CrossFit: some numbers about the most effective training method

What made ordinary gym visitors engage in weightlifting and powerlifting? A few facts about the fastest growing sports phenomenon of the decade. If we forgot something, write in the comments and we will update the article with a link to you.

Have you been interested in fitness or a healthy lifestyle? Then you've probably heard about such a phenomenon as CrossFit. You may have even seen special “CrossFit zones” in many fitness rooms. What is the reason for such popularity? We tried to collect all the puzzle pieces and solve the riddle. Facts and a minimum of our opinion in an attempt to understand the reasons for the success of the CrossFit method.

Company profit and growth in the number of CrossFit adherents

Founder of CrossFit, Inc., Greg Glassman was born on October 28, 1956 and began his personal coaching career at age 18 (1974) as a gymnastics instructor at the YWCA in Pasadena, California. In 1996, when Greg was 40 years old, he finally formed his understanding of CrossFit as a separate discipline and decided to register his company. In 2000, Greg Glassman and his wife Lauren Janay founded CrossFit, Inc. Glassman gained full control of the company after his divorce from Lauren. Lauren tried to sell her share to a third party, but Glassman was able to borrow $16 million from his partners and bought out his wife's share. Greg Glassman has been married three times and has six children.

Glassman created the first CrossFit gym in 2001 in the city of Santa Cruz (California, USA), the first affiliated gym opened in Seattle (Washington State). In 2005 there were already thirteen gyms, and in 2012 the number of gyms was estimated at 6,775 (which is more than half a million “CrossFitters”), by 2013 there were already 8,000 CrossFit gyms. In 2015, there were about 13,000 affiliated gyms and by 2022, more than 14,000 [3] in more than 120 countries around the world. In total, there are more than two million “CrossFitters.” The cost of a license for one affiliated hall was established in 2011 and amounted to $3,000 (has not changed since then). This means that CrossFit, Inc. it earns more than 42 million dollars or 2.7 billion rubles a year from the sale of licenses alone.

In 2012, the profit of CrossFit, Inc. amounted to 3.2 billion rubles, in 2013 it amounted to more than 6.4 billion rubles. The current value of CrossFit, Inc. is valued at several hundred million dollars, and Greg Glassman is the majority owner. He doesn't have a desk or a board of directors, and when he started, he says he didn't even write a business plan.

This financial success may be due to the fact that the CrossFit community is grateful to Glasman for his training method, which makes people open their gyms in the hope of being involved in new experiences and changes in other people. That is why those who have only recently started training and have experienced huge changes in their body are amazed by the power of the effect of training and want to share these same sensations with others. That's why, after just a few years of CrossFit training, they're ready to open their own gym.

According to some reports [10], in 2022 CrossFit, Inc. will cross the 15,500 affiliate mark. Certified gyms are already open in 162 countries. Today, CrossFit is among the top 10 franchises along with such well-known brands as, for example, 5th place – Burger King (16,859 franchisees for 2022), 6th place in the world – Pizza Hut (16,796 franchisees for 2022).

So, what are these world-famous CrossFit Games?

CrossFit itself is a form of fitness, but unlike the usual boring workouts at the gym, the CrossFit program is characterized by an ever-changing program of strength training with a high degree of intensity.

And what kind of exercises are these? Running, jumping over obstacles and with a skipping rope, climbing ropes, flipping huge tires, exercises with iron, training on a rowing machine and much more.

The CrossFit program has been adopted for training personnel in fire departments, law enforcement agencies and various law enforcement agencies. Of course, mainly in the USA and Canada, where fashionable CrossFit gyms are already successfully replacing ordinary fitness gyms, but a wave of passion for this amazing sport has also reached our country.

Let's move on to the CrossFit Games themselves, which have been organized and held by the well-known company Reebok for several years now. What is their essence?

Every summer since 2007, hundreds of sportsmen and women compete for the title of “Fittest Person in the World” and they really have to be ready for anything! Participants will learn about the program of the competitions in which they will compete a couple of hours before the CrossFit Games.

Of course, these exercises change every year. The organizers do not skimp on surprises: participants in previous CrossFit Games were given open water swimming and softball throwing - tests that are completely untypical for the CrossFit program.

