NEW CrossFit Programs at Synergy Strength – coming April 14th, 2014.

Team,

As always Synergy Strength is on a constant move forward with regard to how we operate and how we program for the sports we love.  We support so many strength based sports and our largest and most passionate sport is of course CrossFit.

CrossFit (CF) has come a very long way over the last few years and even further since I was first introduced to it nearly 10 years ago.   I have seen CrossFit go from a very strange fringe based exercise program to the fastest growing sport worldwide.  Synergy Strength was one of the first 150 CF facilities in the world,  now there are near 9000.  When CF began it was about education and teaching people a better and more productive method of exercise and fitness, it defined what fitness was, and where it was to move in the future.  CrossFit still remains a leader in the way of fitness training and development of strength based sports.  As CF began its journey into sport I was lucky enough to attend the second CF Games in Aromas and also the most recent CF Games at the Home Depot Centre.  The growth of the sport is massive to say the least.  As CF grows an as each individual CF facility grows it is imperative for its methods and implementation to change along with the growth.  What worked for 20 people will now no longer work for 200, and so on (I am speaking of class structure, delivery, and programming).  In one of CF’s original articles caller “CF Foundations” Greg Glassman (original developer of CF) stated the following;

“Your needs and the needs of an Olympic athlete differ in degree not kind” 

I personally agree with this statement – we all need to be strong, have improved flexibility, and metabolic conditioning, but the key is that we all need differing levels or degrees of it based on our life/sport demands.  A marathon runner needs a different degree of strength than does a powerlifter, a 100m sprinter needs different capacity and conditioning than does a crossfit athlete and finally an average 45 year old mother of 3 children requires a different need for strength, flexibility, and conditioning than does a competitive crossfit athlete. Given the requirements and the goals of trainees Synergy Strength provides different programs to help achieve these goals. Of course we offer multiple strength sport programs, but within the world of CrossFit, we also offer multiple programs to allow your CrossFit progress to be optimal.

We currently offer CrossFit Health & Fitness along with CrossFit Sport. We offer these programs as it is necessary in our growing community to offer programs that match the goals and desires of the participants (you our members).  The goals of these programs are clear;

CrossFit Health and Fitness;

– The purpose of this program is to offer a safe, effective, and results based program that revolves around the base CrossFit principles.  We train with functional movements (the most bang for your buck movements) to allow for the highest degree of performance and weight loss gains in an availabel 60 minutes of training.  Sometimes to better understand our program one must understand what we are not; we are not a bootcamp or a traditional “fitness” group class, meaning we do not simply jump around and do ineffective exercises for an hour solely to get a sweat on.  We get a sweat on by working hard and learning how to exercise and lift weights properly.  We also do not train solely aerobically as it has been found to be ineffective for weight loss and performance gains in the long term.  Much of our program revolves around anaerobic work (high intensity interval training) coupled with bouts of aerobic training to develop the best and most productive athletes we can. We do all of this by utilizing strongman, powerlifting, weightlifting, gymnastics, and aerobic exercises in a fun, supportive, team environment.  The long term goals of the program for the participants are to develop consistent exercise habits and quality movement patterns in an effort to improve health and fitness for a lifetime.

CrossFit SPORT;

– This program is designed specifically for other purposes.  The goal of the SPORT program is to develop top CrossFit athletes, athletes that are capable of competing at a high level on any stage of competition.  The training focus is much more detailed and directed towards specific competition dates and “peaking”.  The program involves a heavy dose of weightlifting, gymnastics, metabolic conditioning and strongman training in an effort to develop the most well rounded athlete for CrossFit competition.  The program is much more volume based and requires a large time commitment as the program takes slightly longer than most to complete.  Unlike the goals of Health and fitness the end goal of the SPORT program is performance, not necessarily health and fitness. I do not wish to state that this program is in some way hazardous or unsafe, but given the nature of the movements and the level of competition it comes with its own risks (just like any sport as you move higher up the competitive rungs).  The point is that this program is not for everyone and can not simply be “scaled” or “regressed ” for anyone as the degree is so much higher on the scale of demands.

For many the missing link has been the bridging of the gap of the two programs (H&F and SPORT)…. well no longer.  Synergy Strength is proud to introduce our third avenue of training for our crossfit athlete – CrossFit FITNESS.  This program is truly a bridging of the gap between SPORT and health and fitness.

The 3 programs that will now be offered are CROSSFIT (old H&F program), CrossFit FITNESS, and CrossFit SPORT.

CrossFit FITNESS;

– This program will introduce more specific training to the old health and fitness program now termed  simply “CrossFit” in the areas of weightlifting and gymnastics.

HOW DOES IT WORK;

CrossFit SPORT – Simply put, this program does not change (entrance qualifications will be altered – for another email)

CrossFit FITNESS – This will be a hybrid of the CrossFit (old H&F) program and the new FITNESS program.  Twice a week trainees will participate in “CrossFit Olympic weightlifting” and “CrossFit gymnastics” rather than the regularly scheduled CrossFit group class. the schedule will look like this;

As one can see the FITNESS program includes 3 training days in the CrossFit group class and  2 days on specialty programming for gymnastics or weightlifting.  Specialty classes will be offered as follows;

Gymnastics – 10:00am, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm Tuesdays

Weightlifting – 11:30am, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm Wednesdays

Anyone is allowed to drop in to the programs and take part whether or not they take part in one or both classes – these are drop in classes to learn skills and apply them in workouts.  So the programs will involve a basic strength/skill set patterning followed by a conditioning workout with the skill set involved in it.  Ex. Learn and practice HSPU’s and then do a workout with HSPU’s in it.  This will make it different than the basic weightlifting program as it will not solely be weightlifting, but it will be weightlifting along with a conditioning workout involving weightlifting.

CrossFit – This is the old Health and Fitness program, which nothing will change in. The schedule will look like this;

The reasons for the change in programs are solely based on the needs of our trainees and the goals of our trainees.  Before I found CrossFit and all the strength sports I partake in now I was a personal trainer who worked out of multiple fitness facilitates and offices.  As a personal trainer the first question I asked all trainees I worked with was – “What are your goals?”, based on their goals I would then develop and provide trainees with  programs based on their ambitions an goals and their current level of fitness.  As Synergy Strength grows in numbers and size, I feel it is imperative we grow with the ever changing needs and goals of our clients – hence the reason for so many offerings and so many aspects to our club.  I love CrossFit and all strength sports and in order to support and develop them with the highest integrity and intelligence, we will continue to offer appropriate programs and offerings to meet  the needs of the individuals we work with.

Chad Benko