Another CFE Attack

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In a rather tempestuous post by running coach, Jason Fitzgerald, in which he flames CrossFit Endurance and Brian MacKenzie, I was motivated to respond at length in the following post. Within his rant against CFE,  he makes a series of assumptions that portray the method in an inaccurate way.

MacKenzie coaching a clinic at the CrossFit Games.

MacKenzie coaching a clinic at the CrossFit Games.

Let’s first talk about the primary thrust of his piece. Fitzgerald writes:

“I want to share my thoughts on CrossFit (CF) so you have a framework for evaluating any new training program. It would be easy for me to record a short video listing the reasons why I dislike CF, but I want to do deeper. It’s become increasingly popular among runners as a way to cross-train and increase strength. Before it’s proven itself as an effective training protocol, flocks of runners have tried to use it to become better runners, prevent injuries, or get stronger.And that leaves the question: does CrossFit help runners? And is CrossFit Endurance an effective way to train runners? I say no to both. Here’s why.

By all means read the entire post if you like, but here are several of the “strikes” he casts against CFE:

“Specificity!” Fitzgerald declares that CFE violates the “law of specificity.” “Throwing long runs and marathon-specific workouts in the trash in favor of nonsensical endurance workouts that favor upper body lifting and intervals run until “form deteriorates” is insane.”

“Proven ‘fundamentals’ of sports science?!” In this entry Fitzgerald defines CrossFit in the context of an AMRAP and accuses MacKenzie of mixing CrossFit with Tabata sprints. “Combine high-intensity lifting with high-intensity running and what do you get? Probably an over-trained or injured runner!” Actually, MacKenzie’s program separates run-specific workouts, CrossFit-style workouts and strength training into separate sessions. This discussion should be a post in itself because of the blogs I’ve read ripping CFE, I haven’t read one where it was clear to me the author really looked at the program. In fact, a critical blog would be more valuable if they not only looked at the program but tried it or at least interviewed people that were teaching it or using it. I imagine those exist, I just haven’t seen them yet.

With the risk of oversimplifying things, one of the things CrossFit Endurance does is allow a runner to cut out junk miles from a program. Why is that valuable? Because a high-injury rate is a consequence of high mileage levels. There’s no doubt you can get fit running a lot of miles. The problem is that very few can get away with it without an injury or injuries that force the runner into the deep end of the pool for aqua-jogging.

Running drills with a jumprope being taught at San Francisco CrossFit.

Running drills with a jumprope being taught at San Francisco CrossFit.

I don’t feel like I need to make the case that a lot of runners get injured (the working number from the ASCM is around 75% of runners get injured every year). But to help me seal that point, consider some of the most popular posts on Fitzgerald’s blog:

The ITB Rehab Routine – Video Demonstration

Achilles Tendonitis Doesn’t Exist (But Here’s How to Treat it Anyway)

Anatomy of a 6 Month IT Band Injury – Post-Injury Analysis and Lessons Learned

Fitzgerald builds his position (you see it throughout the post) that the best way to train is to train like elite runners train. Train like the Kenyans, in other ways.

The world-class distance runner runs 2-3 times per day, doesn’t have a day job, gets a massage as often as possible, isn’t in it for health and fitness but either for glory and/or for money. Elite mileage levels can get in the range of 140 miles per week. In some cases more. And time in the gym is part of it, too. The ones who can afford it have coaches, chiropractors and massage therapists. They are professional runners. Health is not the goal. Money and glory are the goals.

Which is all fantastic. I love it. But of the 14 million finishers annually in the American road racing scene, how many are trying to make the Olympic team? Most are people with jobs, spouses, kids, other interests, with restricted talent and biomechanics, and their age might be a problem, too. Of the bulk of these 14 million people, how many would ever be able to train like an elite runner? How many would have the time? How many would break into pieces? Most, I would guess, run because they love running. Most want to be able to do it for as long as they can. Sure, they might want to break a 3:30 marathon, or 40-minute 10k or whatever. But not at the expense of losing their job and their family.

