CrossFit is an elite strength and conditioning program used by every conceivable demographic from military personnel to grandmothers, soccer moms, businessmen and kids. The fitness we strive to help our clients achieve is founded on the principles of General Physical Preparedness, Functionality, and Intensity. The reason CrossFit is so effective and can help bring elite levels of fitness to everyone is because of these principles. The needs of an eighty year-old grandmother and a police officer differ by degree, not kind. The grandmother must be able to rise from a chair or do her shopping independently or risk living in a nursing home; the police officer may be called upon to run a criminal down over the course of miles. Both needs call for functional fitness and the ability to meet the challenges of daily life. When we cannot perform the inevitable physical challenges of life without assistance, we stop truly living.

General Physical Preparedness or GPP

CrossFit specializes in not specializing. There are ten recognized general domains of fitness- cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. We seek to produce clients who are competent in all these areas, and thus can deal with the unknown challenges of daily life, no matter what the obstacle. It does the Marine no good if he is strong as an ox but does not have the endurance to walk one hundred feet without getting out of breath. Similarly, if the soccer mom is extremely flexible but too weak to carry groceries what good is that? Thus, we do not adhere to the mainstream misconception that the "fittest" people on the planet are long-distance endurance athletes (i.e., marathoners or triathletes). These people, while possessing astounding cardiovascular endurance, have so over-trained that domain to the complete detriment of the others. They generally possess below-average flexibility, minimal agility and experience profound muscle mass wasting with extreme losses in strength. Here at CrossFit Elysium you can forget about having your time wasted for hours on a treadmill or stationary bike- it's not going to happen. We seek to produce balanced athletes, competent in all ten domains and able to handle anything life may throw at them. We achieve this through multiple modalities- weightlifting, bodyweight movements such as gymnastics, rowing, and so much more.

Functionality

Functionality simply means our clients move their bodies in the way nature and anatomy intended them to move. True gains in fitness can only be achieved when the body moves in a functional manner. What this means is- THOSE MACHINES IN ALL THE MAJOR GYMS DON'T WORK. It's sad, but true. Here at CrossFit Elysium you will run, jump, squat and move your body along anatomically sound principles. All your major muscle groups will work in harmony with each other as they were meant to- not in isolation from one another. If you were to pick something heavy up at home you would use your legs, hips, back and arms together. So, why would you train for "fitness" on machines which ISOLATE muscles from one another??? As another example, when would you EVER find yourself lying on a weird ball, off-balance, trying to do some version of a sit-up? Yet, you can see this sight in any cookie-cutter gym around the country. THIS STUFF DOESN'T WORK. We know- we used to train people this way until we saw the light.

Functional movements produce the biggest gains in fitness, period. By moving in an anatomically sound way our clients also ward off injury. Time and again clients report that old injuries improve or completely resolve after CrossFit. By contrast, non-functional machines and movements PRODUCE injury by making the body move in ways it was never intended to. It makes too much sense. Yet, mainstream fitness has yet to catch on.

Intensity

Once our clients learn the functional movements and develop competence in the ten domains of fitness, intensity is the ingredient where the true magic happens. Adaptation and gains are most completely and quickly achieved by intensity. We see this in life all the time. Exposure to brighter sunlight will produce a stronger tan. Pushing harder on a run will make you that much better a runner. Results are achieved from intensity of effort, not duration of effort.

What does this mean for our clients? Simply put- you will learn to work hard. You will grow to love it. You will FINISH your workouts while others in a mainstream gym are still warming up and talking on their cellphones! And, you will achieve more results than you ever thought possible, in the quickest amount of time.

For more information, visit our "about" or "getting started" tabs, contact us or visit www.crossfit.com to learn more.

Portions adapted from and courtesy of CrossFit.