So back in mid-May we announced that we (for the time being) were not going to be posting our programming any longer and instead collectively opted for programming on other sites - primarily the Crossfit Main Site (
you can read the original post here). However, there are a few sites with excellent programming and MANY with terrible programming. Given that currently we are not doing our own programming, I wanted to take a post to review and highlight a select few and hopefully help you in deciding which site to follow. Remember the key to success is consistency across the board and I hope by providing you with these resource you can ingrain and discipline yourself to such consistency.
Crossfit Main Site (www.crossfit.com)
This is the birthsite of the entire Crossfit movement... kind of. Even though the inception of Crossfit was back in the 1980's,
the website was started back in 2001 by founder Greg Glassman to test the efficiency, efficacy, safety and success of the Crossfit methodology on a global level. It has since then been proven by the data provided on that site and in gyms across the world to be a triumphant success and arguably the premier methodology in health, fitness, and strength/conditioning. Originally Coach Glassman and his wife Lauren (the name under the posts everyday) did all the programming, however today the programming is done by several people including Coach, Lauren, Dave Castro, and a few others.
On this site, you'll find the classic 3-on-1-off programming and the workouts are geared toward making a well-rounded athlete with the highest possible work capacity across broad time and modal domains - which is exactly what the goal of Crossfit is. Essentially the Main Site programming is seeking to evenly balance all your "systems" to that 80% capacity mark (probably about the maximal amount each system can be pushed to in order to maintain even work capacities across each one). Basically that means that you'll be strong, but not the strongest in the world. You'll be fast, but not the fastest in the world... and so on and so forth. The vast majority of the top athletes claim to follow the Main Site's programming and every 1st place winner of the Crossfit Games has followed the Main Site in preparation for the Games. Crossfit's aim is to "forge elite fitness" by maximizing work output across broad time and modal domains and the Main Site will do that for you. Typically the workouts (without warm-ups and skill work) will take between 10-30 minutes with workout times rarely exceeding 20 minutes. There is the occasional long run and heavy lifting, but for the most part it's metabolic conditioning using gymnstics, various lifts, and other movements.
Everyday you'll find the Workout of the Day (or WOD) posted and following the Main Site will expose you to many various movements over time. Coach Glassman has said that the workouts on the Main Site are intended to for athletes at an Olympic level and thus many athletes will find themselves having to scale. A great resource in helping with scaling is
Brand X who provides several scaled levels of the Main Site workout. If you are new to Crossfit or simply need to scale down, Brand X should definately be a regular site you visit for help in scaling. In the
Exercises and Demos section of the site, there are a number of videos describing/teaching movements that are involved in a number of workouts should you come across an exercise you're not familiar with. The
FAQ section covers a number of topics ranging from the "Official Crossfit Warm-up" to subtitutions, etc. If you have not explored the site and spent time going through everything on it, it would be well worth it if you did so. Almost every issue, topic, and question is covered on the Crossfit Main Site and even though I'm going on 4 years of Crossfit experience I still find myself on there everyday.
One thing you will have to do if following the Main Site (as with most sites) is to make sure to do some sort of skill session on your own. Whether it be rest days, part of your warmup, or a completely separate workout you'll need to make sure to incorporate skill work in various things like gymnastics, Olympic lifting, running technique, etc - basically whatever you're weak at. Following the Main Site has a way of bringing up goats (athletic weaknesses) in their workouts and if you haven't been practicing you'll quickly find the daily workouts more of a skill challenge than a good strength/metcon/whatever workout.
Something to address: When it comes to programming, you'll find in the Crossfit community this weird elitist attitude about the superiority of following the Crossfit Main Site as opposed to any other type of programming. Based on personal experience and comments made by Coach Glassman himself, such an attitude is really silly and actually detrimental to the Crossfit movement. The Crossfit Main Site is no doubt one of if not the premier site for programming, however Crossfit as a methodology simply cannot or will not evolve as efficiently or rapidly if people don't try other things and bring forth the data resulting from it --- which involves tweaking programming. The product on the Crossfit Main Site is based on years of empirical and theoretical work, however the continuing evolution of such a product is likely to come from some outside source (such as a Crossfit Affiliate or even an individual) providing data with an even more beneficially evolved methodology and proving such with their data. When that does happen the Main Site will undoubtedly evolve with that and continue to be one of the best resources for programming but understand that there is nothing wrong with straying from the Main Site in favor of different programming especially if the alternate programming is working just as good or better for you.
