crossfit_l1_160_flashcards_brainscape
What is the goal of CrossFit?
To provide broad, general, and inclusive fitness.
What is the CrossFit prescription? Ie. What does CF aim to deliver in its programming?
Constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity.
What is CrossFit’s definition of fitness?
work capacity across broad time and modal domains.
What is CrossFit’s definition of health?
Fitness measured over time.
What is the formula for work?
Force x Distance.
What is CrossFit’s definition of power?
Force x Distance / Time.
How heavy, how far did you move it, how long did it take?
What is the difference between work and power?
Work is total effort, power is work over time.
What is CrossFit’s definition of intensity?
Power output.
What is technique in CrossFit?
how well a movement is performed.
What is virtuosity in CrossFit?
Doing the common uncommonly well.
What is the theoretical hierarchy of athletic development?
Nutrition, Metabolic Conditioning, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Sport.
What are 3 models for measuring fitness?
10 general physical skills (physical adaptations)
Hopper model (breadth and depth of skills)
Ability to impact 3 main Energy systems (metabolic pathways)
Name the 10 General Physical Skills.
Cardiovascular endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility —> body tissue changes
Power, Speed —> both
Coordination, Agility, Balance, Accuracy —> neurological changes
What is the Hopper model?
Fitness is the ability to perform well at random physical tasks.
(Ie The bingo ball idea)
What are the three metabolic pathways?
Phosphagen, Glycolytic, Oxidative.
Which skills are improved through TRAINING?
Endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility.
Which skills are improved through PRACTICE?
Coordination, agility, balance, accuracy.
Which skills are improved through BOTH training and practice?
Power and speed.
List the 9 foundational movements.
Air squat
Front squat
Overhead squat
Shoulder press
Push press
Push jerk
Deadlift
Sumo deadlift high pull
Med ball clean.
What is the primary function of the squat?
To develop hip and leg strength and flexibility.
What are the points of performance for the air squat?
Neutral spine, heels down, hips below parallel, knees in line with toes, chest up.
What is a common fault in the squat?
Knees caving in.
What is the difference between a push press and a push jerk?
Push jerk adds a re-dip under the bar after the drive.
What are points of performance for the deadlift?
Neutral spine, weight in heels, bar over mid-foot, shoulders slightly in front of bar.
What does GPP stand for?
General Physical Preparedness.
What is the goal of GPP?
To prepare for the unknown and unknowable.
What is the definition of variance in CrossFit?
Constantly changing workouts to increase adaptation.
What is the goal of scaling?
To preserve the intended stimulus.
What is the Zone Diet macronutrient ratio?
40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat.
Why is nutrition the base of the theoretical hierarchy?
Because it fuels all human performance.
What is the primary function of insulin?
Storage of nutrients and blood sugar regulation.
What is the impact of excess carbohydrate consumption?
Increased insulin response and fat storage.
What are the six criteria for effective movement?
Core-to-extremity
Midline stabilization
Active shoulders
Full range of motion
Proper line of action
Balance about the frontal plane.
What are the 6 elements of effective teaching?
Teaching, Seeing, Correcting, Group management, Presence & attitude, Demonstration.
What are the three ways to correct movement?
Verbal, Visual, Tactile.
What is group management?
Controlling the logistics of class size, space, and time.
What is presence and attitude?
Charisma, awareness, and confidence that makes a coach effective.
What makes an effective demonstration?
Accurate, slow, and performed from multiple angles.
Why is ‘mechanics-consistency-intensity’ important?
To ensure safety and efficacy before adding intensity.
What does consistency mean in CrossFit?
Performing movement with sound mechanics repeatedly.
What is rhabdomyolysis?
A breakdown of muscle tissue releasing harmful proteins into the bloodstream.
How is rhabdo caused?
Extreme overexertion, especially in deconditioned individuals.
How can rhabdo be prevented?
Scaling appropriately and educating athletes.
What is the first step when an athlete complains of dizziness?
Stop exercise and assess vitals.
What is the purpose of benchmark workouts?
To measure progress and track fitness over time.
What is the purpose of scaling load and volume?
To match the athlete’s ability and maintain stimulus.
What is meant by ‘intended stimulus’?
The outcome of a workout in terms of time, intensity, and feel.
What are functional movements?
They are natural, universal, and compound movements used in daily life.
What are examples of functional movements?
Squatting, deadlifting, pressing, running, jumping, pulling.
What does the sickness-wellness-fitness continuum show?
That health and fitness are part of the same spectrum.
How is power calculated in CrossFit?
Power = (Force × Distance) / Time.
How does CrossFit approach specialization?
It avoids it, instead aiming for broad and inclusive fitness.
What are the three metabolic pathways?
Phosphagen, Glycolytic, and Oxidative.
What is the aim of CrossFit?
To forge a broad, general, and inclusive fitness that prepares individuals for the unknown and unknowable.
What is CrossFit?
Constantly varied, high-intensity functional movement.
Why is intensity important in CrossFit?
Because intensity is defined as power and is most commonly associated with maximizing results.
What is the foundation of CrossFit’s methodology?