Fitzgerald writes: “Ultimately, CFE ignores the history of training. See, we’ve already tried the interval-only approach. It was how Roger Bannister trained when he became the first person in history to run a mile in less than four minutes.But it’s not optimal for long-term success and there are more effective ways to train (which is why the Mile world record is now a staggering 3:43:13).”

The Roger Bannister story actually helps make a great case for CFE. He was a medical student that only had lunchtime to train. He’d go to the track and zap through a session of intervals and be done with it. And he ran a sub 4-minute mile. I don’t know about you, but I’d sure as hell take a sub-4. I bet Fitzgerald would too.

Fitzgerald apparently believes that the validation of a training program is that a world-class athlete has used it. But where’s the logic that all runners should train like world class athletes? Also, it should be said that there have been world-class athletes that have had elements in their programs similar to the elements in MacKenzie’s. Seb Coe (circuit training, speed endurance, low volume), Herb Elliot (gymnastics, weights), Prefontaine (strength work, running fast every run).

MacKenzie’s program subtracts junk miles and super long runs and leans on a wider portfolio of workouts: speed endurance work, mobility work, optimal form training, power work, CrossFit, nutrition, so that you’re overall training time can be decreased and you can run well off of less mileage, surely lowering your injury risk and probably lengthening your career.

I want to take a moment here to mention one of my favorite writers, Scott Douglas. I’ve been a fan of Douglas since his days in the 1990s when he was editor of Running Times. I was also a subscriber to the newsletter, “Running, Ranting and Racing” that he put out. He’s author of the new book, “The Runner’s World Complete Guide to Minimalism and Barefoot Running.” Douglas is a lifer when it comes to running, no doubt. I recall that he was a guy who religiously logged around 80-miles per week.

On April 8, Douglas reported this: “Later this afternoon I’m going to have surgery to repair my right peroneus brevis tendon. I had hoped to avoid ever being cut open for running-related reasons, but oh well. Once every 34 years and 100,000 miles seems acceptable.”

On the 10th, he wrote: “So, uh, things were worse in there than suspected. Both peroneal tendons were torn. The peroneus brevis was only about 20 percent intact, while the peroneus longus was 40 percent intact.”

I can commiserate with Scott because two years ago I was breaking down in a way that I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to run again. I hope Douglas will be able to get back on the roads. My years of high mileage helped me run a 2:38 marathon, but also engendered dozens of injuries over the years. To the point I was rarely a runner and mostly broken. Core strength training, chiropractic and most every remedy sent my way got me nowhere. Fitzgerald clearly has disdain for CrossFit, but I know for a fact that it saved me from the operating table and has allowed me to run again and feel like an athlete again.

What concerns me about a blog post like Fitzgerald’s is that it doesn’t really study the program MacKenzie offers. Nor does he talk the athletes that have used CFE. I have. This is what they say in an alarmingly similar pattern: ‘My injuries have gone and I just PR’d.’ One athlete told me that after using CFE for a few months, she went to visit her longtime physical therapist. “She said, ‘I can’t believe how much more mobility you have in the hips and legs. Whatever it is you’re doing, keep doing it.” This same athlete recorded her best Ironman times without using traditional 20-mile runs and 100-mile bike rides.

So there’s a there there for at least some people.  To trash a method that might be of value to someone out there frustrated and unable to enjoy running…well, I don’t get it. Why would you do that?

“Who needs well-rounded athleticism?” This is Fitzgerald’s 3rd “strike” against CFE. It’s in this particular point that I would encourage him to actually contact MacKenzie or a CrossFit Endurance coach, or athlete, so a clear understanding of what’s in the program can be gained.

He writes: “There are five fitness traits that define athleticism: Strength, Speed, Endurance, Flexibility, and Coordination according to Tudor Bompa, the ‘father of periodization theory,’ an Olympic rower, coach of multiple Olympic and World Championship medalists, and Professor Emeritus at York University.