Crossfit FootballStarted by former NFL lineman John Welbourn and teaming up with Crossfit and Strength & Conditioning guru Max Mormont, Crossfit Football is a fairly recent addition to the Crossfit community and is intended to adress those athletes that for whatever reason (usually sport demands) are seeking to sacrifice some of the work output from other systems such as cardio-respratory endurance and even some metabolic conditioning over a prolonged period of time in favor of maximizing their power, speed, strength, and "shorter burst" metabolic conditioning. In fact, their motto is "Forging Powerful Athletes" and you will become quite powerful following the Crossfit Football site.
Crossfit Football generally prescribes workouts for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday making Wednesday and Sunday Rest Days. The workouts are usually two-fold with a Strength Workout found on the right hand side of website first followed by a "heavy" (as in heavy weighted) met-con workout about 15 minutes later. The Strength Workouts are divided into three levels of ability - Amateur, Collegiate, and Professional - and athletes can choose which category they fit best under executing the appropriate workout for that day. After completing the lifts and taking a short rest, a heavy Met-Con follows. The weights used in the workouts are quite heavy and those without an extensive strength background will probably have to scale. The Strength portion of the workouts may take roughly 10-20 minutes to complete and the Met-Con portions are generally no longer than 10 minutes. I've noticed that the workouts typically are more concerned with moving external loads (i.e. weights) than moving your bodyweight... meaning you won't see as much gymnastics in Crossfit Football as other sites.
Though Crossfit Football hasn't been around a long time, I can tell you from personal experience what you can probably expect from following it. You will get a lot stronger and much more powerful. You will put on a significant amount of lean body mass - in fact, personally I've never put on so much quality lean body mass as quickly as I did following Crossfit Football (and I came from a bodybuilding/powerlifting background). I would definitely see Crossfit Football as extremely beneficial to athletes playing football, rugby, and/or seeking the athleticism, strength, and size associated with those sports. Again though, be aware that you will be sacrificing other elements of the Crossfit definition of fitness (such as cardio-respratory endurance, stamina, etc) for those gains. If you are going to follow this programming (or even if you just want to educate yourself more), make sure to read up by exploring the site, reading their forums, etc.
Crossfit EnduranceCrossfit Endurance is basically the opposite of Crossfit Football in that it's seeking to develop the stamina/endurance aspects of fitness at the expense power and strength (though they do maxmize those facets to the best of their ability). It is meant for those athletes seeking to participate in endurance events such as triathlons, marathons, rowing competitions and other endurance based events. Even if you're not interested in endurance events, the website's videos and resources are definately worth checking out --- I've learned a ton about running, running form and overall health (especially pertaining to the feet) from them.
The workouts are sport specific (i.e. running, rowing, swimming, cycling - you choose) and intended to be done in addition to the Crossfit Main Site Workout of the Day and generally last no longer than 20 minutes. Charis and I have both noticed that following the Crossfit Endurance programming (i.e. following CF Endurance with the Main Site) produces outstanding endurance athletes. It seems that it turns a a mediocre endurance athlete into a simply amazing one. If you are at all interested in doing any kind of endurance event or just want to become a better endurance athlete for whatever reason, there is nothing out there better than this. Make sure to follow the directions exactly day-by-day.... not doing so can lead to decreased performance and injury. Also - just a sidenote: if you particularly enjoy the Crossfit Endurance stuff and want to learn more about running form make sure to check out the
POSE Running website - it's what they teach over at Crossfit Endurance.
Max Fit USA
Max Mormont is probably one of the most underrated and under-utilized assets in the Crossfit community. He's been assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at UC Irvine for the past four years, has been doing Crossfit since 2001, a Level III Crossfit Coach since 2002, and one of the top Olympic lifters in the nation. He runs Crossfit Balboa and helps out with Crossfit Football. I stumbled across his website about six months ago and found some really outstanding programming on it.
Most interesting on his site is the programming he does to help athletes prepare for the Crossfit Games. I'm not sure how many Crossfit Games athletes this past year followed his programming, but I would wager that a smart athlete serious about doing well at the 2010 Games would take a serious look at his workouts and ideas about programming. Typically you do two workouts daily 5-15 minutes apart. He also posts a warmup/stretching routine to follow as well. The workouts will usually involve a wide variety of movements that require some experience and practice in Olympic Lifting, gymnastics, etc. If someone were to follow his programming, I would wager that it would place them in contention for a top spot at the Games. He just released a
2009-2010 Games Programming Outline that's pretty cool to check out... definitely very interesting stuff!
