We Can Make it Fit!

And now a word from our homegrown Bionic Boy!   A.K.A. Coach Peter.  Not only a fire-breather in the gym, but a smarty to boot!

“CrossFit was recently featured in the National Post.  The article was generally quite positive, although it was relatively short on details. There was one point, however, that should be responded to. Since I’m doubtful that the National Post is going to end up publishing my letter to the editor, this blog will serve the purpose! The author wrote:

CrossFit workouts are geared to most fitness abilities, but you must be willing to push yourself harder than what you may be used to. It is not recommended for beginners.

The exercises are compound movements that require a great deal of strength, power, flexibility and agility.

We often hear that CrossFit is “not recommended for beginners,” and this makes us frustrated.

What many people who have never been to a CrossFit class tend not to understand is that we scale the difficulty of workouts to the fitness level of each athlete. Anyone can do this stuff. Everyone who ever started CrossFit was a beginner once.

Whether you have been letting yourself go for decades or you have been an athletic phenom since you pole-valued out of the womb, CrossFit is the best way to improve real physical capacity quickly. This has the side benefit of developing athletic body composition and all those other nice perks of being healthy and fit. Sweet deal!

At CrossFit Toronto, we assign all of our athletes a level (1-3) which corresponds to a specific scaled version of the workout. Our workout of the day is modified based on your level, where more advanced athletes will be tasked with a higher work load and heavier weights than our beginners. Typically, we post our level 3 workout on the website. For those of you who may be reading this who do not attend out facility, that means the workouts you seen on the website are only being done by a handful of our top performers. The majority of our trainees are doing a slightly different, scaled-back version of the workout. It could be scaled a lot or just a little, all depending on ability.

Athlete’s have an opportunity to graduate to a higher level once a month during a specific benchmark workout. Everyone knows the criterion that needs to be met for each level, and our athletes work hard at progressing. If you have an injury or orthopedic issue, we take that into account and change the workout further to ensure it is appropriate.

Can’t do a single bodyweight squat, let alone a squat under load? No problem. Lots of people can’t when they first come to us. We have tested progressions to get you there. As long as you put out the effort, we will get you into better shape than you’ve ever been in.

This is why we have specific on-ramp streams for new trainees. Our bootcamp (group class) and introduction (one-on-one coaching) programs are designed specifically to i) effectively teach the core movements used in our workouts in a progressive, logical sequence, and ii) to gradually increase the intensity of the workouts at an appropriate rate for our newbies.

Not only is CrossFit for beginners, it is the most productive use of their time. If you still don’t believe us, please give us a call or drop in to watch a class. We’re sure you’ll become a believer.”

Better yet… join us this Saturday for Summer Solstice! Bring your friends, family, neighbours and show them that anyone can Crossfit.  Fun, food, exercise and a good cause!

Get your Crossfit Karma on!

Workout

Complete As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 minutes:

• 2 Power Cleans (boys: 95#; girls: 65#)
  
• 2 Burpees
• 10 Double Unders
• 4 Power Cleans (boys: 95#; girls: 65#)
• 4 Burpees
• 20 Double Unders
• 6 Power Cleans (boys: 95#; girls: 65#)
• 6 Burpees
• 30 Double Unders
• 8 Power Cleans (boys: 95#; girls: 65#)
• 8 Burpees
• 40 Double Unders

Keep going as far as you can go for the 20 minutes…