“Unfortunately, CrossFit Endurance only prioritizes speed and power (and misunderstands that power is simply the combination of strength and speed).”

Incorrect. CrossFit workouts are designed to benefit areas ten “general physical skills.” They use olympic lifts, gymnastics, rowing, running, powerlifting to improve the following: cardiovascular/respiratory, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. Do CrossFit for three weeks and it’s likely that you’ll agree. MacKenzie’s training is angled more for endurance sports, but it incorporates this foundational approach. Along with diet as well.

Fitzgerald writes, “Every aspect of athleticism – or biomotor abilities – must be present in a good distance runner. This concept of ‘multi-lateral training’ focuses on the development of every component of fitness in planned balance. That’s why Dathan Ritzenhein skips, runs, and does power cleans.”

Uh. Yes. That’s what a CrossFit Endurance athlete does.

At any rate, there’s a Strike 4, Strike 5 and Strike 6. Hopefully I’ve made my point because this seems endless.

Becoming a Supple Leopard: Book Review

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(quick note: A disclaimer: one of the reasons I’ve been able to read BASL with such apparent speed–it’s nearly 400 pages and just went on sale a couple of days ago–is that I helped with the content editing in one of the final phases of the creation of the book. So I actually had a chance to read the raw contents before it was laid out into print form.)

It was the summer of 1992, and I was back from San Francisco to visit my folks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was in my halcyon days as a marathoner, with a 2:38 PR, and raced year round in the those glorius intermittent spaces when I wasn’t swamp-crossing through an injury.

During that visit I was hampered by an illiotibial band problem, a sharp pain on the outside of my right knee that was hard to run through. I made an appointment to see the  physical therapist in the area that was known as a runner’s physical therapist—not just a doctor of physical therapy but a guy you also saw on the starting line of the local 10ks. In the early 1980s, when I was still in high school, I recalled seeing him hanging out with a diet Pepsi after working out at the Nautilus gym. People were always coming up to ask him for advice on how to handle their injuries, or what kind of stretches they should do.

A golden rule for the injured runner is always to see out treatment from doctors who are runners. For obvious reasons. For one, they know that just walking around OK is not enough — you want to run. As the story goes, a limping runner walks in to see their non-running physician and asks for helps, tells the tale surrounding their problem, and the doctor squints a bit before stating the stupidly obivous: Stop running.

The doctor who runs, of course, gets it, is empathetic to your woe, and tries to help you maneuver around the problem and get back on the road, back to the task of being a runner.  This golden rule is actually a “law,” in the 700-page opus, “Lore of Running,” by Dr. Tim Noakes, a combo ultra-runner/MD who writes the following in his laws governing running injury: Law 8: Never Accept As Final the Advice of a Nonrunner (MD or otherwise). 

So I was abiding by the law, seeing a physical therapist who was a fellow runner. It was the first time I had ever had an appointment with a PT so wasn’t even sure what to expect.

During the appointment, the PT began to talk about what he believed was a growing problem in the practice of modern physical therapy: relying too much on technological gadgetry. He said it was his opinion that the art of  PT  had suffered greatly PT increasingly relied on machines like ultra-sound and muscle stim. Machines had driven a wedge between the doctor and the patient, he told me. A patient comes in with an Achilles tendon problem, and he said he rarely if ever put his hands on the patient’s ankle. He just warmed up the machines and started zapping away, and told the patient to ice a lot and take Advil. That’s what he did for me: ultra sound treatment on the right knee and some talk about the stretches I should do.

I don’t claim at alll to have any real comprehension or expertise on the where the standards of physical therapy are or were. But this story of my hometown PT 20 years ago was in my mind when I first went to meet Dr. Kelly Starrett for a similar reason a couple of years ago. This time my knee seemed on the verge of complete system collapse. I sensed I was a candidate for knee replacement. (Starrett, it should be noted here, had run the Quadruple Dipsea and thereby passed Noakes test.)

