Most people who consider themselves runners fall into the category of distance runners. They grind out two to ten miles, a couple days per week and are perfectly content in doing so. Personally, I have enjoyed some time running distances on trails in Wissahickon Park near my home. It had always been a good release, a reason to be outside, and it probably carried some aerobic benefit that has transferred into CrossFit. Jogging was fun, but I wasn’t getting all of the benefits I could have been. Human beings are wired more for sprinting; short intense bursts of running. Think about our ancestors, and the reasons that they had to run. Whether it was to catch dinner, or to avoid becoming dinner, they generally didn’t do so at a conversational pace. They did so as fast as they could. Modern society makes things a little easier for us, but we...Read more

Some of us made the transition to CrossFit from a typical big box gym. Shiny equipment, treadmills and leg press machines covered the floors while most times mirrors covered the walls. I’m not one to shun the typical gym scene; I have drawn some positive influences from those places. But one of the ideals that didn’t follow me into my CrossFit career was the idea of looking at myself training in the mirror. Ok, I’m not going to lie I have been known to glance at the mirror sometimes, and maybe even do a quick pec dance, but from a practical standpoint the mirrors don’t offer much. There are 2 problems with mirrors the way I see it. First, when you’re looking in a mirror, you can only see one plane of view, that being the frontal plane. If, for example you are working on your dead-lift technique, you could...Read more

A gymnastics Kip is a technique used by many CrossFitters to simply do more work faster. Kipping can be employed in a variety of movements; pull-ups, muscles ups, toes to bar, handstand push-ups etc… It allows the athlete to use power generated from the hip joint to achieve the desired range of motion. In doing so, the athlete harnesses more power from his/her entire body, and protects the more limited and smaller muscle groups of the extremities. An example of when this would be a helpful skill to have would be a workout with 50 pull-ups followed by 5 rope climbs. If an athlete were to do 50 strict pull-ups (that is, with no help from the hips), then attempt to climb a rope immediately after, most athletes would feel an intense sense of fatigue in the arms and shoulders. If the same athlete used an effective kipping pull-up for...Read more

As CrossFit Thermal unfolds, we want to start to build a foundation of strength for our members. There is no more appropriate place to start than with the squat. This month you’ll see a heavy emphasis on this movement, including lots of squatting in our workouts. You’ll also notice classes with additional technique work and practice for squatting movements. As we test and re-test our squat, and see improvement, we’ll also see that added strength and mobility translate into common CrossFit movements like thrusters and even burpess! Even if you don’t want to “squat big”, the ability to squat well, will make us able to tackle conditioning workouts with more power and speed. This month, we’ll fill the daily blog with ideas on how to mobilize for a better squat, and what you can do on rest days or even in the office to put this crucial movement right in...Read more

You might find it hard to believe, but in the 1800’s the deadlift was actually refered to as the “healthlift”. Many of today’s gyms and trainers have seen the movement ostreasized, dismissed as dangerous, and even banned. I’m here to officially call a hault to the bashing of this lift and start a movement of embracing it. Well, maybe thats a bit dramatic, but this lift has to be a part of any serious strength and conditioning program, and that is an idea, that is easy to support. Even if you don’t care how much you can lift, you can’t get through life without picking things up off the ground right? So why not be exceedingly good at that, and at the same time train hundreds of muscles in one motion? When we deadlift with proper form, we engage our entire posterior chain. As we stand up and the movement...Read more