Empirical evidence—measurable, observable, repeatable data.
What are the three most important metrics for evaluating a fitness program?
Safety, efficacy, and efficiency.
How does CrossFit define evidence-based fitness?
Using measurable, observable, and repeatable data to support conclusions.
What are the three criteria to evaluate a fitness program?
Safety, efficacy, and efficiency.
Why is CrossFit considered ‘The Sport of Fitness’?
Because it uses whiteboards, scorekeeping, and defined standards to create competition and motivation.
What is the goal of a CrossFit coach?
To improve movement using teaching, seeing, and correcting.
What does ‘presence and attitude’ refer to in coaching?
The coach’s confidence, energy, and ability to connect with athletes.
What are the 2 characteristics of effective demonstration?
Athletes learn best by seeing movements done correctly and slowly.
What is the relationship between mechanics, consistency, and intensity?
Mechanics should be learned first, followed by consistent movement, and then intensity is added.
How does technique relate to safety, efficacy, and efficiency?
Good technique improves all three by maximizing work output while minimizing risk and wasted energy.
How does CrossFit define technique?
The method to successfully complete a movement, optimizing work done for energy expended.
Why is it important to prioritize technique before intensity?
To ensure movements are performed safely and effectively.
What does consistency mean in CrossFit?
The ability to perform movements well repeatedly over time.
Why do we scale workouts?
To maintain the intended stimulus of the workout for all athletes.
How do we preserve stimulus when scaling?
By adjusting load, reps, or movements without changing intensity.
Why does CrossFit use constantly varied workouts?
To prepare the athlete for any physical contingency and avoid adaptation plateaus.
What is the importance of functional movement in CrossFit programming?
Functional movements are universally applicable and essential to independent living.
What is CrossFit’s approach to metabolic conditioning?
A balance of aerobic and anaerobic training using interval methods for optimal adaptation.
What is CrossFit’s stance on routine?
Routine is the enemy; workouts should be constantly varied.
Why is intensity key in CrossFit?
It drives results and is correlated with power output.
What are examples of CrossFit modalities?
Weightlifting, gymnastics, metabolic conditioning.
What is the CrossFit dietary prescription?
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.
What are the Zone Diet macronutrient ratios?
40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, 30% fat.
Why avoid high-glycemic carbohydrates?
They cause a strong insulin response, which is linked to chronic diseases.
What are signs of hyperinsulinism?
Obesity, elevated cholesterol, blood pressure, mood dysfunction.
What does CrossFit suggest avoiding in your diet?
High-glycemic carbohydrates, sugar, and processed foods.
What’s special about the squat?
The squat is the quintessential hip extension exercise, and hip extension is the foundation of all good human movement. Secondarily, the squat is among those exercises eliciting a potent neuroendocrine response.
What are the most common faults in the air squat?
Surrendering of the lumbar curve at the bottom
Not breaking the parallel plane with the hips
Slouching in the chest and shoulders
Lifting the heels
Not fully extending the hip at the top
What are the most common causes of a bad squat?
1) Weak glute/hamstring. The glutes and hams are responsible for powerful hip extension, which is the key to the athletic performance universe.
2) Poor engagement, weak control, and no awareness of glute and hamstring. The road to powerful, effective hip extension is a three-to-five-year odyssey for most athletes.
3) Attempting to squat with quads. Leg extension dominance over hip extension is a leading obstacle to elite performance in athletes.
4) Inflexibility. Tight hamstrings are a powerful contributor to slipping into lumbar flexion–the worst fault of all.
5) Sloppy work, poor focus. This is not going to come out right by accident. It takes incredible effort. The more you work on the squat, the more awareness you develop as to its complexity.
What are some verbal cues for an air squat?
List 3 therapies for common faults with the squat
1) Bar Holds: Grab a bar racked higher and closer than your normal reach at the bottom of a squat, then settle into a perfect bottom position with chest, head, hands, arms, shoulders, and back higher than usual (Figure 2). Find balance, let go, repeat closer and higher, etc. This lifts the squat (raises head, chest, shoulders, and torso), putting more load on heels and glute/hams. This immediately forces a solid bottom posture from which you have the opportunity to feel the forces required to balance in good posture. This is a reasonable shoulder stretch but not as good as the overhead squat.
2) Box Squatting: Squat to a 10-inch box, rest at the bottom without altering posture, then squeeze and rise without rocking forward. Keep a perfect posture at the bottom. This is a classic bit of technology perfected at the Westside Barbell Club.
3) Bottom-to-Bottoms: Stay at the bottom, come up to full extension, and quickly return to the bottom, spending much more time at the bottom than the top; for instance, sitting in the bottom for five minutes, coming up to full extension only once every five seconds (60 reps) (Figure 3). Many will avoid the bottom like the plague. You want to get down there, stay down there, and learn to like it.
What are the points of performance for a front squat?
Bar rests on shoulders, elbows high, full squat depth, heels down, neutral spine.
What are the steps to learning the overhead squat?
1) Start only when you have a strong squat and use a dowel or PVC pipe, not a weight.
