Group Training at FIT! Gabe Rinaldi, General Manager
Introducing CrossFit Los Altos!
F.I.T. is proud to announce a new training service available in Los Altos. We have affiliated with CrossFit, Inc. of Santa Cruz. CrossFit is a unique training philosophy that has rapidly gained popularity throughout the world in the last few years. Currently there are over 70 CrossFit affiliates in the world and now there is one in Los Altos at F.I.T.
CrossFit is a program designed to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. It is not a specialized fitness program, but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains:
- Endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen (cardiovascular/respiratory endurance).
- Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy. (capacity to maintain repetitive muscular movements)
- Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
- Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
- Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
- Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
- Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a single distinct movement.
- Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
- Balance - The ability to control the placement of the body's center of gravity in relation to its support base.
- Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.
The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual's competency at all physical tasks. CrossFit participants are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges.
Aside from the breadth or totality of fitness the CrossFit Program seeks, our program is distinctive, if not unique, in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response, developing power, cross-training with multiple training modalities, and constant training and practice with functional movements.
We work exclusively with compound movements and shorter, high intensity cardiovascular sessions. We've replaced the lateral raise with push-press, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort, our athletes (we call all clients athletes) will do five or six at short distance. Why? Because compound or functional movements and high intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result.
Neuroendocrine Adaptation
Neuroendocrine adaptation refers to either hormonal or neurological change in the body. Most important adaptations to exercise are in part or completely a result of a hormonal or neurological shift. Earlier we faulted isolation movements as being ineffectual; one of the reasons is that they invoke essentially no neuroendocrine response.
Among the hormonal responses vital to athletic development are substantial increases in testosterone, insulin-like growth factor, and human growth hormone. Exercising with protocols known to elevate these hormones eerily mimics the hormonal changes sought in exogenous hormonal therapy (steroid use) with none of the deleterious effects. Exercise regimens that induce a high neuroendocrine response produce champions! Increased muscle mass and bone density are just two of many responses to exercises capable of producing a significant neuroendocrine response.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of the neuroendocrine response to exercise protocols. This is why it is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit Program. Heavy load weight training, short rest between sets, high heart rates, high intensity training, and short rest intervals, though not entirely distinct components, are all associated with a high neuroendocrine response.
Power
Power is defined as the "time rate of doing work." It has often been said that in sport, speed is king. According to CrossFit, "power" is the undisputed king of performance. Jumping, punching, throwing, and sprinting are all measures of power. Increasing your ability to produce power is necessary to elite athleticism. Additionally, power is the definition of intensity, which in turn has been linked to nearly every positive aspect of fitness. Increases in strength, performance, muscle mass, and bone density all arise in proportion to the intensity of exercise. And again, intensity is defined as power. For these reasons, power development is an ever-present aspect of the CrossFit training.
Cross-Training
Cross training is typically defined as participating in multiple sports. At CrossFit, we instead define cross training as exceeding the parameters of the regular demands of your sport or training. The CrossFit Program recognizes functional, metabolic, and modal cross training. That is, we regularly train past the normal motions, metabolic pathways, and modes common to the athlete's sport or exercise regimen.
The CrossFit coaching staff long ago noticed that athletes are weakest at the margins of their exposure for almost every measurable parameter. For instance, if you only cycle between five to seven miles at each training effort, you will test weak at less than five and greater than seven miles. This is true for range of motion, load, rest, intensity, and power, etc. CrossFit training is engineered to expand the margins of exposure to be as broad as function and capacity will allow.
Functional Movements
There are movements that mimic motor recruitment patterns that are found in everyday life. Others are somewhat unique to the gym. Squatting is standing from a seated position; deadlifting is picking any object off the ground. These are both functional movements.
The bulk of isolation movements are non-functional. Natural movement typically involves the movement of multiple joints for every activity. Leg extensions and leg curls, for example, do not have equivalents in nature.
The importance of functional movements is primarily two-fold. First, the functional movements are mechanically sound and therefore safe, and second, they are the movements that elicit a high neuroendocrine response.
CrossFit has managed a stable of elite athletes and dramatically enhanced their performance exclusively with functional movements. The superiority of training with functional movements is clearly apparent with any athlete within weeks of their incorporation.
CrossFit Los Altos Implementation
CrossFit training will be conducted in a group environment. CrossFit groups will be scheduled throughout the week. See the front desk for a copy of the current group schedule. As the groups grow we will eventually add additional group times. To participate in the groups you have 2 options:
Unlimited monthly training in any CrossFit group - $250 per month
One session drop-in fee - $30
You are not required to sign-up for the group – simply show up ready to work hard and get great results. Talk to a trainer for more details.
www.crossfitnorcal.com
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