Bringing CrossFit to your Physical
Education Program and Your School
Dr. Steven Dion
Salem State University: Sport & Movement
Science Department
Owner/Coach: CrossFit IronSpider, Salem MA,
B&S Fitness & B&S Sport Science, Salem MA
Discussion Objectives/Overview
By the end of our discussion, participants will be
able to:
1.have a working knowledge and definition of what is
“CrossFit”.
2.identify how the missions of physical and health
education and CrossFit are aligned.
3.share and utilize success stories to plan for future
endeavors.
4.identify walk away steps to begin a CrossFit
curriculum/program into your school/environment.
5.discuss the future direction/possibilities.
6.apply and demonstrate a CrossFit type WOD.
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CrossFit Tenets
• “Constantly Varied, High Intensity, Functional
Movements”
• “Moving Heavy Loads, Long Distances, Quickly”
– Power (Intensity) = Force (Weight) x Distance / Time
• Accountability & Measureable outcomes
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=mlVrkiCoKkg
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Quantifying Fitness / Power
• Power = Force x Distance / Time
• Force (wt) x Distance (rom) / Time = Power
• How much weight, how far you moved it, and
how fast you moved it.
• A quantifiable way to measure intensity and
workload.
“Your ability to move large loads, long
distances, quickly, in the broadest variety of
domains is fitness.” Greg Glassman
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CrossFit’s 1st Fitness Standard
• 10 recognized general physical skills.
– cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina,
strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility,
balance, and accuracy (slide 9)
• You are as fit as you are competent in each of the
ten skills.
• Improvements in endurance, stamina, strength,
and flexibility come about through training.
• By contrast improvements in coordination, agility,
balance, and accuracy come about through
practice.
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CrossFit’s 2nd Fitness Standard
• Fitness is about performing well at any and every
task imaginable.
– Your fitness can be measured by your capacity to perform
well at any/random tasks in relation to other individuals.
• Fitness requires an ability to perform well at all
tasks, even unfamiliar tasks, tasks combined in
infinitely varying combinations.
– This encourages the athlete to disinvest in any set notions
of sets, rest periods, reps, exercises, order of exercises,
routines, periodization, etc.
– Keep the training stimulus broad and constantly varied.
– Fitness vs Specific Sport Performance
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CrossFit’s 3rd Fitness Standard
There are three (3) metabolic pathways that provide the
energy for all human action.
•These include the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic
pathway, and the oxidative pathway.
1.Phosphagen = highest-powered activities (< 10 sec)
2.Glycolytic = moderate-powered activities (up to several
minutes)
3.Oxidative = low-powered activities (last in excess of several
minutes)
•reference for additional information:
http://predator.pnb.uconn.edu/beta/virtualtemp/muscle/exercise-folder/muscle
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3 Major Metabolic Pathways
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The 10 General Physical Skills
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Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather,
process, and deliver oxygen.
Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply
force.
Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply
maximum force in minimum time.
Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a
singular distinct movement.
Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to
another.
Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in
relation to its support base.
Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given
intensity.
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CrossFit’s 9 Foundational Movements
The CrossFit 9 Essential Movements include:
• 1-Air Squat, 2-Shoulder Press, 3-Deadlift, 4-Front Squat,
5Push Press, 6-Sumo Deadlift High Pull, 7-Over Head Squat, 8Push Jerk, and 9-Medicine Ball Clean
Progressive movement order: (basic to more complicated sequencing)
1-Air Squat => 4-Front Squat => 7-Over Head Squat
2-Shoulder Press => 5-Push Press => 8-Push Jerk
3-Deadlift => 6-Sumo Deadlift High Pull => 9-Medicine Ball Clean
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CrossFit and P.E. Mission
• Learning movements like squatting, pushing and pulling
are/should be the foundation of PE as these movements have
the most direct and broad application to all life’s experiences….
Teaching and learning of the use and care of the body…
– Traditionally however, movements taught are sport specific (swinging a
bat, throwing a ball, shooting a basket).
• CrossFit type curriculum puts priority on the
foundational movements of the body which will
increase proprioception (int.) and kinesthetic awareness
(ext.) as well as work capacity.
• Competency in these basic movements translates into:
– increased fitness, improved physical abilities and injury
prevention.
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Health/Wellness & Fitness
One of our goals as physical and health educators is to promote a healthy lifestyle
and fitness and wellness.
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Temperature Gauge
• Do you need to discuss more background
information (additional resources are provided
online/attached to session) or shall we move forward
toward implementation?
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Where to Start
• Attending today was a good step
• Next step: familiarize yourself with the
community and the CrossFit.com website, read
the CF Journal and view and/or post your
questions on the CrossFit discussion board.
• Reach out to others that have done what you
want to do – they welcome the contact.
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Starting Your Own
• Contact CrossFit Headquarters: www.crossfit.com
– Look under “Affiliates”
– As a non-profit school – the 3k fee is waived
• You must have a Level 1 certified coach as the
manager (1K expense for each certification)
– Level 1 Coach should have independent insurance (can
be through CrossFit) as most schools will not add CF
onto their insurance binder.
• After Level 1, look at getting CrossFit Kids
Certification (18 and under – another 1K)
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To Affiliate or Not
• Although there is no affiliate fee – it is a process
and will require admin “buy in”, financial
support, creation of a website and staff training.