Starrett never asked me where the pain was. Rather, he had me try and perform a simple knee bend at San Francisco CrossFit. From that movement, that took all of a few seconds, he apparently saw everything he needed to see. Which, I should add, struck me as completely odd. Rehab began in the next few seconds when he began to teach me how to do an air squat correctly, from foot position, to midline stability, to the path of the knees, to the loading of the correct muscles, to the correct head position, posture, how I focused my thinking, to bracing my spine. He also taught me what he called “the couch stretch,” one of the backbone mobilizations that was taught and re-taught frequently on mobilitywod.com–an incredibly painful mobilization that I was expected to hold not 10 seconds, not 20 seconds, but two rather teeth-splitting minutes for each leg.

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A sticker that was on the door of Starrett’s physical therapy office.

He then spent about five more minutes  with the most high-tech device in his PT office (aka storage container), digging underneath my kneecap with the prong of a hard-rubber dog toy. While he was working he was carrying on a casual conversation with a fellow coach. I was in such pain I wanted to bite into an electric rail.

It was a brand of physical therapy that was almost exactly counter to the well-meaning PT who had worked on me back in Iowa. It’s worth noting that the Iowa PT session did exactly nothing for my injury and Starrett’s session not only sprung me free of the injury but helped me push a reset button on my health in a life-changing way.

I have brought up these stories to help make one of my key points about Starrett’s new book, “Becoming a Supple Leopard.” In Starrett’s education as a physical therapist, he brought with him his gift for a sort of X-ray vision that saw through the noise and to the deeper relationships between how we move and the results in terms of health and performance. He has synthesized his medical training with thousands of hours of coaching and thousands of hours of being an athlete with a talent for seeing and understanding the inner workings of movement. His diagnostic tool for assessing my situation, as I mentioned, was to watch how I did an air squat. What he was looking for, why, and what he determined I needed to do are thoroughly explained in the book.

Since then,  as much as I’d studied the MWOD and interviewed Starrett, and also attended his classes as San Francisco CrossFit, the 397-page vehicle that is the book has provided me a huge new level of insight in terms of how Starrett thinks and what Starrett sees. Anyone reading BASL who thinks that the push-up is just a simple Basic Training way to build your pecs and arms is going to experience a kick to the head. While most athletes and coaches who buy the book are expecting (and will get) a reference on how to assess and address specific problem areas with specific solutions–whether its an injury-thing, a range of motion limitation or a motor-control problem–my favorite chapters are the ones that layer in the way Starrett sees the movement world, like the chapter on “Midline Stabilization,” “The Laws of Torque” and the chapter on “The Tunnel.” There is also the overarching system he calls “The Movement Hiearchy.” These are the ones you notice have had an impact on you when you’re walking down the street and you see someone walking ahead of you with a brand of spine-shearing mechanics. You see it and you wince with pain at what you now know is a core-to-extremity violation.  You start seeing this stuff everywhere you go now, even though it’s been there all along. At an outdoor restaurant the other day I took a quick look around and was somewhat horrified at the way everyone was slumping at their tables.

Kelly Starrett coaching at a CrossFit Mobility certification.

Kelly Starrett coaching at a CrossFit Mobility certification.

(This experience helped me form a theory about why Starrett is legendary for the amount of coffee he drinks. He has to. He walks around a world drowning in dysfunctional movement patterns and he can’t turn off his brain. He can’t not notice it. In fact, when he watched the movie “Lincoln” he walked out of the theater so stung with the image of Daniel Day Lewis’s Lincoln hunch that he couldn’t help from replicating it, drawing the request from his wife, “Please tell me you’re not going to walk around like that all week.”).

Although it’s easy to imagine that the first generation of readers will mostly be CrossFitters, Olympic lifters and powerlifters—the lifts, rowing and kipping are some of the signature athletic movements that Starrett bores into within the book—the book will appeal to just about any coach or athlete you can think of. I am curious to see how this book impacts the physical therapy world. Again, while I know little about the working school of thought in physical therapy, I do know that the PT back in Iowa would have loved this book.

