CrossFit Athletic Group

In the Champions Club's specific expression of CrossFit we are looking for what Coach Glassman calls the 2nd wave of adaptation. I talked about this briefly with the 5:30 session yesterday, and it looks like this:

1st wave of adaptation: Steve the Truck Driver comes into the gym weighing 300 lbs of pure pudding. Within his first year of CrossFit he goes from a 15-minute mile run to an 8-minute mile run.

2nd wave of adaptation: over the course of the next three years Steve the Truck Driver (with considerably less pudding composition) goes from an 8-minute mile to a 6-minute mile.

3rd wave of adaptation: during year 4 Steve the Truck Driver goes on some serious carbohydrate restriction and weight loss and cuts his mile from 5:57 to 5:52.

Most of you reading this when you came in were in that 1st wave category - whether that was with weight loss or with technique or with overall fitness or with coordination or with strength. Off the top of my head, Shannon Marchant and David Saporito were the only regulars that were probably passed that 1st wave phase in every fitness category when they joined.

Here's what that means: most of the improvements you've seen in your time here probably would have happened at any CrossFit gym - or good strength and conditioning center - you would have gone to. The Champions Club, and myself, was doing nothing special in terms of your physical improvements (the fun/community is a different topic). There about 15 different roads for Noah to take to go from where he was when he started to where he is now. There's less stuff that doesn't work than stuff that works.

Most of you would probably get the same result training with Jacob a few hundred yards away. Let that sink in for a minute.

Jacob is perfectly capable of teaching bracing, torque, and loading order, and adding in intensity.

This, of course, brings me to yesterday's mile run. Here is who I think* had a 2nd wave pr: Mrs. Carey, and Mrs. Nevarez. What does that mean? To me, that means that their pr yesterday was not something that would have happened in any fitnessing environment. As a coach, the 2nd wave adaptations are where my value comes in. The closer you get to your "potential" the more you have to be on point with technique, nutrition, and fitness in order to see improvements. 

Mrs. Nevarez shaved a minute off a time that didn't have too much breathing room. Something had to have gone right with her training and technique to make that much of a pr with such little room for error. Pretty soon she'll be into that 3rd wave category.

Mrs. Carey is 50+ (though I swear you don't look a day under 49 39) and, as of last Monday, 10 years into CrossFit... and ran her 2nd fastest mile time ever! Despite all the bad stuff I say about her, she is doing something emphatically right. 15 seconds off a 10ish minute mile is not too far off.

*Jay is Jay and he decided to run fast yesterday. He's, give or take, as fast of a miler as he was last Summer, or in high school for that matter.

*Mr. Bennis is borderline. In June 2018 he was 8:01, now he's 6:40. I'd be interested to hear thoughts on his. I think it's close.

What does that mean for everyone else? It means that in terms of longer distance stuff most of us are still lacking quite a bit. When Paris doesn't get beat by a mom, when Dylan doesn't get beat by a dad, when Bankston doesn't walk two times, and when Josh Van doesn't lose to both of his parents then we'll be somewhere in the ballpark of where we need to be. On the pr side of things, when Mr. Bennis gets a 6:08, when both Vans parents are sub-7, when Mr. Carey is low-8, when Coach Casey is low-7, when Mrs. Hana is low-8, and when Evan and Mr. Kuiper are mid-6 then I know they're past the stage were a lot of stuff works.