’t know in advance what the
workout will be. If we train long enough,
we have to deal with injury, sickness,
external time pressures, and countless
other obstacles. How we respond to
them dramatically affects our ability to
be fit over the long term.
Epictetus wrote, “Sickness is a
hindrance to the body…but not to
your ability to choose. Say this to
yourself with regard to everything
that happens, then you will see such
obstacles as hindrances to something
else.” We can see the relevance of this
over time, but don’t we face a decisive
moment in every CrossFit workout?
We experience it when straining
for one more round, lifting 10 more
pounds, or attempting a muscle-up. All
of these exercises take a committed
effort, regardless of the outcome. But
do you ever consider quitting after
three rounds instead of five? Have
you rationalized your way through a
workout, finding that you could have
performed better upon completion?
For most of us, that voice calling for
us to quit is always there. CrossFit is all
about silencing that voice.
Have you made a conscious effort to
strengthen your will, or have you found
yourself justifying or making excuses for
a poor performance? If you quit when
your lungs are ready to explode, what
secrets would you tell the enemy that is
torturing you? If your squats aren’t deep
enough, will you correct yourself, or
will you make an accommodation and
accept special favors from your captor,
client, competitor? Certainly, these
comparisons may be a bit extreme for
most of us, but only through the steeling
of our personal resolve, will we be able
to prevail in life. We will always have
obstacles, enemies, and uncertainties
to face. Making difficult choices on a
daily basis strengthens our resolve and
solidifies our personal will. In turn, this
solidified personal will supports our
aspirations toward greatness in general
and toward elite fitness in specific.
Epictetus understood the premium
human beings place on their physical
strength. He wrote, “Lameness is an
impediment to the body, but not to
the will.” This perspective provides a
guidepost for training when exhausted,
injured, or incapacitated to some
degree. The last quote was particularly
important to VADM Stockdale since
he had not been able to stand up by
himself as a result of the fifteen torture
and interrogation sessions inflicted
upon him by his captors. In the crucible
of a prison camp, VADM Stockdale’s
experience provides insight into the
capabilities of the human will. His ability
to not only survive, but to prevail
and return home with his character
intact, were significant triumphs of the
human spirit. Upon his return, VADM
Stockdale continued his military service
and was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor in 1976.
Any given WOD is easy to describe,
but an entirely different matter to
execute. How many times have
we been blindsided by a workout
that looks easy on paper but ends
up brutal? Our success depends
substantially on our minds, especially in
the midst of a multiple round regime,
a multi-faceted “fight gone bad”, or in
an attempt to meet a “championship”
challenge. Burning lungs, gut-wrenching
lifts, and wobbly legs often humble us.
The champions of CrossFit, and life in
general, are those who master their
will and confront adversity in whatever
form it comes.
The CrossFit WODs, for example,
are often outside the realm or our
- Andrew Thompson w/ Anthony Budding
solitary confinement, cloaked in total
darkness. His imprisonment was one of
the longest such ordeals in American
history. How did he survive the torture,
the isolation, and the uncertainty of his
future?
Before answering the question, is the
relevance to CrossFit already obvious?
If you read the daily WOD (Workout
Of the Day) comments, the sense of
torture, isolation and uncertainty are
definitely present. Again, the intensity
and degree of suffering of a WOD
are self-chosen and ultimately fun (“It
doesn’t have to be fun to be fun”),
whereas the intensity and suffering
of a POW are frankly unimaginable
in comparison. Our hats are off in
gratitude for all those who serve our
country, especially the POWs.
A very significant factor in VADM
Stockwell’s
survival
and
mental
perseverance was his adherence to
Stoic Philosophy. He was introduced to
Epictetus (55-135 A.D.) as a graduate
student, prior to being shot down, and
kept the philosopher’s books on the
bedside table. The essence of Epictetus’
philosophy is contained in the short
phrase, “Do not be concerned with
things beyond your power.” And when
you look at it, most things are beyond
your power.
What, then, is within your power?
Basically, your will is within in your
power to control. “Men are disturbed
not by things, but by the view that
they take of them.” Amazingly, VADM
Stockdale was able to keep this mindset
even as he was landing in hostile
territory after ejecting from his plane.
And for the next 7 years, he remained
unbroken by everything the Vietcong
threw at him. The plane, the prison, the
torture, and the war were all outside
his control, so he did not attempt to
change them. He actively managed his
continued page ... 8
CrossFit, Stoicism and An American Prisoner of War
...continued from page 1
7
December 2004
ability to control or influence. It’s
easy to train hard for short periods
of time on our favorite exercises.
Perseverance through workouts that
include exercises we don’t like, and
excelling at hated exercises lends itself
to greatness. On the difficult days,
Epictetus would advise us to accept
the difficult realities of the situation
and adopt as favorable an attitude as
possible. No matter how adverse the
situation, Epictetus’ Stoic ideas provide
an educational framework for prevailing
amidst unreasonable odds. VADM
Stockdale’s extraordinary circumstances
show just how far these ideas can take
us. Moreover, VADM Stockdale’s story
serves as a tremendous example of
sacrifice, service, and victory against all
odds. Can there be a better source of
inspiration for us?
VADM Stockdale’s story can be
studied further in the following books:
In Love and War by Jim and Sybil
Stockdale (ISBN 0-553-25316-6)
A Vietnam Experience-Ten Years
of Reflection by James B. Stockdale
(ISBN 0-8179-8152-7)
Honor Bound by Stuart I. Rochester
and Frederick Kiley (ISBN 1-55750-
694-9)
For more on Epictetus and the Stoic
philosophers see:
http://www.usna.edu/
Ethics/Publications/Occasionalpapers
OccasionalPapers.htm
end.
