I’ve never worked out like this before, will I be lost?

Some of the movements can be complex, but like anything new, will take time to master. We will start you working with the basics, learning the proper form, slowly ramping up the intensity as your body adjusts to these new movements and weights. You will be surprised how fast you go from doing modified variations of the exercises to fully prescribed. It’s an exciting goal and accomplishment, as any CrossFitter will attest to!

Do I workout on my own or do I have a trainer?

CrossFit is all about group training. That’s where the fun, competiveness, and camaraderie come from. Each class is led by a trained and certified Coach. A typical class will consist of a warm-up, a skill session, explanation of the WOD (Workout of the Day), examples and instruction of the movements, and the actual workout. We do offer Personal Training, if you wish to have 1-on-1 training.

Do I need to be in shape before I come to CrossFit Scottsdale?

We hear this used more as an excuse to get out of coming to CrossFit more than anything else. If you can walk and move, you are ready to come to CrossFit. We will tailor and adjust each and every workout to your current fitness abilities. We want this to be a life-long endeavor for you and will strive to make this fun, accomplishable, and safe.

Is this for me?

Absolutely! Your needs and the Olympic athlete’s differ by degree not kind. Increased power, strength, cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, flexibility, stamina, coordination, agility, balance, and coordination are each important to the world’s best athletes and to our
grandparents. The amazing truth is that the very same methods that elicit optimal response in the Olympic or professional athlete will optimize the same response in the elderly and kids. Of course, we can’t load your grandmother with the same squatting weight that we’d assign an Olympic skier, but they both need to squat. In fact, squatting is essential to maintaining functional independence and improving fitness. Squatting is just one example of a movement that is universally valuable and essential, yet rarely taught to any but the most advanced of athletes. Through painstakingly thorough coaching and incremental load assignment, CrossFit has been able to teach anyone who can care for themselves to perform safely and with maximum efficacy the same movements typically utilized by professional coaches in elite and exclusive environments.

Just what is a “core strength and conditioning” program?

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program in two distinct senses. First, we are a core strength and conditioning program in the sense that the fitness we develop is foundational to all other athletic needs. This is the same sense in which the university courses required of a particular major are called the “core curriculum”. This is the stuff that everyone needs. Second, we are a core strength and conditioning program in the literal sense meaning the center of something. Much of our work focuses on the major functional axis of the human body, the extension and flexion, of the hips and extension, flexion, and rotation of the torso or trunk. The primacy of core strength and conditioning in this sense is supported by the simple observation that powerful hip extension alone is necessary and nearly sufficient for elite athletic performance. That is, our experience has been that no one without the capacity for powerful hip extension enjoys great athletic prowess and nearly everyone we’ve met with that capacity was a great athlete. Running, jumping, punching and throwing all originate at the core. At CrossFit we endeavor to develop our athletes from the inside out, from core to extremity, which is, by the way, how good functional movements recruit muscle, from the core to the extremities.

What if I don’t want to be an athlete; I just want to be healthy?

You’re in luck. We hear this often, but the truth is that fitness, wellness, and pathology (sickness) are measures of the same entity, your health. There are a multitude of measurable parameters that can be ordered from sick (pathological) to well (normal) to fit (better than normal). These include but are not limited to blood pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, body fat, muscle mass, flexibility, and strength. It seems as though all of the body functions that can go awry have states that are pathological, normal, and exceptional and that elite athletes typically show these parameters in the exceptional range. The CrossFit view is that fitness and health is the same thing. It is also interesting to notice that the health professional maintains your health with drugs and surgery, each with potentially undesirable side effect whereas the CrossFit Coach typically achieves a superior result always with “side benefit” vs. side effect.

What should I eat?

In plain language, base your diet on garden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. That’s about as simple as we can get. Many have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles is a great way to protect your health. Food is perishable. The stuff with long shelf life is all suspect. If you follow these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all that can be achieved through nutrition.

How many times a week do I need to come?

Any CrossFit is better than no CrossFit. We want you to get in here and get moving. Any combination of regular attendance combined with outside activities such as hiking, swimming, biking or running around with your kids will do the trick. Train CrossFit style 3-4 times a week for optimum results. Our workouts are short, but tough. But you’ll want more. After a month, you’ll find yourself checking our website on a daily basis, and joke about ‘drinking the Kool-Aid.’ After three months, you’ll start breaking your own personal bests and bringing in your friends. Now, there’s no denying that for most people, once they’ve been immersed in CrossFit, they can’t ever go back to average. There’s joy in sweat. There’s family in common discomfort. There’s a chemical addiction that comes from challenging yourself this way. There’s pleasure in learning new stuff and getting better every single time