Random Thoughts from a Restless Mind

1) Fall. As in fall back. Daylight Savings time is over. I will miss our sunsets.

That extra hour of sleep, though…

2) Toddler. We have been hosting our little Man Cub (and his Dad) while the Pipsqueak is away with her Mom. Nothing, and I mean nothing up to and including fusion, produces more energy over the course of a day than a male toddler.

Even that extra hour of sleep isn’t enough to catch up.

3) Goals. Mens Journal has a fluff piece about Michael Strahan in last month’s issue. Seems like a nice enough guy (though you’d like to see one of these whirling dervish success types manage to stay married). Got lots on his plates. It’s a fun peek into his work week. As is often the case there is a little gem tucked into the text, this one about how he sets goals: SMART.

Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Time-Bound.

“Attainable” and “Realistic” are redundant, but the idea behind this little ditty is pretty good. After reading this I fired off an email to one of my teams at work about a service that we have not successfully integrated into our business. While we may still fail, putting my proposal in this format at least makes our process a better one.

As is so often the case it was worth reading about one more golf-obsessed retired athlete to get this one little pearl.

4) Traditional. Those of you (both of you?) who have been reading these Sunday missives for a bit will remember that “Sunday musings…” was  my way of giving back to the (much younger, earlier version) of the CrossFit community. I discovered CrossFit in 2005 and began to interact online in 2006. The website also had a Message Board back then; folks got to know one another in what I called the “cyber gym” both on CrossFit.com and the Board. Those free-wheeling, wild west spaces are long gone, replaced by a subscription/sign-in and monitored corporate locale befitting the grown-up business that CrossFit has become.

On Instagram, a place I do not visit, a pundit in the fitness arena opined that “Traditional CrossFit” is no longer, and that his version of “smarter” CrossFit was now what one should practice. What he is actually saying is that the practice of “CrossFit, the Sport of Fitness” is no longer what the masses should be doing, because so-called traditional CrossFit has really never gone away. The very best affiliate gyms have always used the kind of CrossFit that you found on CrossFit.com (with rational scaling options provided each night from BrandX)  from 2005 through around 2011 or 12.

While I no longer have any type of relationship with CrossFit, Inc. or a local affiliate gym (though I continue to be very friendly with the owners of the original Box here in Cleveland), I still work out much as I did when I discovered CrossFit in 2005 (interestingly in a Mens Journal article). There is still wisdom in the original version of “What is Fitness” published in the CFJ volume 2 ( the re-edited version is not of the same quality; I wish I’d saved a copy of the original). Constantly varied (do lots of different things) functional movements (do exercises that involve the whole body, not isolated parts) performed at RELATIVELY high intensity. That last part has always been key, and it is one of the parts that, if forgotten, leads to suboptimal outcomes and injury: intensity is relative to the individual on any given day. At 59 (and coming off a hip replacement) I am hardly going to have the same intensity I had when I started CF at 45.

Form, or technique (do the exercises properly), consistency (do the exercises properly all the time; adhere to a schedule of exercise and recovery), and only then intensity. This was once dogma that was unassailable. The “gamesification” of CF after 2012 prompted many a gym to lose this as they chased the competitor and as members chased competitions they had no business chasing. “What is Fitness” also introduced the masses to the 10 Characteristics of Fitness and the concept that a truly fit individual was equally competent in all 10. That IG opinionater  makes the classic mistake of stating that strength is more important than the other 9 characteristics. This  is as misguided as one of my other favorite reads, Outside Magazine, which consistently posits that cardiovascular endurance is the sine qua non of athleticism. Jeff Martin of The Brand X Method (who has no affiliation with CrossFit) should be credited with the real insight regarding strength: the vast majority of individuals are under-strong relative to the other 9 characteristics, and therefore supplemental strength training is necessary.

It’s not necessary to learn that IG opinionator’s name because he is just the most recent example of someone who almost gets it. Man, the conversations we had about this stuff in those halcyon days of CrossFit.com–scaling, strength, additional work, recovery–my kids called in “CrackFit” because we were all so into the intellectual side of this new way to approach fitness. Without a doubt “CrossFit the business” bears little resemblance to those early days, but the very particular way “CrossFit the program” applied classic HIIT principles was, and still is, revolutionary. Layering on traditional training techniques (periodization, supplemental exercises to address weaknesses) while remaining firmly committed to the original core principles (technique -> consistency -> intensity, etc.) is simply proper evolution.

With or without CrossFit, Inc. that particular era is far from over.

I’ll see you next week…

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 3rd, 2019 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.