CrossFit and the Future of Fitness

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Quite a story in the NY Times today: a report on how the fitness industry (including huge players like Lifetime Fitness) are apparently starting to rethink the modern gym. Instead of the space being clogged with expensive machines that isolate certain muscles (the tricep machine being sort of being the most dramatic example of a large and expensive machine with the intent of training a single, small muscle–and it may not even do a very good job at it compared to the simple pushup) corporate fitness giants are sweeping out the hardware in favor of raw space and simple tools. We have returned to the age of the medicine ball.

As I once wrote about, this past holiday season I was back in my home state of Iowa to visit family when I went to the gym that my parents have been members at for years–a facility owned and run by Rockwell Collins. Definitely a family gym, with lots of cardio machines, a few of the original Nautilus machines, Cybex and Universal, and a free weight section. I was in the free weight area when two women were working out and performing hang power cleans with a barbell and later a met-con workout with box jumps and burpees. Whether or not one of them belonged to a CrossFit gym in CR, there was no mistaking the influence. I then noticed that Rockwell Collins had purchased a set of kettlebells and multiple boxes for box jumps.

It will be interesting to see where the fitness world is at 5 years from now. As the article mentions, treadmills and cardio machines aren’t going anywhere. However, things are definitely changing.

The Opposite Effect

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In reading the NYT this morning, I came across the followiing two paragraphs:

Commissioner Davis said that officials were gradually reducing the size of the crime scene, which now stretches for 12 blocks in Copley Square, down from 15 blocks on Monday. He said it was the most complex crime scene in the history of the department.

City streets that normally would be clogged at rush hour were largely deserted on Tuesday except for a cold wind and a few runners out for a morning jog.

That there would be runners taking to the streets the morning after such a distressing tragedy was unsurpring to fellow runners. Those principles we consider most deeply American—independent, self-reliant, fiercely stubborn in the face of adversity—are woven into the substance of what being a distance runner is all about.

Runners are typically hard-edged realists that root their value system in the belief that outcomes of value are only achieved through periods of hard, consistent work. Unfortunately, part of this realism is knowing there’s a risk in participating in an event like Boston in this day an age. A risk of a terrorist act. It’s hard enough to provide security for a ball park. Providing security for a big-city footrace is infinitely more difficult. Yet runners, from around the world, train for the race, make the trip and take the risk. They will continue to do so in ever-increasing numbers.

The senseless attack on innocent civilians is made all the more senseless because the ultimate effect on Americans is precisely the opposite of what one would assume a terrorist or terrorist organization is seeking to accomplish. Rather than tear us apart it brings us together. It snaps us out of the red-state/blue-state spell and reminds us that we have each other’s backs. It pisses us off and we re-double our efforts. We do this for many reasons–that telltale stubborness being one of them—but chiefly to honor those who shed blood on a day meant to celebrate the freedom of a great country and a great city.

I imagine that on some level the terrorist act was meant to diminish the future of the Boston Marathon and other events like it. But it will have the opposite effect. Especially, of course, in Boston. As the runners who took to the streets this morning knew, next year’s race will have more meaning and power to it than ever.

Strength & Conditioning: A Triathlete’s Secret Weapon

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Dave Scott (left) and Mark Allen in the 1989 Iron War.

Dave Scott (left) and Mark Allen in the 1989 Iron War.

I’ve been working on a story on running technique for Inside Triathlon magazine, discussing the various controversies that surround the idea of improving or repairing how you run.

In researching the story, I spoke with a variety of coaches, athletes and scientists. One of the most controversial areas is in the physics of running. The model that is the Pose Method, authored by Dr. Nicholas Romanov, considers gravitational torque to be the premium source of power in running. While most seem to agree with some of the fundamentals of Pose Running–a compact stride, a quick stride rate, forward lean, good posture, spending as little as time as possible in contact with the ground, not reaching out with the foot and heelstriking out in front of your center of mass/bodyweight, but rather contacting the ground underneath it. But when it comes to the concept of using the force of gravity to your benefit versus the idea of propelling yourself via muscle power and through a push-off, it’s a vigorous debate. In the process of researching the story, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the working ideas surrounding human movement and where we stand with the idea of making running—like swimming and gold–a skill to be practiced and mastered.

