Measuring Fitness
An essential part of our approach to health and fitness is measurability, considering that without measurement we can not claim improvement. The continuum provides a set of clinical health markers, but there is another approach: fitness is a measurement for our health, therefore an improvement in fitness is an improvement in health. With that in mind, we defined that an improvement in fitness can be seen as increased work capacity across broad time, modal, and age domains.
Work capacity is the ability to perform real physical work as measured by force x distance / time (which is average power). Fitness is this ability in as many domains as possible. In other words: fitness is your ability to move large loads, long distances, quickly, in the broadest variety of domains (different skills, durations, circumstances etc.) and having the ability to sustain that fitness throughout your life. When taking these statements into consideration, we can predict improvement in health for each individual that follows a exercise regimen that supports fitness.
We believe that the best exercise regimen that gets you towards fitness-end of the health spectrum, and therefore increase your work capacity across broad time, modal and age domains is based on performing constantly varied, functional movements at high intensity. In other words: “CrossFit”. This also means that any exercise program that does not support health, is not CrossFit.
In the next AKA teach the athlete episode, we will introduce you to three other models that define our view on fitness. These three models will enable us to provide you a front row seat to our view on why we do what we do in the box everyday. Want a little teaser? Here you go: Our fitness, being “CrossFit,” comes through molding men and women that are in equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter and multi-modal sprinter or “sprintathlete.” Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete, gymnast and weightlifter and you will be fitter than any world-class runner, gymnast or weightlifter.