Optimum Performance Training
This is James Fitzgerald (OPT)'s programming and the reason I'm listing this site is simply because whatever he's doing is working. OPT was the winner of the 2007 Games, 12th at the 2008 Games, and 13th at the 2009 Games (he placed that low due to injury). His brother (11th this year) and DJ Wickham (10th this year) who both train with him have had similar success following the same programming. OPT is simply one of the best athletes and most knowledgeable coaches out there and his site is definitely worth a look.
Mike's Gym
I have to throw this up here, because pretty much since Day One Coach B and Coach Glassman have been going "head-to-head" pitting their athletes against each other in various friendly competitions.... with primarily Josh Everett representing Mike's Gym and Coach B and Greg Amundson representing Crossfit Headquarters and Coach Glassman. Mike's Gym and
Catalyst Athletics are probably the two foremost sites for Olympic Lifting programming. If you haven't been exposed to the Olympic lifts, they are the Clean & Jerk and Snatch. They are outstanding and extremely explosive movements and interestingly enough their functionality translates into increased work capacity. Athletes exposed to and proficient the Olympic Lifts generally move better and are far better athletes as a result of it; and coaches that can coach the movements well I've noticed make far better coaches overall as they seem to be more clued in how the body is supposed to move a load. The thing with the Olympic lifts is that they are pretty technical and take a lot of time and practice to master (that is a massive understatement). I would suggest hiring a coach from USAW or someone you know is proficient at teaching the movements, you subscribe to the Crossfit Journal and watch the Olympic Lifting videos, and/or buy
Greg Everett's book on Olympic Weightlifting.
You probably want to decently know and be exposed to the Olympic weightlifting movements before you start Mike's Gym workouts or pretty much every workout will be more of a skill session than anything else (which is fine if that's what you want). You may also end up wanting to do something similar to Josh Everett by adding a couple of metabolic conditioning sessions during the week to keep your metabolic conditioning up. But overall, you can and will make a lot of gains and be a far better athlete following Mike's Gym programming - Coach Burgener is hands down one of the best coaches alive and he will not steer you wrong.
Crossfit for the Whole Family - Crossfit Kids and Crossfit Mom
In Crossfit there's something for everybody and all workouts are infinitely scaleable based on any number of factors. These two sites though address two special populations that most people (trainers included) may not be well informed about - kids and pregnant mothers. I'm not familiar enough with either to discuss them in depth, but if you have children or are pregnant then you definately need to check out the appropriate site. To learn more about the philosphy behind Crossfit Kids
click here. For women, if there is a time to workout and eat right it is definately while you're pregnant. The benefits of a fit pregnant women are incredible both to herself and the baby - r
ead this for a list of some of the major benefits and you can
read this Journal article too. The only consideration for a pregnant Crossfitter is that you will have to eliminate certain movements for the baby's health - Crossfit Mom will help you with that.
Your Own ProgrammingMost people end up doing some variation of their own programming no matter what - that's just what happens. There's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes life throws situations at us that cause us to have to adapt accordingly thus making a prescribed workout impossible to execute. For example, there was a period of time where I was working around 16-20 hour days. Sleep was scarce and as you can imagine working out was definitely a chore to do. I didn't have 20 or 30 minutes to workout and would find myself doing faster workouts like Fran or a Half-Cindy just to get my workout in and wake myself up. Another stretch of my career I would work twice a day for four days in a row and take my three work days off and enjoyed decent results with that. I've also had my share of injuries, and likely you will end up being injured at some point too. You are going to have to tailor your workouts around your injury, especially since one of the best ways to treat an injury is to continue with a workout regime. So obviously, you at some point are going to have to adapt to your own life situation and program as necessary whether that means stealing a workout from someone else's site or just making up your own.
I would even go a step further and say there's nothing wrong with putting your own program together. Play around with workout and programming designs. Take measurements, record results... be your own Coach, athlete, and experiment. Find what works for you and stick to it... I have a feeling that even if you were to experiment for years you'll probably end up with something very similar to the above mentioned sites, but don't my word for it - go for it... be consistent. Train well. Eat well. Live well.
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