DCF requires that any individual interested in our unlimited-monthly, group classes complete our “Foundations” course, or five personal-training sessions. They deliver a comprehensive understanding of the CrossFit program and can be seen as CrossFit 101. These sessions offer a seamless integration into a group class.
Here is what you will learn:
Importance of Nutrition
Nutrition is foundational to your health, mental and physical, and required for optimum athletic performance. We like to use the term fuel in place of nutrition. We hold the view that proper fuel maximizes human performance rather than aiding in sustenance alone. This is perfectly analogous to fueling a formula-one race car with high octane gas. Most understand what the outcome would be if we were to do otherwise: feed it “junk.” The same applies to the individual.
Anatomy & Physiology
This is an opportunity for us to go over basic terminology that assists with the learning comprehension of the various movements.
Squat
This is the first of the foundational movements we cover over the five sessions. Your ability to squat tells us a great deal about your athletic capacity. Here is what CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman, has to say about the squat:
“On the athletic front, the squat is the quintessential hip extension exercise, and hip extension is the foundation of all good human movement. Powerful, controlled hip extension is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite athleticism. “Necessary” in that without powerful, controlled hip extension you are not functioning anywhere near your potential. “Sufficient” in the sense that everyone we’ve met with the capacity to explosively open the hip could also run, jump, throw, and punch with impressive force.
Secondarily, but no less important, the squat is among those exercises eliciting a potent neuroendocrine response. This benefit is ample reason for an exercise’s inclusion in your regimen.”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #4 [Dec.2002])
Deadlift
Our second movement is also one of the most feared, performed improperly, and often misunderstood exercises in existence. This is another segway movement to more technical lifts. It is also the starting position for two of the most powerful movements on the planet: clean and snatch.
“Regardless of whether your fitness goals are to ‘rev-up’ your metabolism, increase strength or lean body mass, decrease body fat, rehabilitate your back, improve athletic performance, or maintain functional independence as a senior, the deadlift is a marked shortcut to that end.”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #12 [Aug.2003])
Shoulder Press/Push Press
The shoulder press is often neglected due to its perceived simplicity. We start here. Essential verbiage and points of performance for all overhead movements are addressed with this “simple” movement.
The push press is our first dynamic movement. Here we will introduce you to and stress the importance of core to extremity muscle recruitment. Powerful punchers, throwers, jumpers, sprinters and Olympic lifters do this well. Where it isn’t innate, it can be taught!
“As the athlete moves from shoulder press, to push press, to push jerk, the importance of core to extremity muscle recruitment is learned and reinforced. This concept alone would justify the practice and training of these lifts. Core to extremity muscular recruitment is foundational to the effective and efficient performance of athletic movement. The most common errors in punching, jumping, throwing, and a multitude of other athletic movements typically express themselves as a violation of this concept.”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #5 [Jan.2003])
Overhead Squat
Core strength is the level by which you keep the mid-line stabilized. There are few movements that rival the OHS for core development. It also allows us to test shoulder flexibility, your ability to handle load overhead and communicate the differences between an “active” and “passive” shoulder and how they both affect performance.
“The overhead squat is the ultimate core exercise, the heart of the snatch, and peerless in developing effective athletic movement.
This functional gem trains for efficient transfer of energy from large to small body parts – the
essence of sport movement. For this reason it is an indispensable tool for developing speed and
power.
The overhead squat is to midline control, stability, and balance what the clean and snatch are to power– unsurpassed.”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #36 [Aug.2005])
Push Jerk
The final movement in the overhead series is also the most “complex.” The ability to quickly reverse direction in the vertical plane is the culprit. Powerful extension followed by an immediate retraction of the hip is what makes the push jerk and the clean challenging to learn. We have a simple system that mitigates the difficulties in learning this movement.
Ball Clean
The ball clean allows us to manage an impossible feat. That is teach the newcomer how to perform the Olympic lifts within 20min. It's a wonderful replacement that retains all benefits of working under the bar while removing its disadvantages:
“The clean and jerk and the snatch, the Olympic lifts, present the toughest learning challenge in all of weight training. Absent these lifts, there are no complex movements found in the weight room. By contrast, the average collegiate gymnast has learned hundreds of movements at least as complex, difficult, and nuanced as the clean or snatch. In large part because most weight training is exceedingly simple, learning the Olympic lifts is for too many athletes a shock of frustration and incompetence.”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #25 [Sep.2004])
Pull-up
This is a great opportunity to discuss, teach and practice various pull-ups and their respective substitutions.
“How significant is the pull-up? In our view the pull-up is:
• At least as important as any other upper body exercise
• An essential part of athletic training
• Perfectly functional
• A gateway exercise to highly developmental gymnastic movements
• Singularly unique and valuable, and so has no replacement (‘lat pull-down’ is a weak substitute)”
-Greg Glassman (CrossFit Journal #8 [April.2003])
CrossFit’s Common Movements
CrossFit utilizes many different tools, some of which are found in other sporting disciplines (rings, kettlebells, plyometrics, medicine balls, ect). Most, if not all of them, contain the core points of performance found in the previous eight movements. Here's what you’ll see:
1. Row
2. Wall-ball
3. Kettlebell swing / Sumo Deadlift High-pull / Turkish Get-up
4. GHD Hip / Back / Hip & Back Extensions
5. Abmat Sit-up / GHD Sit-up
Balance Nutrition: Principles for Incorporation
Everyone eats good, right? Wrong. It’s a perception that can lead to over-training, injury and frustration with the program. We will explain what balanced eating (40-30-30) looks like for YOU; Not in theory or ideally, but decipher the food that YOU eat daily. We’re advocates of The Zone Diet, by Dr. Barry Sears. Not because we like it, benefit monetarily from it or think it’s great, but because IT WORKS!
Other discussion items
1. “What is Fitness”
2. Power defined
3. Evidence-based Fitness, or “The Black Box”
4. CrossFit & Your Sport-if you have one
Whats Next?
Upon completion, you will have the option of joining a group class or be recommended for our Fundamentals classes.
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