This is Why I CrossFit – Part IV (fancy Roman numerals)

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This is Why I CrossFit – Part IV (fancy Roman numerals)

Written by Bob Guere on 22 September 2009

No really, THIS is why I CrossFit

If you’ve read parts one, two and three, then you’re probably wondering what I could ramble on about now. Recently, I’ve had to defend some of my nutritional and fitness choices to folks that, in my opinion, are just stuck in the “old skool” rut like I was. Eat less fat, eat a lot of fiber, low calories, and do a lot of cardio and some weight training. That was the mantra, and for many folks, that only works short-term and becomes pretty painful to sustain. Increasing hunger in the kitchen and boredom in the gym eventually lead to another fad diet or magazine-cover workout program.

“Well, isn’t the Zone and Paleo diet just another fad diet Mr. Bob?”

The Zone diet has been around for about 30 years. Dr. Barry Sears started working on the Zone in the 1970s after his father died of a heart attack. His research over the years has only solidified his position on fats, carbs and the balance that can be achieved through the Zone diet. Good hypotheses are supported by science, and the Zone is both.

The Paleolithic diet, while popular, can hardly be called a fad. Since the basis of the Paleo diet is to eat like Grok would’ve eaten, it can be called “the oldest diet”. Whether you believe in Creation (intelligent design) or evolution, the diet is the same. It’s either Adam and Eve’s food, or Grok’s food.

“What about CrossFit? It’s a fad, right?”

Again, just because it’s popular now doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a fad. Time will tell if trul functional fitness, perpetuated by an organic community of like-minded athletes will become the norm. My money is on the affirmative. Like the Paleo diet, CrossFit’s methods are nothing new, nothing secret and nothing that isn’t 100% in the public domain. The magic is in the programming. Oh, by the way, the programming is 100% public information too. It is simply functional fitness, widely varied, at high intensity. In other words, move your body the way it’s meant to move, against a force to create adaptation, and do it in as many ways you can imagine. How you choose to do that is up to you. You don’t have to buy your gear from Rogue Fitness or Again Faster to be a CrossFitter? You don’t have to wear 13 affiliate shirts in one week to be part of the club. It’s a methodology and it’s programming. The rest is just gravy in the details.

So, as the question begs, why do I CrossFit? What’s so special about the Zone? The Paleo Diet?

If you know me, you know my history. I was fat (still am) for years. I tried low-carb diets, Weight Watchers, and Atkins. I learned a lot from each of them. Somewhere along the way, I realized that something was wrong. How can this be this difficult? During one of my low-carb stints, I stumbled upon information about carb addiction, and hyperinsulinism. Things started clicking, but it wasn’t until I joined the CrossFit gang of idiots (said with love) that I really began to put the puzzle pieces together.

I don’t pretend to be a doctor, nutritionist, scientist, professor or any otherwise highly-educated persona. I’m a trainer and a guinea pig. I can read. I can decipher between hype and facts. I pass on what I have learned from experience and education to my friends, family and clients. What I have learned is there is a balance necessary to create a hormonal peace in your body. The Zone accomplishes this. But is just eating within Zone portions of any food good enough? Sure, in the short term. Most folks will immediately lose some body fat and feel the benefits of being “in the zone.” Your energy levels will be up, your mood will be better and you’ll just generally feel better. But what about long-term health? The quality of the foods you eat is paramount when trying to achieve long-term health benefits. This is where many folk lean towards the Paleo or Primal diets. Choosing the right foods to eat in Zone-like portions will serve you well in the long run. You will, generally speaking, avoid many of the pitfalls that lead to chronic diseases associated with what Dr. Sears has dubbed “silent inflammation”. Google it for more information. Much of the health care costs in our country can be eliminated if everyone would get back to eating whole foods and nothing from a box, can or other package. Foods come pre-packaged in skin, scales, rinds and shells. Everything else is extraneous.

As for CrossFit, it was more straight-forward. I decided to CrossFit because of the team of folks that whole-heartedly endorse it. Firefighters, policemen and women, Special Forces, and elite athletes were all jumping on board and abandoning the old way of doing things. These folks relied upon their fitness for their livelihood. They rely on their body to keep them from harm in a firefight. If it’s good enough for them, surely I can benefit from it. The rest is history. The efficacy of can hardly be argued. The lifestyle, to include nutrition, are the common sticky points.

The community of CrossFitters, as previously touted in parts 1, 2 and 3, is unlike any community I’ve ever been associated with. I won’t belabor that point. However, I will add to my bloviating. One additional bonus feature of being part of this community is our willingness to try different things, learn from each other’s mistakes and victories and put together a better product for our athletes in the process. Many of the hybrid training programs are direct result of this process. CrossFit Football and CrossFit Endurance are two fine examples. CrossFitters will gladly tell you how they’ve tweaked their programming to suit their needs, or needs of a client. There are many folks who tinker with their nutrition often, learning new ways of incorporating our clean style of eating into a performance-based lifestyle.

In the end, it all comes back to the same basic principles. Coach Glassman, founder of CrossFit, summed it up this way:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. “

If you take the names off of what I do…”The Zone”,” The Paleo Diet”,” CrossFit”…. If you eliminate the monikers, those 100 words by Coach Glassman are what I do. I don’t CrossFit because it’s “CrossFit”… I CrossFit because it’s the best way to take care of my body. CrossFit is the evolution of fitness without the evolving part. It’s getting back to basics. It’s doing what we all know works anyway. Why must everything come from a machine? Just because it was manufactured from the finest alloys money can be does not mean it’s worth the weight of the box that it’s packed in. You are the running machine, the jumping machine, the lifting machine and the eating machine. Why must our food be processed, colored, re-processed, sweetened, fortified and packaged? Oranges are just fine by themselves, they do not require refrigeration and have handy packaging. Instead, we chemically reproduce orange flavoring, sweeten with high-fructose corn syrup, bottle it, give it a sunny name, and parade it around like a good choice for kid’s breakfast? Come on. You’re not fooling anyone. But I digress.

Why do I CrossFit? Why not? Call it what you want. If the name “CrossFit” makes you cringe and think of muscle-bulging men ripping through Fran in 2:58, and that happens to turn your stomach, call it something else. Just get out there and move. Eat right. Pass it on.

The ball is in your court. This horse is dead.