But the Games themselves are held in three stages: Opens, Regionals and the final – Reebok CrossFit Games.

Radical Glassman and the Competition Against CrossFit

Greg Glassman is known for his radical stance against fast food and junk food. The company on its Twitter account [11] published doctored images from a Coca-Cola advertisement, where the words “discover happiness” were replaced with “discover diabetes.” Greg Glassman said in an interview that he and his team of lawyers have participated in more than 50 lawsuits to protect intellectual property rights and the company's business image. All cases were won.

One of the most high-profile cases took place in 2014, when the company CrossFit, Inc. filed a lawsuit against the American National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) for publishing a study based on a survey of 54 people, 16% of whom did not complete the CrossFit training program, which, according to the authors, showed a disproportionate balance of injury risk and benefit for such people. high-intensity training programs like CrossFit.

CrossFit, Inc., claiming that the information was false and was "intended to discourage CrossFit because the NSCA is a direct competitor," sued the NSCA. In September 2016, the court ruled in favor of CrossFit, Inc., ruling that the injury reports were false. However, the court did not find that NSCA was commercially motivated or that the publication of the research was defamatory because NSCA did not conduct the research itself. However, CrossFit later filed another lawsuit in February 2022 against the NSCA after one of the witnesses (an NSCA member) admitted to falsifying CrossFit injury claims. In May 2022, the Court ruled that the NSCA did have a commercial motive for falsifying the data and knowingly published false data to damage CrossFit's reputation and deceive the public. As a result, the court ordered the NSCA to pay CrossFit $74,000 [1].

As for its own injury rates, CrossFit defends its position by citing three scientific surveys of CrossFit training participants. According to these surveys, injury rates ranged from 2.4 to 3.1 injuries per 1000 hours of training. This level of injury corresponds to (or is lower than) the level of injury characteristic of “general physical training” classes [2].

International CrossFit Competitions or CrossFit Games

The first CrossFit competition took place in Carson, a city in the United States, in Los Angeles County, California, in 2007. The CrossFit Games are competitions between CrossFit athletes that are usually held in early August. Qualification for the CrossFit Games was previously held in two consecutive stages, which have now been made parallel.

The first stage is called Open (which means open, anyone can take part in it without restrictions). The winners of the Open stage from each country, starting in 2018, will qualify for the CrossFit Games. The entry fee for the 2018 Open was $20. In 2013, 140,000 thousand people around the world took part in the first stage of selection for the games (CrossFit Open). In 2022, 380 thousand people. The 2022 CrossFit Open had 625,981 participants. This is the total number of athletes, including those who completed only one routine. The largest difference in the number of participants was observed after 4 tasks. In the end, only 448,655 people completed all five tasks.

Opens are the heart of games. Anyone can come and compete. A quarter of a million in 2016 is a very good result, if we remember that we started with 40 people we knew in 2007 [9].

The second qualifying stage is regional competitions. Today they have been replaced by 17 tournaments that are held around the world. The winners of these tournaments get the opportunity to bypass the Open and get to the CrossFit Games.

Dave Castro is Greg Glassman's closest associate and the Director of Development for the CrossFit Games, planning the program and running the competition each year. The winner of the CrossFit Games is awarded the title of “Fittest Man on Earth.” The title is also a trademark of CrossFit. Glassman says no one in the world is as prepared as the athletes who competed at the CrossFit Games. They have outstanding abilities. Competition participants learn about the performance program only a few hours before the start. In 2007, the cash prize was $500; in 2013, this amount increased to $275,000. Victory among women and men is assessed equally. In 2022, the prize amount was $300,000.

The number of applications for participation in the 2016-2017 competition from speakers from Canada and Australia increased by 29%, from Europe by 129%, from Brazil by 147% (since 2009, the number of Brazilian affiliates has doubled every year and now in 2022 there are 1000 affiliates in Brazil ). In 2022, more than 70,000 people watched the game livestreamed on Facebook.

