Every day there are two options for our workouts. As our members walk through the doors before they even take off their shoes they are looking at the board, trying to see the the demands they will be putting their bodies through that day. Then the question arises... Fitness or CrossFit. Some already have their minds mad up ahead of time and others are on the fence.
My reasoning for having the two options available to people is to give options and opportunities to those who want to train with us and experience Starke for what it is. A program that will help your 10 year old to build great habits and movement patterns, a program that will help people who's lives depend on their level of fitness and physical ability, a program that can help an athlete learn how to be well balanced and find strength in ares that were weak before, a program that can help an 80 year old with limited strength and mobility find ways to do more than they ever thought possible.
I hope this post will help you in making your decision.
First let's tackle "Fitness". Our programming for fitness will help you to develop strength and conditioning, help you to learn new skills, and build confidence in basic strength movements while providing feedback & techniques on becoming more mobile and well rounded athletes. In fitness you will still be performing Barbell Back Squats, Barbell Deadlifts and other movements that you will see in a CrossFit class without the Olympic lifts.
This is where I would recommend people to start if you have no interest in the olympic lifts, are just starting out your training and need to build a good foundation of skills and strength. All of the workouts can be modified to enable anyone to do the workout. I don't expect everyone to be able to do workouts exactly as prescribed. Weight, repetitions, sets, rounds, and the exercise itself can be modified to challenge the individual at their fitness and ability level.
I incorporated the fitness workouts because some people wanting general fitness with a membership that allowed them to come two times a week might show up on days where we were doing Heavy BB Snatches on one day and heavy BB deadlifts on another. I saw this as being an issue for those wanting to break a good sweat and feel like they got what they came for.
CrossFit workouts are a place where you need to put a lot of time into technique, building mobility, and physical ability into many demanding movements including the olympic lifts, gymnastics skills, heavier squats (overhead, front, & back), and many more. It takes people years to develop skills in these movements along with the strength to support these skills. I don't expect people to pick these things up right off the bat. Along with a steep learning curve the body needs time for muscles and connective tissues to adapt to the demands of the different movements especially if you haven't moved your body in these ways ever before.
So far the people who tend to pick up the movements with more ease have been gymnasts, martial artists with experience in patterns and skilled movements requiring them to control their bodies, Yoga practitioners, and dancers. These people tend to have a heightened sense of body awareness, great mobility, and the discipline to take the time to learn how to execute the movements with accuracy. This doesn't mean that the guy sitting behind the desk for the past 20 years with terrible posture and lack of strength and mobility can't do CrossFit. This means its going to take him a bit longer and a LOT more work to get there.
In the end you need to look at the board and think about what your goals are and what workouts are going to get you there. If you dislike the olympic lifts then don't go to our "Weightlifting" classes and stay away from the CrossFit Classes with the lifts in them. If your goal is to do a local CrossFit competition, if you want to do the CrossFit open and fight for a spot to represent at regionals do the CrossFit classes, do the weightlifting classes and know that you will need to spend more time working on your weaknesses outside of class times to make you more well rounded.
I have stood next to the board with people saying "I don't know which one to pick, they both look so good" and "I suck at overhead barbell squats so i'm going to do that one".
We are going to offer you a challenge no matter what, but keep in mind you only get better when you attack your weaknesses.
Paul
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