Programming – Evolve or Die

CrossFit is simple, elegant and effective

In CrossFit we follow an evidence based approach to fitness, the programming works and you get fitter and healhtier or it doesn’t..... Very simple. Your coaches are doing the workouts too and as we experience what works well and what doesn’t so are you on your fitness journey. We are monitoring SugarWOD data and receiving feed back from the coaches. This implies that our box program is constantly evolving. 

Our Objective:

We want our members to be good at CrossFit and the ten general physical skills so that you have a  general, physical, preparedness that enables you to do well at any sport or task life throws their way now, and long into the future.

This is a big responsibility and we don’t take it lightly. We spend every month hours and hours discussing actions and outcomes. All workouts from CrossFit to ChalkLift to ChalkFit and Barbell Club are carefully planned and like Coach Jason posted earlier on Chalk It - if you stick to the program you will see results.

Measuring Progress:

We all know that CrossFit is constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity. The goal of that training method is to increase our work capacity across broad time and modal domains. And we measure our success (measure our increase of fitness) by doing benchmark workouts that we can retest throughout a year, or over many years to make sure that our “black box” approach to fitness is moving us toward the goal.

Box Benchmark Series:

Starting September we are introducing the Benchmark Series. The Benchmark Series is a collection of workouts scheduled on a 3 to 4-month cycle, meaning that each benchmark is tested 3 times over the course of a year. In the past we have done several Box Benchmark workouts but haven’t always retested in a structured way.

How we get to it?

The series selects 12 CrossFit benchmark workouts, four lifts, and four skill tests to perform every three months for the course of one year (each workout, lift, and test is performed 3-4 times over a year). The workouts were carefully selected to ensure a wide variety of time domains, movement patterns, combinations of movements, complexity of movements, and loading.

What happens in the 'black box'?

We test the fitness progress of a general population using constantly varied, functional movements, at high intensity performed workouts using a template designed by Gregg Glassman.

The template divides exercise movements into one of three modalities: metabolic conditioning, gymnastics and weightlifting. Metabolic conditioning is described as monostructural movements such as running and rowing and are commonly referred to as “cardio.” The gymnastics modality is all things bodyweight and weightlifting is basically all movements with an external load.

This puts every CrossFit movement into a category and then by following our template we combine our modalities every way possible. Some days are monostructural only, while the next is a combo of gymnastics and weightlifting, and then maybe the next is a triplet of all three – monstructural, gymnastics, and weightlifting – as in the workout Helen (running, pull-ups, and kettlebell swings).

With the movements categorized, and the singlets, couplets, triplets, and chippers all on the table for consideration – there’s one more layer deeper and classified movements as high or low skill gymnastics, and light, medium, or heavy weightlifting.

Then we select a broad array of workouts that test all aspects of fitness. In addition the selection of the benchmark workouts, lifts and skill is assisted with SugarWOD data and feed back from the coaches on how well you are doing.

So a lot of time is spend on designing the program :-0