The first sponsor of CrossFit competitions was Adidas, but in 2010 an agreement was reached between CrossFit, Inc. And . According to the contract signed between the parties, Reebok committed itself to providing not only sponsorship support, but also to popularize CrossFit in the world.

Some interesting facts from Open 2015

1. For the first time since 2011, Froning did not win the Crossfit Open . Matt Fraser cemented his status as the "heir to the champion" by becoming the first person to beat Froning at the Open since 2011. This year, Mat was in the top ten in four events, and in the 15.5 medley he shared first place with Simon Paquitte, showing a time of 5 minutes and 19 seconds. In the end, Fraser finished the Open with 127 points in his pocket, 12 less than second place Froning (139). The score of the next closest athlete to them is 182 points, their owner is Ben Smith, who is located on the third line of the final leaderboard. While winning the Open may not guarantee victory at the Crossfit Games, it's still a pretty good indication of who will be in the top three, or at least close to it. With Froning moving up to the tag team division, Frazier should feel very confident heading into Regionals.

2.The teams were replenished with famous athletes.

Reigning champions Crossfit Invictus finished the Open in first place in the standings, which is not surprising. NorCal CrossFit, with the addition of Crossfit Games veteran Jason Calipa, took second place. CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, also featuring Games athletes such as Rich Froning and James Hobart, finished 8th in the world and 1st in their region, while two-time Games champions Ute CrossFit finished 26th. mi. This year the team competition should be more interesting to watch, with so many well-known faces joining the division.

CrossFit training program

As Greg Glassman has admitted in interviews, one of the biggest breakthroughs in performance training programs was the creation of a website in February 2001. Creating a website with daily training programs allowed Glassman to receive feedback from thousands of athletes around the world. The importance of this process cannot be overestimated.

When thousands participate, the performance criteria become more objective across a large sample of people. Currently, CrossFit is used in the police, army, various martial arts associations, as well as among Olympic teams of various sports.

A typical CrossFit workout lasts one hour and consists of several stages:

• Warm-up (joint and dynamic).
• Skills or strength (working with exercise technique and new skills).
• WOD (workout of the day) from 3 to 30 minutes of intensive work in a complex.
• Additional exercises or cool down and stretching.

WOD (workout of the day) can be very different, but, as a rule, it is a set of exercises performed in some style:

• Timed – you need to perform one exercise for time or a whole round or a series of rounds.
• AMREP - you need to complete as many repetitions (circles) as possible in a given time.
• EMOM - one exercise is performed a specified number of times within one minute (a specified number of exercises in total and several circles within a certain time interval).
• FGB – fight style work. Typically, five exercises should be performed at the maximum amount within one minute per exercise. Rest one minute between rounds.
• Tabata and other variations of time and load.

One of the distinctive features of the system is work in groups of 5-10 people. This allows for a competitive effect and forces athletes to do more work than training alone. There is also such an interesting type of complexes as group complexes. For example, two or three people should take turns performing sets for the total number of reps. While one is working, the other is resting. It also provides an additional competitive stimulus and the release of essential neurotransmitters. Neuroendocrine adaptation is one of the four defining themes of the CrossFit system.

“Neuroendocrine adaptation” refers to changes in the body’s nervous or hormonal systems. The most important adaptations to training are always partly or wholly the result of hormonal or neurological shifts. Modern research, much of it led by Dr. William Kremer of the University of Pennsylvania, has revealed which training protocols provide the greatest endocrine response. Earlier at the beginning of our manual, we blamed isolated exercises for low efficiency. Now we can add that these exercises are simply missing one of the main factors: they practically do not cause a neuroendocrine response.

Among the hormonal effects that are important for athletic development are the following: a significant increase in the production of testosterone, insulin-like growth factor and an increase in human growth hormone. Training using exercises that can increase the production of these hormones has effects similar to exogenous hormone therapy (steroid use), but does not have harmful effects. Training programs that produce significant neuroendocrine responses produce champions! Increases in muscle mass and bone density are just two of many adaptive responses to such exercise. The importance of the neuroendocrine response when using certain training programs is invaluable. You can read more about this in the article on training programming and in Greg Glassman's training guide [15, p. 12].