One of the things that came to mind when I was working on the story was an interview I did with Dave Scott, the six-time Hawaii Ironman champion and, more recently, the coach of Chrissie Wellington, on the subject of running well in an Ironman.

Scott was a water polo player back at UC Davis in the late 70s before he became a triathlete and started to own the Hawaii Ironman (his nickname: “The Man.”). What Dave could do extremely well was run strong in the marathon to the end.

In the interview, he couldn’t believe that some of the up-and-coming triathletes who were more gifted as runners weren’t breaking the 2:40 marathon split time at the Hawaii Ironman.

“I see these guys out doing 150-mile bike rides in Boulder. They’re doing so much volume. What they need to do is trade in some of that volume and do some ancillary work in the gym.”

Scott went on to explain the importance of strength and conditioning to being resilient coming off the 112-mile bike ride and running a marathon in harsh conditions. He said the key thing was to strengthen the muscles of the posterior chain: hamstrings, calves, glutes, lower back, upper back. He basically made the case that this is how you can shake off the hard bike ride and run a good marathon.

Despite coming from a swimming background and not a running background, Scott’s marathon time in 1989–the Iron War–when he was finally beat by Mark Allen after a decade of Dave winning all of their Kona battles—continues to this day to be the second fastest split in the Hawaii Ironman record books: 2:41:03 (second to Allen’s 2:40). Scott took a 5-year break from the Hawaii Ironman to come back at the age of 42 to run a 2:45 marathon (and finish second).

So the guy knew what he was doing. It’s fair to imagine that one of the reasons Chrissie Wellington could rise from a serious bike crash and win the 2011 Hawaii Ironman was because Scott had her in the gym during her preparation. It should be noted that Mark Allen–who went on to win six Hawaii Ironman championships as well— became a user and advocate of time in the weight room.

I recalled this conversation after I spoke with Brian MacKenzie, author of “Power, Speed, Endurance,” about solving the problem of running well after 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike ride. This is a quick excerpt from the story:

Trunk strength, aka midline stability, is a principal feature of the approach encouraged by Brian MacKenzie, author “Power, Speed, Endurance: A Skill-Based Approach to Endurance,” and related directly to T2.

“Think about how you feel after sitting on a plane for four hours or longer,” MacKenzie says. “You’re sitting in that position the whole time. Think about how you feel getting off the plane.” MacKenzie says this is not so different from sitting on a bike for 112-miles. “It’s impossible to stabilize your spine for that length of time. There’s a core-to-extremity violation happening no matter how much you try and have good posture, and you have to make up for the lack of integrity in the hip.” The result is that you exhaust the muscles of your extremities because you can’t fully access the more powerful muscles of the hips and the core. “And now you need to run.”

“This is where strength and conditioning work comes in,” MacKenzie says. “The stronger you are the better you’re able to hold up in an Ironman.” 

No Excuses: Beating Back the Limitations of Age

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Last Thursday I spent some time at CrossFit Santa Cruz Central with Jim Baker. As many in the CrossFit community know, Baker goes back a long ways within the sport. He was a client of Greg Glassman’s when Glassman was still personal training out of a fitness center and not in the prototypical box.

I met with Baker to work on a story for WOD Talk Magazine. Baker specializes in training senior CrossFitters and I had the pleasure of meeting with five of his clients in a new space at CFSCC, age range 62 to 86.

It was a notable group considering that a 74-year-old CrossFitter was mentioned in the NYT story yesterday–a mention that I wondered if it might have surprised some people given the general working impression of CrossFit in the public domain. Indeed, CrossFit isn’t just for kids. The case can be made that the simple value of retaining functional strength and movement is why CrossFit can become a more vital utility as one ages. It’s a fine thing to be an athlete and to be super healthy, strong, ripped etc. But imagine if it simply allows you to be independent and continue to enjoying everything that life has to offer. When Vilma Siebels–the 86-year-old in Baker’s contingent–left the interview last Thursday, she was on her way to a line-dancing class.

