There are three metabolic pathways that provide our muscles with energy: the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway.
Total fitness requires training each of these pathways. Our programming attempts to balance the effects of the three.
(or Why We Don’t Program “Murph” Every Day)
For today’s bite, let’s take on the elephant in the room: cardio.
The mainstream fitness prescription calls for spending hours and hours “burning calories” on the treadmill (or elliptical, or exercise bike, or whatever the cardio machine du jour happens to be.)
We do not like this. Here’s why.
How do we know CrossFit improves fitness? There isn’t one definition of fitness, but we have some models that we use to define it and guide us in our quest to become more fit!
Let’s talk about The Hopper Model. Picture a hopper containing bingo balls, each of which has a different physical challenge written on it. This could be anything — a 5k run, a 1RM deadlift, shoveling a driveway, running with a 40lb suitcase through an airport to catch your flight — it’s unknown and unknowable what might come out.
How do we know CrossFit improves fitness? There isn’t one definition of fitness, but we have some models that we use to define it and guide us in our quest to become more fit!
Let’s talk about the 10 Physical Skills. CrossFit uses these skills as a guide in measuring fitness: the person that has a balance of all these adaptations is the most fit.
The aim of CrossFit is to prepare you for any physical challenge that might come up — whether that’s running a marathon, moving a couch into a walk-up apartment, or the zombie apocalypse! We like to be ready for the unknown and unknowable.