2) Learn locked-arm “dislocates” or “pass-throughs” with the dowel.
3) Be able to perform the pass-through at the top, the bottom, and everywhere in between while descending into the squat.
4) Learn to find the frontal plane with the dowel from every position in the squat.
5) Start the overhead squat by standing tall with the dowel held as high as possible in the frontal plane
6) Very slowly lower to the bottom of the squat, keeping the dowel in the frontal plane the entire time
7) Practice the overhead squat regularly and increase load in tiny increments.
What is the primary fault in the overhead squat?
Losing midline stability or letting the bar move forward.
What is the shoulder press?
What differentiates the push jerk from the push press?
Push jerk includes a re-dip under the bar after the drive.
What’s the difference between the shoulder press, push press, and push jerk?
https://youtu.be/MDE7fgut2Zs?si=BtSwGN5-EfX3XnhV
What are some cues for the deadlift?
- Natural stance with feet under hips.
- Symmetrical grip whether parallel, hook, or alternate.
- Hands placed where arms will not interfere with legs while pulling from the ground.
- Bar above the knot of the shoelaces.
- Shoulders slightly forward of bar.
- Inside of elbows facing one another.
- Chest up and inflated.
- Abs tight.
- Arms locked and not pulling.
- Shoulders pinned back and down.
- Lats and triceps contracted and pressing against one another.
- Keep your weight on your heels.
- Bar stays close to legs and essentially travels straight up and down.
- Torso’s angle of inclination remains constant while bar is below the knees.
- Gaze straight ahead.
- Shoulders and hips rise at same rate when bar is below the knees.
- Arms remain perpendicular to ground until lockout.
Describe the steps to the sumo deadlift high pull
- Start with bar at mid-shin. * Wide, “sumo” stance. * Take narrow grip on bar. * Look straight ahead. * Keep back arched. * Pull with hips and legs only until both are at full extension. * Aggressively open hip fully. * Powerfully shrug. * Immediately pull with arms to continue the upward travel of the bar. * Keep the elbows as far above your hands as possible. * Bring the bar right up under the chin briefly. * Lower to hang. * Lower to mid-shin.
How do you perform a medicine ball clean?
What does the sumo deadlift high pull develop?
Posterior chain and upper pulling mechanics.
What is core-to-extremity movement?
Initiating power from the core and transferring it to the limbs.
How does CrossFit define core strength?
Midline stabilization. This involves static control, not flexion. E.g. we brace (hold steady) the midline in the deadlift.
What is a common issue with most physical training today when it comes to
Excessive awareness and focus on the anterior and not on the posterior. As a culture of athletes and non-athletes alike, we are unfortunately frontally fixated.
We see communities where there is a very deliberate and concerted effort to minimize hip-flexor involvement in exercise. And yet, by insertion and origin, by mechanical position and advantage, and just kinematically, the hip flexors, have several times the contraction capacity that is estimated of the abdominals. All of it: hip extensors, hip flexors, trunk flexors, and exFigure 1. Midline Stabilization. tensors are essential to midline stabilization. The abdominals are just one part of the story.
What are the 4 movements performed on the GHD?
Hip extension; back extension; hip & back extension; GHD sit up
What should the legs do in a GHD sit up? Why?
To perform a GHD sit-up, there is some leg flexion in the descent. Then, the leg extends dramatically and pulls the athlete to seated (Figure 7). Conversely, if the athlete does not extend the leg to come to seated, the primary movers are the hip f lexors, but specifically the psoas. The psoas comes off the femur, runs through the pelvis (without attachment) and attaches to the lumbar spine. The hip flexors also include a very powerful complement to the psoas: the rectus femoris, which is the dominant piece of the quadriceps. The rectus femoris does not attach to the lumbar spine, but it attaches to the pelvis. This attachment to the pelvis is a point of enormous mechanical advantage and leverage. And to fully engage that, the leg must extend dramatically. The leg cannot sharply extend without working rectus femoris—a leg extensor and a hip flexor.
Why is midline stabilization important?
It protects the spine and improves force transfer.
What makes CrossFit a core strength and conditioning program?
It develops foundational fitness needed for all other athletic needs and focuses on functional movement.
What are the 10 general physical skills in CrossFit?
Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy.
What is the difference between training and practice?
Training improves physical capacity through organic changes; practice improves neurological adaptations.
What makes CrossFit different from typical gym routines?
Focus on compound functional movements and short, high-intensity workouts.
Why are functional movements superior?
They are safe, natural, and effective, and elicit high neuroendocrine response.
What is neuroendocrine adaptation?
Changes in the body due to hormonal and neurological shifts from training.
What does group management include?
Managing time, equipment, layout, and ensuring safety.
What is the purpose of a lesson plan?
To organize the class flow, timing, and coaching focus.
Why is whiteboard usage valuable?
It promotes accountability, intensity, and tracks performance.
What is virtuosity in movement?
Performing the common movements uncommonly well.
Why is CrossFit referred to as the ‘Sport of Fitness’?
It includes scoring, competition, and defined standards of movement.
How does CrossFit build community?
Through shared suffering, public performance, and mutual support.