CrossFit, Stoicism,
and An American
Prisoner of War
- Andrew Thompson w/
Anthony Budding
...continued from page 7
Rising popularity of CrossFit within
military and law enforcement circles has
led to sufficient institutional and group
adoption of our program to draw
important lessons on the differences
between traditional military PT and
CrossFit PT. Some of the differences
were wholly expected others were less
expected but no less significant.
One glaring advantage with the
adoption of CrossFit PT is improved
fitness – dramatically improved
fitness, but what is singularly unique
about our program is the manner in
which the improved fitness has been
demonstrated. CrossFit PT has been
measured against other PT programs
by testing its adherent’s performance
against the testing standards of the
program it replaced! At first this may
not seem significant but testing of
traditional PT trained athletes against
CrossFit-like demands produces more
DNF’s on test day than above average
performances.
One
striking
and
important
example of this is
running. CrossFit
p r o g r a m m i n g
calls
for
infrequent long
distance runs and
frequent sprints
of 400 meters.
R e p e a t e d l y ,
CrossFit
has
produced better
long
distance
running
times
in head to head
comparisons with
programs where
distance running
is a staple. Better
running times at
less than 1/3 the
volume has been
the trend.
Constantly varied programming built
from functional exercises executed at
high intensity is the key to CrossFit’s
physiological advantage. Our distillation
of load, range of motion, exercise,
power, work, line of action, flexibility,
speed, and all pertinent metabolics
to a single value – usually time, has
conferred other less expected benefits
as well.
With CrossFit PT every workout
provides a useful data point. We collect
relative and absolute performance
measures every single workout.
Measurement is important and no
PT program we know of offers as
many opportunities for metrics as
CrossFit. The information that can be
mined from an individual’s, team’s, or
company’s performance is incredible,
invaluable, and generally not available
with traditional PT.
continued page ... 9
CrossFit PT
Greg Glassman
8
December 2004
Distillation of every workout to a
single value turns PT into sport. Relative
and absolute measures readily convert
to “points”, and “men will die for
points”. Colonel Jeff Cooper observed
in “Principles of Personal Defense” that,
“fear of sporting failure is usually greater
than the fear of death.” We routinely
watch warriors push themselves harder
for a “win” or “placing” than any coach
would ever consider wise or prudent
to push the athlete. Our scoreboards
(whiteboards) inspire each round of
competitors to ask, “What are we
doing today?” “Who did what?” and
then internally, “What do I have to do
to take it?”
Our police academy graduates ask
to come back for PT after graduation
and soldiers ask for PT on weekends.
CrossFit is fun, the kind of fun that
can boost morale and save lives -
Army Captain Michael Perry offered
among the benefits of his men’s first 5
months of CrossFit that, “first and most
importantly lifelong friendships forged
from extreme physical and mental
challenges. Rarely does a day go by
without laughter and agony which must
be the recipe for strong camaraderie.”
One surprising result of the deliberate
and public performance ranking for each
workout has been the motivation and
acceleration of improvement of those
less physically capable by temperament,
training, or natural limitation. Ranking
has seemingly done more for bottom
performers than top performers.
Our reliance on functional movements,
including many presumed too complex
or technical for mass application, has
returned skill to PT. Over the past 60
years traditional PT has been flensed
of nearly all skill elements that train
for coordination, accuracy, agility, and
balance. The costs here are enormous
and extend to losses in speed and
power as well producing an athlete
generally less capable of dealing with
variances and vagaries of opponents,
movement, and terrain.
The skill elements included in CrossFit
PT further the sense of sport that so
motivates men. CrossFit PT feels like
sport; traditional PT at even lower
intensities feels like punishment.
Our use of functional movements
has also reduced the chronic overuse
injuries that plague traditional PT
program participants. Injuries to the
back and knees, shin splints, and other
“sick day” maladies have been greatly
reduced with implementation of
CrossFit.
Finally, the intensity of our workouts
was designed with the sole objective of
maximizing adaptation. One critical side
benefit has been a dramatic reduction in
PT training time while greatly improving
the payout.
Where tested, CrossFit PT has been
shown to be a dramatic improvement
to traditional PT in these regards:
•
Efficacy
•
Time required
•
Safety
•
Fun
•
Motivation
•
Testing/metrics
•
Psychological demands
•
Battlefield/street engagement
For corroboration from military and
law enforcement professionals for
ANY of these claims drop us a line at
info@crossfit.com
and we’ll put you in
touch with the guys who really count.
www.crossfit.com
The CrossFit Journal is an
electronically distributed magazine
(emailed e-zine) published monthly
by
www.crossfit.com
chronicling
a proven method of achieving elite
fitness.
For subscription information go to
the CrossFit Store at:
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/
store.html
or send a check or money order
in the amount of $25 to:
CrossFit
2851 Research Park Dr
Units B and C
Soquel CA 95073
Please include your
name,
address
email address.
If you have any questions
or comments send them to
feedback@crossfit.com
.
Your input will be greatly
appreciated and every email will
be answered.
Greg Glassman
CrossFit PT
Advisors:
Brian Mulvaney
Tyler Hass
Lynne Pitts
Chris Sommer
Mark Twight
Mary Conover
...continued from page 8
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