About preparation

These are important recommendations for preparing for a tournament of any level, especially if it is your first.

Strive to show everything you can do

Preparing for an important event takes a lot of time, so everyone would like to demonstrate all their strengths. You need to understand that at a performance there is something that is not present at an ordinary training session: judges, spectators and your own excitement. Often athletes show amazing skills during preparation, but at competitions they make a small mistake that spoils the final result. If this is the first large-scale competition, then it will be impossible to predict the scale of the excitement and its consequences. But you can protect yourself from other mistakes.

To one degree or another, anxiety will accompany the entire training process, intensifying towards the appointed date. It is important to strictly follow the chosen program no matter what. Preparation will take at least 12 weeks, it is better to allocate more time so that there is a reserve for working on mistakes. The more time you have to prepare, the higher the chance of giving 100% at the tournament.

Pay attention to psychological preparation

The distribution of places in the finals is determined not only by physical, but also psychological preparation. Regular training will help strengthen character and willpower. To get a winning combination, all that remains is to add self-confidence. Therefore, moral preparation consists of realizing your success; you should focus your attention on the progress achieved and the total amount of work done. Praising yourself after every workout and rewarding yourself after every achievement is really important. If you are confident, you will be able to show your best.

Plan meals

Preparing for a competition involves eating smart: eating the right things at the right time. Almost all tournaments involve performing 3-4 complexes per day. If the event lasts two days, then during these two days you will have to perform eight complexes. This is a serious test for the body, for which it must be prepared.

Often on competition days the only nutritious meal is breakfast. This means that the morning meal is the only opportunity to charge the body with the energy it needs. Planning breakfast must be approached with full responsibility. You should not limit yourself in advance to food in the daytime and evening; you need to accustom yourself to nutritious meals in the morning. Try to bring the energy value of the first meal to 1000 calories, this will help compensate for the energy costs of at least one complex. In this case, you should eat 2-3 hours before the start of exercise.

It’s worth considering not only nutritious breakfasts, but easily digestible snacks throughout the day. It is important to take into account that you will not want to eat, perhaps the food will disgust you, but you will still have to replenish your strength. Don't forget to drink water after each complex. As for the choice of food and sports nutrition, they should be the same as during the training period. Increasing your diet with new foods can provoke an unpredictable reaction in the body.

Warm up before all the complexes

Ignoring a warm-up is a common mistake among beginners. It would seem that doing a warm-up is natural, but in practice, after 2-3 complexes, there are always fewer athletes in the warm-up area. Before each complex you need to warm up for 20 minutes; you shouldn’t do it longer, especially if you have to complete four programs in a day. To organize a warm-up, it is advisable to use the principle of three five-minute periods:

• 5 min – running, jumping, rowing or other cardio;
• 5 min – special part, performing elements of movements present in the upcoming complex;
• 5 minutes – practicing the exercises to be performed.

Cool down after each complex

With this, things are even more complicated for amateurs. It is easier to do a warm-up than to pay attention to a cool-down after a complex, when every muscle in the body ache, and it hurts even to breathe. But it’s still worth doing a cool-down, at least five minutes on the rowing machine. A gradual decrease in heart rate will speed up recovery and have a positive effect on your well-being.

Prepare a strategy for each complex

The principles of passing all the complexes are similar: try not to spend all your energy in the first two minutes, save your energy until you complete 70-80%, but at the same time remain concentrated. The remaining 20-30% is the time of working at maximum speed and intensity, here you can prove yourself and even exceed your previous performance. Of course, planning a strategy is easier than sticking to it in a competition, but it should always be in your head.

Don't worry if the plan fails

Strategy is needed to make the performance easier, not to ruin it after the first small mistake. If you deviate a little from the strategy, you shouldn’t worry, panic or give up. It is in such moments that you win or lose on a psychological level. In the same way, you should treat technical failures calmly. For example, you need to walk 5 km on a rowing machine, everything goes well, but after the first kilometer the machine's computer crashes. Such moments are spelled out in the regulations for the tournament; usually the participant simply passes the failed test separately from the others. How successful the repetition will be depends only on your stress tolerance.

