CrossFit

[gilday]

Anyone here involved in CrossFit? I just started this past month and I'm sure it will prepare me well for the CPAT.

Any thoughts on how well these workouts will prepare me for the rigors of an academy? What else might I add to doing CrossFit 5 times a week?

[alex104]

first thing, follow all three aspects of crossfit - working out, nutrition and sleep! if one component is out, then you won't benefit as much as you could. Especially the rest days. Cross fit main suggest a 3 on 1 off schedule. But you can adjust to how your body reacts.

Second - how is your strength? if your brute strength is lacking you can following the workouts on Crossfit football. they had a strength component to each day.

I have been doing Cross fit, full time, for about 16 months. At 46 yrs old I was one of two in my department that scored a time in the single digits for our annual PAT. Beat all the kids!!!!!!

That being said - I think cross fit is the best thing going for the fire service!

[GaiusPaul]

If you're doing Crossfit 5x a week, you don't need to DO anything else, and likely are already fit to do the CPAT. This is, of course, you are doing the exercises as prescribed with 100% intensity. It's hard stuff.

[gilday]

first thing, follow all three aspects of crossfit - working out, nutrition and sleep! if one component is out, then you won't benefit as much as you could. Especially the rest days. Cross fit main suggest a 3 on 1 off schedule. But you can adjust to how your body reacts.

Second - how is your strength? if your brute strength is lacking you can following the workouts on Crossfit football. they had a strength component to each day.

I have been doing Cross fit, full time, for about 16 months. At 46 yrs old I was one of two in my department that scored a time in the single digits for our annual PAT. Beat all the kids!!!!!!

That being said - I think cross fit is the best thing going for the fire service!

Yes, I usually have a day off somewhere within the 5 days but it did feel great to complete 5 days in a row one week.

Thanks for the tip, I'll check out the ideas for the additional strength component on cf football.

Congrats on your recent performance! I agree and I feel like I've made better gains in the past month than in the past several years of going to the gym. My wife even decided to join in.

[gilday]

If you're doing Crossfit 5x a week, you don't need to DO anything else, and likely are already fit to do the CPAT. This is, of course, you are doing the exercises as prescribed with 100% intensity. It's hard stuff.

It is tough. I give it all I've got but I haven't made it to Rx yet on all my WODs. I hope to reach that in the next month or so.

[edpmedic]

Many who do crossfit do all of the high rep stuff, but fail to address limit strength/power. www.firegroundfitness.com and www.rosstraining.com are good resources.

[flipper123]

Any workout program that offers all of it's info 100% for free is worth looking into.
Every other website, infomercial, or spam is willing to give you a brief glimpse of their program, but you have to pay for everything else.
Crossfit doesn't want your money.
I think that's pretty cool.

[TheStreets]

Crossfit is without a doubt the best program for FF fitness out there. You should crush the CPAT and whatever academy you go too.

[GaiusPaul]

Many who do crossfit do all of the high rep stuff, but fail to address limit strength/power. www.firegroundfitness.com and www.rosstraining.com are good resources.

You definitely haven't looked into or followed many of the Crossfit workouts. Lots of strength/power workouts. Like TheStreets said, I don;t think there is a better program for firefighting than Crossfit.

[The1Engine]

As a FF and CrossFit enthusiast I would recommend the 3on 1off routine that the main page follows. This gives you the necessary time to recover. And as far as preparing you for your upcoming CPAT. A few guys on our department have competed in various competitions accross the country doing nothing other than following the main pages WOD. They all were able to out perform most of the other competitors. One of these events was the Seattle Stair climb. To prove to the rest of the Dept that CrossFit can prepare you for anything they chose to not touch a single stair to train and just continued to follow the WOD. I am happy to say that they are did incredible and a few were in the top 10%. And as far as preparing for academy. There are a lot of academys that have followed CrossFit with various changes here and there. look in to some of the follwing departments CrossFit webpages.
http://crossfitbrightonfire.typepad.com/
www.crossfitparkerfire.com

http://www.crossfitpfd.typepad.com/

[FLA1786]

The only risk you have with crossfit (a very worthy risk to take) is injury. You'll get injured if youre not doing things right, with proper form. Not letting the knees go over the toes and not letting them bow in when doing all the various bending you do in squats, thrusters, OHS, yada yada. Keep your shoulders in your sockets when doing pull ups, presses, and all that. If you're brand new you should try to find a crossfit gym and learn some stuff. If you can't afford it try your local high school strength coach.

On to the CPAT. If you can do the main site WOD's with reasonable scaling (which the majority of people have to do) you won't fail the CPAT for fitness reasons. It's always good to see if you can practice the events before you run through it so you dont drop the ladder or hook but its really not a big deal. If you still wanna practice the stepmil, black box the middle day (if they still do that?). Simply replace the middle day of the 3 on 1 off with a step mil workout.

[gilday]

As a FF and CrossFit enthusiast I would recommend the 3on 1off routine that the main page follows. This gives you the necessary time to recover. And as far as preparing you for your upcoming CPAT. A few guys on our department have competed in various competitions accross the country doing nothing other than following the main pages WOD. They all were able to out perform most of the other competitors. One of these events was the Seattle Stair climb. To prove to the rest of the Dept that CrossFit can prepare you for anything they chose to not touch a single stair to train and just continued to follow the WOD. I am happy to say that they are did incredible and a few were in the top 10%. And as far as preparing for academy. There are a lot of academys that have followed CrossFit with various changes here and there. look in to some of the follwing departments CrossFit webpages.
http://crossfitbrightonfire.typepad.com/
www.crossfitparkerfire.com

http://www.crossfitpfd.typepad.com/

Great to know. I do plan to work in stair climbing as the cpat approaches but I agree that the level of fitness I have attained in 6 weeks of CrossFit makes me feel very prepared for the cpat.