Baker is on a mission to get the word out to other owners of CrossFit boxes: Don’t just let your gym languish silently in the middle hours of a weekday. In addition to having a noon workout for all-comers, build a personal training clientele and classes for folks that are retired and can easily make it to the gym at 10am or 2pm.

One thing that was clear in the talk with the older CrossFitters at CFSCC is that Baker is a master coach, and that helps make all the diffference. Older CrossFitters, for one, are going to require a longer amount of warm-up before a WOD. And scaling and being tuned to the a senior CrossFitter’s mobility challenges are paramount to success. Each of the athletes I spoke to were sort of wow’d by Baker’s ability to read things and make necessary adjustments to the workouts. Yet the athletes were definitely being pushed enough to make gains that were surprising to them. Rosemary Sarka, 67—a cancer survivor who has worked with Baker for years and credited the CrossFit training for helping her recover from the exhaustion and atrophy–just recently got her first unassisted dip, an achievement that clearly surprised and delighted her. Such surprises at what they were accomplishing in the gym were common among the group.

To me it’s always extraordinary to meet and talk with people that are helping us reshape our ideas about the various physical limitations that are sometimes imposed on us from the collective. SCCFC has it’s share of inspiring athletes, including the legendary Annie Sakamoto. Siebels, I was told, was right up there in terms of blowing people’s minds.

There are those routine occasions where I’m introduced to someone in their 20s or 30s and the subject of running or exercise or CrossFit comes up, and I’ll hear them say about something like a 5k run or some similar entry-level exercise challenge, “I could never do that.” I really wish at that moment I could introduce them to Siebels, just to see what she might say to something like that.

NYT Story, Keystone Habits and the Power of CrossFit

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Definitely an interesting story in this morning’s New York Times: “We’re One Big Team, So Run Those Stairs.” 

 

Essentially, the story discusses how some companies, like ESPN, Datalogix and others have been implementing CrossfFit programs and even CrossFit boxes (like CrossFit One at Reebok) for obvious benefits like decreasing health care costs and building morale.

It also mentions some of the less discussed potential benefits a CrossFit program might have, like bringing together various departments of a company:

There are other, less quantifiable benefits. Karin Eisenmenger, 46, Datalogix’s director of order management and the woman running up the stairs past her panting colleague, says the classes unite people from different departments who might otherwise never meet. “If you can sweat and groan and moan with your co-workers,” she said, “you’ll have no problem working with them in a meeting.”

The idea of larger companies developing CrossFit programs connected with something I recently read in the book, “The Power of Habit,” by Charles Duhigg. Duhigg is a business reporter for the NYT (although he did not write this morning’s story). In his book, he reports on the working research and understanding of how we build and change habits. It’s a great book. One particular concept he talks about early in the book is what is known as a “keystone habit,” a particularly potent new habit cycle that has the power to change an entire life. He uses the example of a woman who was out of shape, a smoker and had a life that was falling a part, and how a new keystone habit–which involved taking up jogging–set off a sequence of positive new habits that essentially overhauled her life in a positive way, including her health, her career and her romantic life.

This is why CrossFit is–as was reported in the NYT this morning–has attracted more than 10 million people. Because it’s a particularly high-dose form of physical exercise, and because the structure of it involves a community or team-like atmosphere.

Exercise is nothing new–but it’s this potency and the support built into the program serve up a success rate that one has to assume is much higher than the success rate of those trying to make a habit loop change with either less potent exercise and/or just going it alone.

If I ran a large company, I would be interested in a CrossFit program for the following reasons: 1) a healthier workforce 2) morale 3) and the belief that such a program could help workers spark extremely positive changes throughout their entire lives–which would include their confidence, leadership, quality of work, creativity and career growth.