A few weeks ago CrossFit Leman held a Christmas party, these events are a great opportunity for us to talk with you, mingle and get to know you a little better. At the one in Vich I was able to chat with one of our long time members, she remarked that we programmed advanced gymnastic movements with a little less frequency than before – things like handstand push ups, pistols, handstand walking etc.

This is very correct, our current program is based on a philosophy of General Physical Preparedness or GPP, it is programmed by Ben Bergeron of CompTrain fame (Katrin-Tanja Davidsdottir’s coach!). The philosophy behind the program is to prepare our members for health and fitness that is directly applicable to everyday life with a greater emphasis on metabolic conditioning. It also considers long term health more and therefore gives you less exposure to some of the higher risk movements.

Learning how to do Kipping Handstand Push Ups will not really prepare you to or improve your ability to do every day tasks like picking up your kids, or stacking shelves – they are really specific movements to CrossFit competitions and CrossFit as a sport. So the question becomes, if you want to compete (at any level) in CrossFit, how do you do that at CrossFit Leman?

The first answer is easy, join our CompTrain classes in the Drop Zone every Monday to Friday at 10:00, Saturdays at 9:00 (Sat-Elite) and Sundays at 10:30. These classes follow the same workouts that elite CrossFitters all over the world do. If you can’t see the CompTrain classes in your Zenplanner app, please let us know.

The second answer (if you can’t make CompTrain) is to scale UP! We are all so accustomed to scaling down that we forget we can also scale up. Each workout is created with a specific stimulus in mind, if you are capable of doing more than what’s written on the board in the desired time frame, you should! Always push, even a little bit, that comfort zone.

Here is an example of scaling up, starting with our Rookie level workout moving on to intermediate, Rx and finishing with a Rich Froning level workout.

Take this workout:

“Water Weight”

3 Rounds:
25 Overhead Squats
15 Pull-ups
25/18 Calorie Row
15 Burpees

Becomes:

3 Rounds:
25 Overhead Squats 35/20kg
15 Chest to Bar Pull-ups
25/18 Calorie Row
15 Burpees

Becomes:

3 Rounds:
25 Overhead Squats 45/25kg
15 Chest to Bar Pull-ups
25/18 Calorie Row
15 Burpees to target 6″ above reach

Becomes:

3 Rounds:
20 Overhead Squats 50/30kg
10 Bar Muscle ups
25/18 Calorie Row
15 Bar Facing Burpees

Becomes:

3 Rounds

20 Squat Snatch 60/40kg
10 Unbroken Ring Muscles
25 Calorie Row
15 Box Facing Burpees 30″

I could keep going, but it all depends on where you are right now in your fitness journey – your experience and your goals.

Your coaches know how to scale (both up and down) and will be more than happy to give you direction on how to make the workouts suite your goals. You don’t have to stick exactly to what’s written on the board, listen to the coach explain the stimulus and ask how to scale (up or down) so that the stimulus is maintained for you!

Photo by John Arano on Unsplash