CrossFit, can be an effective way of increasing an individual’s physical performance while decreasing body fat levels to a healthy %. Hell, most exercise programs can do that. I learned that in my experience as a trainer at a “globo” gym as well as a student athlete. The difference in the results from those programs can vary and your decision on what program is right for you should be predicated on your specific goals.
I can tell you up-front that I am a CrossFit guy, but regardless of what you do, your success in any exercise program is going to be dependent on this:
Your ability to prioritize, and execute on those priorities.
What I mean (If you have not read 7 Habits of Highly Successful People) Is that you will need to put your efforts in order of importance and then execute on that hierarchy of effort. To visualize this lets look at CrossFit’s theoretical development of an athlete (and a human organism in general).
Lets say your goal is to be light enough and fit enough to play soccer in an novice weekend league. Based on this concept, Your primary focus should be on Nutrition. Training 2-a-days and wearing an elevation mask is cool but pointless if you don’t eat real food in healthy amounts. After you have spent some time learning what foods make your healthier as opposed to sicker (there is no in-between, no food-neutral, no “Food-Switzerland”), that should remain the focus of most of your effort throughout the process of body composition/performance change. This is the visual I use at my gym to teach people about what is important in our program.
The next level of effort is developing your metabolic engine through running, biking, swimming, hiking, etc. Work your heart & lungs. The majority of your effort and focus should still remain on eating well.
Gymnastics (push-ups, pull-ups, dips, bodyweight movements) comes next. Develop the basics of body control. You should have a level of body-awareness before you begin throwing weights around or doing supersets of bicep curls and the pec-deck. #beefcake
Mastery of body before mastery of environment.
Weightlifting is next and nearing the top of our pyramid. This would involve the manipulation of any external object. A barbell would count here, so would a tree stump that needs moved out of your yard.
Finally – Sport. All of the elements that you have been dedicating effort towards, build you up to be better at your sport of choice. Some people do not participate in a sport so-to-speak. Since these same elements build your capacity to perform physical work and increase your ability to learn and become proficient at new tasks and skills, we have considered the top of that persons pyramid to be “Life”. This simply means that you are prioritizing your efforts in order to lose body fat, to keep up with 2 kids and to lift heavy things safely when the time calls for it.
To apply expand this concept to fit whatever it is that you are doing, I have added the graphic below.
Remember that you should prioritize your time and effort. This way we get the most “bang for our buck” and increase the quality of the rewards we reap from our health and fitness efforts, as well as the length of time we get to continue reaping those rewards.
What do you think? Leave a response and let me know! 🙂
