Aims part two “We sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency – prepare them not only for the unknown but for the unknowable.”

1/15/2021

Benefits to following a well-balanced strength and conditioning program include all the regular improvements on health and performance as the parts that make up that program. This means by including all the safe and effective training protocols that CrossFit and even other training methodologies use, the results soon speak for themselves. Participating in regular strength and conditioning improves bone density, balance and coordination, pulmonary and respiratory performance, and even mental health and cognitive ability.

Training in the gym has clear benefits outside the gym, too. These improvements on the quality of life go beyond their common primary focus on burning fat, building muscle, and looking good naked. With all these positive outcomes in mind, they also have tertiary effects like slowing the aging process, one that if unattended, leads to a life of requiring constant assistance with lifting, walking up and down steps, and even bathing and showering. It is important to put distance between you and the rising morbidities that are associated with this lifestyle such as heart diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and more. Even if genetics are in play with current life, living a healthier life will aid in decreasing the negative outcomes involved with chronic diseases.

It all comes back to being chased by a bear, bees or a dog - you must be able to get away or you’ll be stung, bit or worse. Life happens, and if you are stronger and more conditioned physically, you worry less when inevitable sickness or accidents do happen. This all comes back to the constantly varied training we do, so that we can be more prepared for the constantly changing world around us than we would be otherwise without it.

Resources:
British Journal of Sports Medicine
ACSM’s Health and Fitness Journal

2 Comments

Sammy

1/16/2021 08:44:49 pm

Do you believe CrossFit provides the best training for someone who is looking to succeed in an specific sport since they utilize a more refined skills set? CrossFit aims to create no weakness, but is it ok to have a weakness when you are training with an end goal in mind such as succeeding in a sport? Is it better for focus your training on strengthening areas that are more frequently used, and therefore, will have a more drastic impact on your performance?

Coach

1/17/2021 01:45:12 pm

Replying to Sammy, the simple answer is no, CrossFit doesn’t make soccer players better at the game of soccer. In sport there is tactics and plans in place for offensive and defensive situations. Players have specific roles and techniques. To be good at those things, the player must train and practice those things in season or in a preseason to be prepared for the game, match, race, etc. CrossFit is a fitness core strength and conditioning program designed to increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains, lending its training principals and adaptations well to most sports. This topic will be discussed in more detail in later blog post and will hopefully answer some of your questions in more depth later. CrossFit can be applied to both general population and athletes with sport seasons.

For some quick answers, CrossFit can develop a fitness that will let athletes be more ready and prepared for success than athlete’s who do not. Once a weakness, or deficiency, occurs there is now an opportunity for injury or simply loosing to a team or player who doesn’t have that same weakness. In season players should absolutely put their effort in their skill work for their sport, but athletes who are already strong and conditioned can put more effort in right away, longer, and better than those who don’t. Where CrossFit does come in for sport performance is the raw ability to run, jump, move external objects, and perform the common movements used in everyday life and sport uncommonly well. This among a few other reasons like training fatigue, recovery, work capacity are why CrossFit training transfers so well to sports. Sports with more demands will benefit more from CrossFit because both require many changes. Fitness transfers well to sport but sport tends to not transfer back to fitness very well. For this reason, CrossFit is better suited as an off-season training program.

CrossFit, as a training program, can be done in contingency with sport training with adequate recovery and nutrition. Considerations need to be made so that the volume of fitness training doesn’t take away from the sport training and performance for game day. CrossFit is great for improved work capacity. This means by doing CrossFit your cardiovascular respiratory endurance and power are greater. Athletes who have more of those characteristics can jump more easily into harder sport training days and focus more on their skills and drills because they don’t have to work on those things in season at the same time. Because of supercompensation and diminishing returns among other physiological factors involved with physical adaptation for both fitness and sport, there are many benefits for athletes to participate in different styles of activity from season to season. Having two separate styles of training also helps with burnout for players. In the off-season they can build a big base of fitness without overuse of their sport specific needs and vice versa in season. CrossFit training can be a good tool to maintain fitness in season, but if a player is in season their goal and emphasis on training should be more about practicing their skills and drills.
-Coach

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Aims part two “We sought to build a program that would best prepare trainees for any physical contingency – prepare them not only for the unknown but for the unknowable.”

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