Before CrossFit, there was no true definition of fitness. No one really knew what fitness meant.
Prior to CrossFit defining fitness, many would define fitness as the “state of being fit” or “absence of disease”. That says nothing about your fitness. That gives you no idea of where your fitness is. That does not give you any sense of direction on what you want your fitness to become.
Luckily for us, CrossFit defined fitness based on their (4) fitness models. These models allow us to measure, observe and repeat our fitness. This is what makes the definition of fitness from CrossFit effective, it is measurable.
CrossFit defines fitness as work capacity across broad time and modal domain. The goal of CrossFit is to INCREASE your work capacity across broad time and modal domain.
Work capacity means how much work can you do. Broad time means across short, medium and long timeframes. Modal domain is referring to the three modalities of metabolic conditioning (cardio), gymnastic and weightlifting. It is also referring to creating workouts in any type of way.
This can be measured. This can be observed. This can be repeated. This represents where your current fitness is. How much work can you complete in any given time for any type of task?
You want your fitness to allow you to complete any type of workout thrown at you. Not only that, but you want to improve on that. You record your results and you compare it when you perform the same workout again.
If it was a workout for time, you want to get faster. If it was an AMRAP, you want to complete more rounds. If it’s lifting heavy, you want to lift heavier. This tells you if your fitness is improving or not. This tells you if your work capacity has increased.
If it is, continue to do what you’re doing. If it’s not, look within and see what may be affecting your fitness negatively. Those things can be your consistency, nutrition, sleep or stress.
Respectfully Sent,
Josh Melendez
