Q: I thought one had to do hours of “cardio” to get into shape. Where’s the cardio? How I can get what I need in an hour long class?

A: What the layman thinks of as “cardio” is really just metabolic conditioning. Any sort of conditioning that can be done for hours (think: jogging, walking, elliptical machine) is by definition an aerobic activity. Current misconceptions teach us that we have to jog/run/walk for hours to be fit. It’s the classic example of “if some is good, more must be better”. Overtraining the aerobic pathway results in decreased muscle mass, power, flexibility and strength, without further improvement in the aerobic system. Think of the way a marathon runner looks- wasted, skinny, sticks for bones and zero ability to do anything but, well, run a marathon. Is that what you want to be?

The workouts we do at CrossFit Elysium are high-intensity in nature and tax the anaerobic and aerobic pathways. It turns out it is not possible to sustain maximum intensity for very long. Think of how long one can hold an all-out sprint; it’s not possible for more than a minute. However, high intensity, anaerobic work yields tremendous benefits in ALL metabolic pathways! What this means is- something like sprinting will make you a better sprinter, AND a better marathon runner, but running marathons will only make you better at running marathons! Therefore, we use primarily short-burst, high intensity activity to help you achieve elite fitness. This will be all the “cardio” you’ll ever need. You’ll get more out of 20min with us than 2 hours at your local gym. That’s how we get everything done in an hour.