EXERCISE SCIENCE

Intensity and variance are essential to CrossFit programming, driving results and fostering broad fitness. Preserving the intended stimulus of each workout ensures we optimize both elements. Factors like how a workout feels, loading, timing, volume, and movement patterns play a crucial role. The math method helps scale workouts to maintain intensity, guiding athletes to hit the desired time or rep targets. Whether tackling Fran, Cindy, or Amanda, scaling appropriately ensures athletes achieve the intended stimulus, maximizing fitness and results over the long term.

"Movement quality is critically important," says neurosurgeon Dr. David Johnson. Good movement leads to long-term mobility and functionality. Poor movement leads to increased “risk of developing musculoskeletal pain, and over time, an increased risk for the requirement of musculoskeletal surgery.” According to Johnson, functional movement is key. “Without ... physiological stimulus, you won't recover from your musculoskeletal pain.”

Training and nutrition are the two most powerful mechanisms for improving human health, but they exert their influence from opposite directions. Diet supplies energy and is the source of the body’s structural components. Exercise consumes energy and actually breaks down the body in various ways. Here, Tyler Hass explores how to optimize both mechanisms by dialing the body’s activity and nutrition patterns up or down.

Functional movements are optimal for developing human bodies to their highest potential. By virtue of recruiting as much muscle as possible, these movements uniquely equip a person to perform more work in less time. Calorie burn is a measure of work, so it can be said that functional movements burn calories at a faster rate than non-functional movements.

Will focusing on running endurance interfere with your strength numbers? Will prioritizing your back squat slow down your mile time? Traditional exercise science has consistently reported differing training stimuli interfere with one another. Tyler Hass examines the research and explains what happens when we ask a different question: How can we maximize the total physical adaptation of the human body?

Borrowed from physics, the idea that all calories are created equal is gravely wrong when applied to biology. Calories from protein, carbs, and fat have very different effects on our hormones and ultimately our body composition. A new paradigm asserts the quality of calories you consume is key, but less has been said about the quality of various calorie-burning methods. Here, Tyler Hass explains why exercising with intensity has a more profound effect on body comp and overall health than steady-state cardio.

The GARD principle stands for “general adaptations to related demands.” Physical adaptations to exercise are not compartmentalized. Everything is connected. Improve at one thing and the resulting adaptations will improve everything related as well.

This 2020 study found body fat and anaerobic fatigue tolerance and power — not overall strength or aerobic capacity — most accurately predicted Murph times in a small group of trained CrossFit athletes.

This small trial indicates carbohydrate/calorie restriction and exercise have significant, additive benefits on multiple measures of cognitive function and performance in men and women with metabolic syndrome.

On March 12, 2010, Coach Greg Glassman visited Dr. Scott Connelly with the intent was to tap into Dr. Connelly's vast knowledge of metabolism, particularly as it relates to long-term fitness and health. The result was over 90 minutes of education about the relationships among glucose, insulin, ATP, protein, body weight and health.