CrossFit origin

The inventor of CrossFit's was Greg Glassman, who was a competitive gymnast as a teenager and who realized that if he wants to develop, it is not enough to carry out a workout which is specific for his sport discipline but that general, versatile physical preparedness is also important. CrossFit aims to develop motor skills with the help of repeatable exercises, with measurable results. Thus, strong emphasis is put on specific weights, distances, specific movements, performed within or relative to a certain time period, this way making fitness measurable.

Glassman recognized that people prefer to train in larger groups than alone; therefore, in 1995 he established a gym/a fitness room in Santa Cruz.  While working with a large group he was able to pay individual attention to everyone to ensure safe and efficient training and technique. This is how CrossFit was born. The company was officially founded in 2000, the first branch was in North Seattle, in 2005 there were 13 external fitness gyms, while 10 years later 3400, and currently more than 4,500 fitness gyms joined them all around the world.

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In the early days the CrossFit trainings sought to make people feel that workouts were little competitions. Various exercise sets were established which, like Workout of the Day (WOD), were included in the programs. Many WODs were given girls’ names, others received their names after American heroes (they are the Hero WOD-s), police officers, firefighters, or soldiers, who lost their lives during their work. The WODs with girls’ names are the so-called benchmark, or progress monitoring WODs, which are widely applied to compare the performance of individuals and to measure one’s own progress. One of those is, for instance, WOD 4, called Fran: in consists of two exercises: thrusters (5) and pull-ups, with 21 reps in the first round, 15 reps in the second round, and 9 reps in the third round. This is one of the most intensive bench mark WODs developed by Glassman. There is, for example, a program dubbed Cindy (6), which consists of exercises using one’s own bodyweight, including a series of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats repeated many times for 20 minutes. Thus, it can be measured how many rounds each person was able to complete within a given time frame. In 2003, the workouts named Angie, Barbara, Elizabeth, Chelsea, Fran and Diane appeared for the first time in the CrossFit Journal.

The names were used for the sake of simplicity, because during a workout it is simpler to say "Fran" than to describe what it involves, as the exercises get soon inscribed in our minds, and become internationally standardized practices.

In recent years CrossFit has been so successful that they started to organize competitions, the CrossFit Games (2007). The aim was to test the best and find the fittest people in the world. According to the founders, it is the ultimate test of fitness. Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit said the fittest athletes would be able to perform any and whatever number of tasks, also the unfamiliar ones. He thus started a new era of fitness, with no points awarded for style or appearance. The only way to victory is to see who performs the tasks faster than anyone else. The time frame decides who is better. You can take part in the CrossFit Games in different categories: individual, team, and senior. Of course, men and women compete separately. The CrossFit Games are divided into several rounds:

Anyone can participate in the first round of the CrossFit Games Open, but only the fittest 60 women, 60 men and 30 teams are invited according to a regional division to participate in the second round. The second round are the regional finals. Participants must make their best since from the regional finals only the best 3 females, 3 males and 3 teams qualify for the CrossFit Games. The third round of the CrossFit Games are the finals.  Here, the competitors have to prove that they are not only fit, but can cope well with unexpected situations because no one knows the tasks in advance, every year they are different.

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CrossFit was launched as a new, independent sport and suddenly and unexpectedly it entered the world of fitness. With its solid, functional movements, clear objectives and the growing popularity it cannot be stopped on its way forward.