Don't argue with the judge

Arguing with a judge at a CrossFit competition is a waste of nerves and time. The judge will always be right, that’s the specificity. Therefore, if for some reason you are stopped, just take note and continue further.

Appearance and numbers: what a healthy person should look like and how much should they weigh

In response to repeated criticism of the appearance of female athletes, the radical Glassman speaks of new standards of beauty based on the purpose and nature of women, and not on old prejudices. This idea is supported by statistics from an app used by hundreds of athletes. BTWB (Beyond The Whiteboard) is an application with a base of more than 100,000 users that allows you to track results over a long period of time in the format of a smart diary. By recording your performance over a long period of time, you can get statistics, which is important when planning a training program. The authors of the application launched a beta site in early 2009 and today they have a huge number of users around the world.

The program’s algorithms, taking into account the weight and height of the athletes, can mathematically show the superiority of the athletes’ body structure. Standards for the best ratio of a person’s weight and height are not invented, but are read from practice. This is a fundamentally new approach to weight standards, which is based on objective data, and not on taste preferences. In other words, on the maximum performance of athletes and on the result, and not on subjective preferences about beauty.

For men who used the app, the average Body Mass Index was 27.2 with a waist of 85.09 cm. Male users with a BMI of 26-28 had a significantly higher level of fitness than other athletes. For women, this figure is a BMI of 24 with a waist of 76.2 cm. Female users had a significantly higher level of fitness with a BMI of 22-26.

In the photo you can see Annie Thorisdottir, the two-time Fittest Woman on the Planet, and Cassidy Lance-Mcwherter, a CrossFit Games competitor who placed tenth in 2022.

Glassman's main goal and new approach to health

The CrossFit Games and the largest qualifying events in the history of the sport, multi-million dollar profits, contracts with global clothing brands, the appearance of the athletes and the overall financial success of the company are the icing on the cake, according to Greg Glassman.

What Greg really considers success, he says, is the ability to positively impact people's health. Training is not separated from nutrition in CrossFit. Quote from the training guide: A well-designed diet can increase energy levels, improve well-being and optimize brain activity, while reducing body fat and allowing you to build muscle mass. A properly formulated diet can improve every important measurable parameter of a person's health. Training manual [67-82].

Many CrossFitters have allowed their personal data to be published about the changes they have achieved through nutrition and CrossFit. Molly [12] is one of them. She took two tests one year apart and trained in the CrossFit program. Here is the progression in its results you can see:

• Total Cholesterol changed from 266 ➡️ 201
• HDL cholesterol 72 ➡️ 77
• LDL cholesterol 173 ➡️ 112
• Triglycerides 106 ➡️ 59
• Glucose 110 ➡️ 98

Most CrossFit clubgoers don't look like Annie Thorisdottir and Cassidy Lance-Mcwherter. These are ordinary people, for example, like Molly - and this is easy to see from your own experience - by visiting.

Organizational details

Note! The publication time for the competition rules this time is given with a fair margin - more than two weeks earlier compared to the previous year. The 2022 competition rules were released on January 7 of that year, with the added benefit that the competition structure itself had not undergone significant changes, allowing athletes to plan important dates ahead of time.

• The prize fund and semi-final tasks were not included in the announcement of the competition rules. In 2022, the Semi-Final tasks were released only in February, while information about the prizes for the winners was published only in June.
• Rules of participation for adaptive athletes were also late, although the abstract included information that all missing details would be published soon.
• The importance of choosing Semi-Final events , as well as contracting, cannot be underestimated, as they can provide a shift in the balance of influence on the community for the organizers of various types of qualifying competitions leading up to the CrossFit Games.
• Taking into account the difficulty of holding in-person competitions due to quarantine restrictions that continue to apply in a number of countries, the schedule for the Semi-Final events may be published in a manner similar to the previous year, based on the existing situation in the intended location of the event.

As always, CrossFit Inc. strongly welcomes everyone who wishes to take part in the competition as an athlete or fan, and recommends that they familiarize themselves with the already mentioned set of rules in order to avoid possible misunderstandings, especially emphasizing the fact that this year the latter have undergone a number of important changes.