SERIOUS FITNESS: A BALANCED APPROACH
Neal Thompson, Owner and Chief Instructor of CrossFit Boston
Neal Thompson, Owner and Chief Instructor of CrossFit Boston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mark Connell: What is it that makes a gym serious? What makes CrossFit
special?
Neal Thompson: CrossFit is all about functional fitness. Fostering the ability in
your body to accomplish any task it’s presented. The CrossFit method is to have no
routine. The WOD (Workout of the Day) is a constantly varied set of physical
challenges that combine to produce athletes ready to handle any task thrown at them.
Take a look at the WOD on the CrossFit Boston web site (or on any CrossFit
affiliate) and you’ll see the variation in what we do.
CrossFit trains two complementary skill areas and adds a third element of high-
intensity metabolic conditioning. The skills are Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics.
Training the Olympic lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, and also the squat and deadlift) is an
unrivaled program to develop explosive power, quickness and strength. The problem is
that the Olympic lifts are complicated and require proper teaching, otherwise they can
be dangerous. That is why they are neglected at commercial gyms.
Gymnastics is the second skill focus. It broadly includes any body weight exercises,
such as pull-ups, dips, squats, jumps, lunges, pushups, and various presses to
handstands. The only equipment used is pull-up bars and rings. The key is that these
exercises improve the body’s strength-to-weight ratio. Commercial gyms gloss over
these exercises because they are hard.
Both Olympic lifting and gymnastics are completely functional skill sets. They require
the athlete to stabilize their body in space, which engages the core muscles of the trunk
and integrates them with the muscles of the arms and legs.
Finally, the third element of CrossFit training is high intensity metabolic conditioning. A
favorite combination is to combine 20 seconds of all out exercise followed by 10
seconds of rest, repeated over 8 sets. It’s only 4 minutes. It sounds easy to those who
haven’t done it. But, your readers should just try doing push-ups or squats like that.
By the way, your score is the lowest number of repetitions on any interval. We always
keep score!
[For more CrossFit basics, see the following links: What is CrossFit? Foundations]
MC: What’s your background? How did you get started on CrossFit and
how did you come to start CrossFit Boston?
NT: I’m a big guy with a strength and power background from my football days.
But, I also wrestled in school, so I have a fair amount of flexibility and agility. (By the
way, both gymnasts and wrestlers tend to “get” the CrossFit program very quickly). I
taught an outdoor bootcamp fitness program and I was training clients in a regular gym,
but I felt something was missing.
A friend introduced my to The CrossFit Journal, which was published by a gym in
Santa Cruz with just three affiliates, and I was hooked immediately. From looking at
their web site (and The CrossFit Journal) I knew that this was a program that would
help me achieve real fitness.
Within two weeks I had traveled to California and completed my Level I certification and
within the year I had returned to complete Level II and Level III certification. Once I had
mastered the skills and philosophy I opened the doors on CrossFit Boston.
MC: What was the hardest part of CrossFit for you? You were already a
USA Weightlifting Club Coach so that part must have been easy.
NT: You’re right. I had a leg up on many folks because I had over 15 years
experience in lifting. For me, the most difficult part of the program was the gymnastics.
There’s a huge skill component that I needed to learn, plus a lot of it is strength-to-
weight ratio, where absolute strength is less relevant.
For example, one of the signature CrossFit gymnastics moves is the “muscle-up”. This
involves starting from a dead hang on a set of gymnastics rings and doing a pull-up to
get your shoulders up to the rings. Then you need to “muscle up” and get your
shoulders above the rings and from there press your arms straight rising up from the
dip position.
Pull ups are easy enough if you train them. And dips are also easy enough with
training. But, linking the two is magically difficult. The transition beyond the end of a
regular pull-up and before the start of a regular dip is very hard.
But, this is exactly the kind of skill that a fireman, a policeman, or a special forces
operator needs to succeed in a life or death situation. It also comes in handy for
athletes as well.
MC: What role does conditioning play? What about endurance training in
CrossFit? I’m primarily a runner—I ran three marathons last year—and I
started CrossFit to build leg strength and work on upper body conditioning
during my rest days from running.
NT: CrossFit sees endurance training as a very specialized extreme on the
athletic spectrum. CrossFit is all about balancing strength, power, flexibility,
coordination, balance agility, and cardiovascular/respiratory endurance. So we don’t
see marathon/endurance sport training as the epitome of fitness.
In fact, endurance training tends to break the body down. Marathon training can give
you the ability to run aerobically for several hours, but it does not produce a balanced
fitness. Even elite marathoners and triathletes typically have vertical jumps that are not
that impressive compared to similar-sized athletes in other sports.
That said, a large part of the CrossFit Boston client base has a distance running
background. It’s an accessible sport, easy to train for and there are an abundance of
races, which is a great combination. Runners start with a good aerobic metabolic base,
so we can focus more on strength, skills and anaerobic conditioning.
MC: How do you determine what the workout of the day (WOD) will be? It
seems like each CrossFit affiliate has a different program each day.