• Do you call it CrossFit or simply embrace the
philosophy and practices?
– Can’t use the name CrossFit without affiliation.
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Steps to Affiliation
• Fill out an application and write an essay.
– The essay should contain info about your background, what CrossFit affiliation
means to you, why you want it, and what you want to achieve. It doesn't have to be
long or formal, but it should be from the heart.
• The other (informal) step is to educate yourself and become a part of
the community.
– Do the workouts and post your results to the WOD Comments, join the Message
Board, subscribe to and read the CrossFit Journal, come to a Seminar, and make
friends with (and visit, if possible) other affiliates.
• CFHQ requires an applicant to be at least a Level 1 Certificate Holder
before applying for affiliation.
• Once you are will be linked on the CrossFit site.
– This is CFHQ primary vehicle for promoting you; therefore, they expect you to
maintain a good site. DO NOT register a domain with the CrossFit name in it until
AFTER you have been accepted. CrossFit is a licensed trademark and its use without
our prior permission is illegal.
• Every affiliate website to display the CFJ link on the front page of their
site.
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What You Get From CFHQ
• Once application is approved – you are linked to the
main page and the affiliate page of CrossFit.com.
• You will also have access to the private Affiliate
Forum on the CrossFit Message Boards, where you'll
be able to interact with other affiliates and tap their
knowledge and experience to help.
• A yearly Affiliate Conference - exchange ideas, learn
what works etc…
• Send stories and photos to be used on main site.
• Very responsive main head quarters and support
staff.
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Example Programs
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http://crossfitsawmill.com/
San Francisco
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http://www.crossfitmps.org/CrossFit_MPS/Home_
WOD/Home_WOD.html
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What CrossFit did for our school
• CrossFit at Sierra High
– (for future viewing)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRRlcQR
nfM
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“They’ll hate you for making them sweat”
“I teach at a school where the expectations
for PE are low and the department is looked
down upon by most of the admin and staff.”
“I choose not to accept mediocrity from my
teaching and I set very high expectations
from my students.”… “Trust me, they
(students) all don’t like me but they do
respect the program I deliver.”
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Steve’s Club
• Our Mission: "Steve’s Club and its participating
members provide a national network of programs
through which at-risk or underserved youth of any
socioeconomic background can join in the
CrossFit Community at a reduced, low or no cost
structure.”
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http://stevesclub.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsMOsExkC9w
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWFeLM09q1g#t=260
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The Good, Bad and the Ugly
• As in any profession, you have very good and
very bad professionals / educators.
• Numerous videos posted – even by
professionals with poor form at times
– (Students performing for the camera)
• The weight may be light and less likely to
initiate injury, however – if CrossFit is going to
be brought into your school – technique and
safety should be priority number one.
– Training and more training for the educators.
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Facilities & Equipment
• Equipment Vendors: CrossFit.com or CrossFit discussion board
for recommendations.
• State Vendors: Many of the traditional equipment vendors that
are State Approved are getting on board with the equipment
(jungle gym rigs esp.) but cost is significantly higher.
• $16-20K – “Gut and redo facility” as opposed to $150kGrant
funding (SPARK Grant Finder: http://www.sparkpe.org/grants/grantfunding-resources/)
• Trade-in previous equip / scrap metal
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Equipment Needs by Level
• K-5: Mostly body weight exercises and
technique. PVC, mats, small tires maybe –
most likely existing resources are sufficient.
• 6-8: Costs begin to rise as training barbells
(PVC) and weights, boxes, medicine balls etc
are brought in. More specific equipment is
more costly but much less than traditional “Wt.
room equipment”.
• High School: Heaviest cost with most extensive
equipment list – but still less expensive than
traditional equip.
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Resources / Programming
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Common Repetition Schemes
• AMRAP (As Many Repetitions As Possible)
– Usually for time
• EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute for ?# of minutes)
– 20 squats – rest remainder of time left in that minute
• 3 on - 1 off (work for 3 mins, rest for 1 for ?# rounds)
• Triplet (Rep scheme with 3 movements)
– Squat, pushup and sit-up for 20-15-10
• Couplet (Rep scheme with 2 movements)
– Thruster & Pull-ups 21-10-9 (FRAN)
• Chipper (One large set of different exercises/movements)
– 50 squats, 40 sit-ups, 30 pushups, 20 burpees, 10 pull-ups for
time
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Benchmark Workouts & “The Games”
• Fran – 21-15-9 Thrusters & Pull-ups for time
• Diane – 21-15-9 Deadlift & HS Pushups for time
• “Murph” 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300
squats – 1 mile run for time.
• The CrossFit Open: A worldwide 5-week fitness
competition- over 209K participants.
• The Regionals: the best individuals and teams from
around that various regionals around the world
• The CrossFit Games: Crowning the Fittest on Earth
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Let’s Move
• Tabata (20 sec on 10 sec rest for 8 rounds)
– Score is the lowest number of reps you completed
in one of the 8 rounds.
– Attempt to keep your reps consistent throughout
without sandbagging your first few rounds.
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Tabata “anything”
We’ll do: ??? Viewers Choice ???
A: Tabata squats
B: Pushups
C: Sit-ups
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• Additional Questions
• Significant resources posted online
Thank you
sdion@salemstate.edu
www.crossfitironspider.com
Come visit when you are in town
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