Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Air Force Times

CrossFit: Just what the doc ordered

If you haven’t heard of CrossFit, the fitness philosophy that’s sweeping the military, this is what you need to know: It’s the flash of genius of former gymnast Greg Glassman, and it will turn you into a tougher, faster, hard-bodied freedom fighter.

The prescription for CrossFit calls for three things: constant variation, high intensity and functional movement. By switching up your regular fitness routine, you keep your body constantly guessing the next move. In short, it’s the cure for the common workout.

As a Navy special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman, I have to stay fit to make sure I can keep up with my Marines. When the situation goes south, I need to be in the best possible shape to not only save my own life but also to pull a wounded man to cover while wearing 75 pounds of gear with sweat stinging my eyes — all after sprinting, jumping and climbing over obstacles to close width and destroy the enemy.

CrossFit is perfect for getting our blood pumping and our sweat rolling, and it’s easily the best system I’ve found to keep me from plateauing in my own workouts. It will prepare you for the unknown and the unknowable, in combat or everyday life.

Anyone can begin a CrossFit regimen, but it’s ideal for people who are already in shape but want to take things to the next level, push themselves over a hump or ace their next fitness test.

Still unsure? Ask yourself: Do you walk into the gym without any real plan? Do you feel like you’re not making much progress? Are you bored with your workout? Does your workout lack intensity? Are you unsatisfied with your current level of fitness?

If you answered yes on any of the above, CrossFit might help.

Here’s a workout that takes CrossFit principles and turns them into a simple, three-day-a-week regimen. As you advance, you’ll go to a two-days-on, one-day-off or a three-days-on, one-day-off cycle. The goal is to maintain the intensity for all of the workouts. At the end of the third day, I’m begging for that fourth day to come around.

Monday

Do the following two exercises as fast as you can with as few breaks as possible; do five rounds of each, and record your time:

• 400-meter run

• 95-pound overhead squats (15 reps)

An overhead squat is performed with the same basic mechanics as the back, or regular, squat. To do a proper squat for this exercise, keep the following in mind:

The squat

1. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart with your toes pointing out at about a 30-degree angle.

2. Gaze forward with your head in a neutral position.

3. Your weight should be on your heels.

4. Keep your chest out, your shoulders back, your back arched and your belly tight.

5. Your butt should travel back and downward.

6. Pull yourself down, keeping your knees directly over your feet.

7. Rise to your full extension.

The overhead squat

1. Start with the weight over your head.

2. Keep your shoulders “active” — reaching as high as they can.

3. Keep your elbows locked.

4. Lower yourself into the bottom of the squat with the weight still held overhead; when you’re in the bottom position, the bar will naturally move back and be centered over your hips and feet. This is good.

5. Drive the weight through your heels, into the standing position.

6. To scale these exercises down, you can drop the number of squats down to 10, seven or four instead of 15, decrease your 400-meter run to 200 meters, drop the squatting weight to a broomstick or cut the weight down to a 45-pound bar.

There are many ways to scale an exercise down, but don’t cheat yourself.

Wednesday

Do the following exercise, courtesy of CrossFit SoCal in San Diego, with a broomstick, a 45-pound bar or with max effort on lifts, with three or four minutes of rest in between single sets:

Hang power clean (seven reps)

1. This lift starts in the hang position (standing up straight) and ends standing after catching the weight in the quarter-squat position.

2. Start with your feet at hip width and grasp the bar with a slightly-wider-than-shoulder width so that your hands will not rest on your shoulders in the catch position but just outside of them. Use a hook grip for this.

3. Your arms should be straight and your elbows turned outward.

4. Keep the bar close to your body when lifting from the floor or removing from a rack. Push at the ground with your heels.

5. Move your hips forward and explode — jump — as high and as fast as you can, creating momentum and elevation on the bar.

6. Keep your arms straight and shrug your shoulders. This is called being in “full extension” or “triple extension” — your ankles, arms and hips will be fully extended, and your shoulders will be shrugged.

7. As you accelerate the bar upward, pull yourself under the bar. Your feet should jump to the landing position just outside your shoulder width, and your arms will bend with your elbows high and to the outside.

8. Catch the bar in a quarter-squat position with the bar racked on your chest and shoulders. Your elbows should be high.

9. Stand up with the bar by pushing your feet into the ground, with all your weight on your heels.

Friday

For your final workout this week:

• 30 muscle-ups for time. If you can’t do the muscle-ups, do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips — or as many of either as you can accomplish.

A muscle-up can be done on a pull-up bar, but it is better to use a set of gymnast rings. Simply pull yourself from under the rings and transition to above the rings or the bar.

Muscle-ups

Start with a false grip: Grasp the rings in both hands with your knuckles facing toward you, like you are getting ready to punch yourself. You should feel pressure on your wrist, especially the lateral side of the wrist. Always wrap your thumb around — never keep it on the same side as your fingers. Keep the rings close to each other and pull your chest to the rings from a dead hang.

1. Thrust your chest over the rings. Sometimes it helps to imagine that you’re tracing your thumbs across your chest. Push up from the dipped position.

2. Fully extend your elbows and arms at the top of the dip.

If these numbers seem astronomical to you, cut them in half, thirds or even fourths. Scale them down to a manageable number; there is a technique to a proper muscle-up that will make it easier to do over time. If you haven’t mastered that yet, stick to pull-ups and dips. But again, don’t cheat yourself.

You can also do a modified pull-up in which you prop a stick between two chairs and lay flat on the ground; with your arms extended, pull yourself upward until your chest touches the stick, and then drop back down.

The dips can be scaled down by propping your arms on a bench behind you with your legs extended out in front of you. Lower yourself, extending your arms downward until you’re as far down as you can go — or at least until your elbow is bent less than a 90-degree angle — and then push yourself back up. Repeat this until all your reps are complete.

How do you scale?

You be the judge. But don’t forget that CrossFit is intensity-driven, and these workouts are designed to keep you moving, your blood pumping and your heart rate elevated. These workouts, if done right, will devastate even the most elite athletes on their first time trying the program, so don’t feel bad if you find yourself scaling back.

Beginners should always consult a physician (and maybe even a psychiatrist) before starting a new CrossFit, regimen, and they should also automatically decrease their total reps and total time by half. You’ll work your way into the intensity you want without going bust. Just let the intensity find you.

Want more?

If you’d like to reach the next level, check out the local CrossFit gym or club near your post and get involved with a trainer.

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Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Brian Thurmond is an active-duty special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. A veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Thurmond operates the blog CrossFitBlackDiamond.com. He also trains service members and civilian law enforcement officers in the principles of CrossFit and offers free Saturday classes in Southern California.

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Related reading

• The 10 fundamentals of every CrossFit workout

• Caution: Intense workout ahead