NT: That’s exactly right. Each facility puts together a different WOD each day.
The routine of CrossFit is to avoid routine. I’ll generally work to provide a balance of
complimentary functional movements and skills over the course of any week of two
week period.
CrossFit has a set of about two dozen named workouts (most are named for girl’s
names beginning with the letters A-N, and then there are a handful of “Hero” workouts
named for CrossFitters who have been killed in action during the War on Terror).
Each WOD provides between 5-30 minutes of high intensity work. Depending on your
fitness level the workouts will take different amounts of time.
We measure performance by time or number of repetitions completed. The named
workouts make it possible to look across the entire CrossFit community and see how
you perform. It also allows you to track your personal fitness over the course of time.
A typical CrossFit class begins with our standard warm-up (3 rounds of stretches,
squats, sit-ups, back extensions, pull-ups and dips), this is followed by a skill/strength
session (which would generally focus on an Olympic lifting or gymnastics technique)
and then finally the WOD (which is always a high intensity anaerobic challenge).
The workouts are scalable, so someone who can’t complete the required WOD can
substitute in lower weights or alternate exercises (eg, inverted rows or inclined rows for
pull-ups).
MC: You mentioned the CrossFit community. What is it?
NT: CrossFit really is a community. Each affiliate is independently owned. The
thing that unites us is a common commitment to train at the highest levels in the
continually evolving CrossFit methods. The CrossFit community provides a
tremendous wealth of expertise in the various training disciplines that we utilize.
The founders of CrossFit, Greg and Lauren Glassman, have developed a unique
open source model for fitness training. Each month they publish The CrossFit
Journal, which provides state of the art information on training and provides a forum
where members of the CrossFit community can share expertise. A blog provides a
complementary virtual community on a daily basis. In addition, the certification
seminars and other training seminars provide an opportunity for face to face interaction.
Beyond the walls of the CrossFit affiliates, CrossFit methods have been adopted by
numerous organizations that have the need for real world functional fitness. Many
police and fire departments, military and special operations forces, and major athletic
teams have adopted CrossFit as their fitness and conditioning program. The US
Marine Corps just announced their new conditioning program based on functional
fitness, which was conceived utilizing CrossFit as the model.
special?
Neal Thompson: CrossFit is all about functional fitness. Fostering the ability in
your body to accomplish any task it’s presented. The CrossFit method is to have no
routine. The WOD (Workout of the Day) is a constantly varied set of physical
challenges that combine to produce athletes ready to handle any task thrown at them.
Take a look at the WOD on the CrossFit Boston web site (or on any CrossFit
affiliate) and you’ll see the variation in what we do.
CrossFit trains two complementary skill areas and adds a third element of high-
intensity metabolic conditioning. The skills are Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics.
Training the Olympic lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, and also the squat and deadlift) is an
unrivaled program to develop explosive power, quickness and strength. The problem is
that the Olympic lifts are complicated and require proper teaching, otherwise they can
be dangerous. That is why they are neglected at commercial gyms.
Gymnastics is the second skill focus. It broadly includes any body weight exercises,
such as pull-ups, dips, squats, jumps, lunges, pushups, and various presses to
handstands. The only equipment used is pull-up bars and rings. The key is that these
exercises improve the body’s strength-to-weight ratio. Commercial gyms gloss over
these exercises because they are hard.
Both Olympic lifting and gymnastics are completely functional skill sets. They require
the athlete to stabilize their body in space, which engages the core muscles of the trunk
and integrates them with the muscles of the arms and legs.
Finally, the third element of CrossFit training is high intensity metabolic conditioning. A
favorite combination is to combine 20 seconds of all out exercise followed by 10
seconds of rest, repeated over 8 sets. It’s only 4 minutes. It sounds easy to those who
haven’t done it. But, your readers should just try doing push-ups or squats like that.
By the way, your score is the lowest number of repetitions on any interval. We always
keep score!
[For more CrossFit basics, see the following links: What is CrossFit? Foundations]
MC: What’s your background? How did you get started on CrossFit and
how did you come to start CrossFit Boston?
NT: I’m a big guy with a strength and power background from my football days.
But, I also wrestled in school, so I have a fair amount of flexibility and agility. (By the
way, both gymnasts and wrestlers tend to “get” the CrossFit program very quickly). I
taught an outdoor bootcamp fitness program and I was training clients in a regular gym,
but I felt something was missing.
A friend introduced my to The CrossFit Journal, which was published by a gym in
Santa Cruz with just three affiliates, and I was hooked immediately. From looking at
their web site (and The CrossFit Journal) I knew that this was a program that would
help me achieve real fitness.
Within two weeks I had traveled to California and completed my Level I certification and
within the year I had returned to complete Level II and Level III certification. Once I had
mastered the skills and philosophy I opened the doors on CrossFit Boston.
MC: What was the hardest part of CrossFit for you? You were already a
USA Weightlifting Club Coach so that part must have been easy.