[gilday]

The only risk you have with crossfit (a very worthy risk to take) is injury. You'll get injured if youre not doing things right, with proper form. Not letting the knees go over the toes and not letting them bow in when doing all the various bending you do in squats, thrusters, OHS, yada yada. Keep your shoulders in your sockets when doing pull ups, presses, and all that. If you're brand new you should try to find a crossfit gym and learn some stuff. If you can't afford it try your local high school strength coach.

On to the CPAT. If you can do the main site WOD's with reasonable scaling (which the majority of people have to do) you won't fail the CPAT for fitness reasons. It's always good to see if you can practice the events before you run through it so you dont drop the ladder or hook but its really not a big deal. If you still wanna practice the stepmil, black box the middle day (if they still do that?). Simply replace the middle day of the 3 on 1 off with a step mil workout.

I agree. I have been careful to use only manageable weights and have concentrated on form over speed. Also, I did join a CrossFit gym because I was concerned with making sure I learned the proper techniques from the beginning.

I would definitely recommend that route even to experienced lifters. I have pushed myself much further by completing the WODs with trainers and fellow gym members.

My only concern is that my longest cfit workouts are around 40 minutes - most are around 20 - and that at the academy the length of drills could be much longer, right?

[edpmedic]

You definitely haven't looked into or followed many of the Crossfit workouts. Lots of strength/power workouts. Like TheStreets said, I don;t think there is a better program for firefighting than Crossfit.

What I meant was that a number of those on my dept that say they do crossfit just do bodyweight or lightweight stuff such as the filthy fifty, cindy, and such. When I suggest a heavy power clean WOD, the bear, two minute defense, or maybe linda, I hear concerns about getting injured, that bodyweight stuff is "safer".

Heck, if they would just do overhead squats, front squats, renegade rows, deadlifts and power cleans, they would up their game considerably. I posted those other sites to show examples of heavy/explosive training being utilized appropriately.

[GaiusPaul]

My only concern is that my longest cfit workouts are around 40 minutes - most are around 20 - and that at the academy the length of drills could be much longer, right?

It won't be an issue. You'll never work as hard as you do during a WOD during drill. You shouldn't or you won't last all day. It's about staying strong all day and not getting burnt out. There will probably be some rough days, but the next will likely be light with classroom work. Stay hydrated, eat well, work hard and steady, you won't have a problem lasting all day if you are Crossfitting before the academy.

[edpmedic]

When you do the WOD 100%, holding nothing back, it's like squeezing a whole day's effort into that brief session. You'll more than hold up at the academy. Hose evolutions, VES, maze, ladders, and work performance evolutions on air.

When I'm towards the end of a good session, when my lungs are burning and I can hardly even think straight, is a similar feeling to when I've been on air doing consecutive work performance circuits, and not being able to get enough air. Crossfit will condition you to control your breathing, and not be affected by oxygen deprivation.

[gilday]

It won't be an issue. You'll never work as hard as you do during a WOD during drill. You shouldn't or you won't last all day. It's about staying strong all day and not getting burnt out. There will probably be some rough days, but the next will likely be light with classroom work. Stay hydrated, eat well, work hard and steady, you won't have a problem lasting all day if you are Crossfitting before the academy.

Thanks, good to know. I'm glad I found my way to CrossFit and am on the right track.

[gilday]

When you do the WOD 100%, holding nothing back, it's like squeezing a whole day's effort into that brief session. You'll more than hold up at the academy. Hose evolutions, VES, maze, ladders, and work performance evolutions on air.

When I'm towards the end of a good session, when my lungs are burning and I can hardly even think straight, is a similar feeling to when I've been on air doing consecutive work performance circuits, and not being able to get enough air. Crossfit will condition you to control your breathing, and not be affected by oxygen deprivation.

Yes, I was there this morning. Shoulders burning, lungs on fire and I had to check the board to make sure I was moving to the right exercise and performing the correct amount of reps.

The good news is I was able to continue through and finish Rx. 6 weeks ago I certainly would have had to scale down and definitely would have needed to take some time to catch my breath.

[edpmedic]

Good stuff. The first time I tried Linda as Rx'd(BW 220), I threw up during the round of 5's. The lactic acid buildup is ridiculous. I think if you can storm through a 75% Rx weight Linda, you can pretty much handle anything the academy will throw at you. Matter of fact, you've motivated me. My next day off, I'm going to charge it, Rx, with a goal of sub 25 mins hopefully close to 20 mins.

Also worth mentioing is that I did a thruster experiment a couple of months ago. I was emphasising limit strength and also trying to move my #'s upward on the snatch and C&J. I decided to do rounds of thrusters following the day's PT to see how my conditioning would fare afterward. I would alternate 95# BB thrusters or 135# BB thrusters each training day. I started with 95# for 10 x 10 with one min rest bet. sets. 135 lb for 6 x 5 with 30 sec. rest each round.

After four weeks, the 95# sets were with 30 sec. rest for 10 x 10. The 135 lb sets were for 13 x 5.

There was definite transfer to my mile time, greater tolerance for KB/BB complexes, sprints, stepmill in gear. My conditioning was noticeably improved in many areas while making decent strength gains. Something to think about if time ever becomes a factor. Tabats are excellent, as well.

[big_leauges]

I am currently a career ff in michigan and joined Hyperfit, an affiliate of crossfit about 4 months ago. I thought I was in shape before, but never to the degree i am now. I almost wear it as a badge of honor when the lazy asses I work with make fun of me for going because I know how much better it has made me. If you just join, don't worry about passing the cpat, try hitting a time very low, because with the training you should easily crush it.