NT: You’re right. I had a leg up on many folks because I had over 15 years
experience in lifting. For me, the most difficult part of the program was the gymnastics.
There’s a huge skill component that I needed to learn, plus a lot of it is strength-to-
weight ratio, where absolute strength is less relevant.
For example, one of the signature CrossFit gymnastics moves is the “muscle-up”. This
involves starting from a dead hang on a set of gymnastics rings and doing a pull-up to
get your shoulders up to the rings. Then you need to “muscle up” and get your
shoulders above the rings and from there press your arms straight rising up from the
dip position.
Pull ups are easy enough if you train them. And dips are also easy enough with
training. But, linking the two is magically difficult. The transition beyond the end of a
regular pull-up and before the start of a regular dip is very hard.
But, this is exactly the kind of skill that a fireman, a policeman, or a special forces
operator needs to succeed in a life or death situation. It also comes in handy for
athletes as well.
MC: What role does conditioning play? What about endurance training in
CrossFit? I’m primarily a runner—I ran three marathons last year—and I
started CrossFit to build leg strength and work on upper body conditioning
during my rest days from running.
NT: CrossFit sees endurance training as a very specialized extreme on the
athletic spectrum. CrossFit is all about balancing strength, power, flexibility,
coordination, balance agility, and cardiovascular/respiratory endurance. So we don’t
see marathon/endurance sport training as the epitome of fitness.
In fact, endurance training tends to break the body down. Marathon training can give
you the ability to run aerobically for several hours, but it does not produce a balanced
fitness. Even elite marathoners and triathletes typically have vertical jumps that are not
that impressive compared to similar-sized athletes in other sports.
That said, a large part of the CrossFit Boston client base has a distance running
background. It’s an accessible sport, easy to train for and there are an abundance of
races, which is a great combination. Runners start with a good aerobic metabolic base,
so we can focus more on strength, skills and anaerobic conditioning.
MC: How do you determine what the workout of the day (WOD) will be? It
seems like each CrossFit affiliate has a different program each day.
NT: That’s exactly right. Each facility puts together a different WOD each day.
The routine of CrossFit is to avoid routine. I’ll generally work to provide a balance of
complimentary functional movements and skills over the course of any week of two
week period.
CrossFit has a set of about two dozen named workouts (most are named for girl’s
names beginning with the letters A-N, and then there are a handful of “Hero” workouts
named for CrossFitters who have been killed in action during the War on Terror).
Each WOD provides between 5-30 minutes of high intensity work. Depending on your
fitness level the workouts will take different amounts of time.
We measure performance by time or number of repetitions completed. The named
workouts make it possible to look across the entire CrossFit community and see how
you perform. It also allows you to track your personal fitness over the course of time.
A typical CrossFit class begins with our standard warm-up (3 rounds of stretches,
squats, sit-ups, back extensions, pull-ups and dips), this is followed by a skill/strength
session (which would generally focus on an Olympic lifting or gymnastics technique)
and then finally the WOD (which is always a high intensity anaerobic challenge).
The workouts are scalable, so someone who can’t complete the required WOD can
substitute in lower weights or alternate exercises (eg, inverted rows or inclined rows for
pull-ups).
MC: You mentioned the CrossFit community. What is it?
NT: CrossFit really is a community. Each affiliate is independently owned. The
thing that unites us is a common commitment to train at the highest levels in the
continually evolving CrossFit methods. The CrossFit community provides a
tremendous wealth of expertise in the various training disciplines that we utilize.
The founders of CrossFit, Greg and Lauren Glassman, have developed a unique
open source model for fitness training. Each month they publish The CrossFit
Journal, which provides state of the art information on training and provides a forum
where members of the CrossFit community can share expertise. A blog provides a
complementary virtual community on a daily basis. In addition, the certification
seminars and other training seminars provide an opportunity for face to face interaction.
Beyond the walls of the CrossFit affiliates, CrossFit methods have been adopted by
numerous organizations that have the need for real world functional fitness. Many
police and fire departments, military and special operations forces, and major athletic
teams have adopted CrossFit as their fitness and conditioning program. The US
Marine Corps just announced their new conditioning program based on functional
fitness, which was conceived utilizing CrossFit as the model.
affiliates in the country. Neal is certified as a USA
Weightlifting Club Coach and has CrossFit Level III
by lifting weights as a wrestler in high school. In
college, Neal was Captain of the Division I-AA
Bucknell University football team. Neal has
combined his love for athletics and an
entrepreneurial nature to create the most serious
gym in the Boston area. Inspired by his example,
several other area gyms have adopted the CrossFit
training model.
Weightlifting Club Coach and has CrossFit Level III
by lifting weights as a wrestler in high school. In
college, Neal was Captain of the Division I-AA
Bucknell University football team. Neal has
combined his love for athletics and an
entrepreneurial nature to create the most serious
gym in the Boston area. Inspired by his example,
several other area gyms have adopted the CrossFit
training model.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |