Philosophy

Philosophy

The purpose of this blog is to provide anyone who does CrossFit or would like to do it, but does not have access to an affiliate or the appropriate equipment a resource for workouts that can be done in a standard gym or "Globo Gym."  I take the daily open source workout from CrossFit.com and attempt to mold it into a format that is globo gym friendly.  There are several factors that go into how I choose to alter the workouts.

1) First and foremost is to attempt to preserve the intent of the original workouts and movements.  For example if a workout calls for high rep snatches at a relatively light weight then I choose a substitute exercise with the understanding that I am replacing a hip hinge power movement used for conditioning purposes.  Therefore I would probably choose to replace it with kettlebell or dumbbell swings or power cleans.

2) I alter the workouts so that they can be set up mostly in one location for the entire workout and so that you don't have to rotate to different locations throughout the gym during your workout.  This is important so that you don't finish a set of pull ups, run across the gym to use the rower, and come back to find somebody using the pull up bar.  Now you have to wait for them to finish or try to come up with a substitute on the fly.  Then when you finally get to do your next set of pull ups and run back to the rower what if you find someone on your rowing machine?  It's easier in a globo gym setting to change the workouts so that you can use equipment that you can locate in one location and don't have to move away from it until you're done with the workout.  

In altering the workouts there are a few assumptions that I make about the rules of globo gyms as well as what you will have access to.

1) I assume that you will have access to barbells, a squat rack, a pull up bar, dumbbells, a treadmill, and other globo gym paraphernalia.  If you workout at a gym like snap fitness, planet fitness, anytime fitness, etc. and do not have access to these basic pieces of equipment then I'm sorry, but you're out of luck and you need to invest, at a minimum, in a gym membership that will provide you with these basic necessities.

2) I assume that your gym will not let you do olympic lifts or overhead barbell work.  All of the workouts will generally substitute these lifts for something else.  However, I always post the source workouts above my altered ones so if your gym allows you to do overhead work and you see that it is part of the original workout then by all means do that instead of the alteration.  I do sometimes make an exception for power cleans that are relatively light and used for conditioning purposes because I think you could get away with them in a globo gym.  

3) I assume you do not have access to kettlebells.  A lot of gyms now days do have at least a limited amount of kettlebells, but I always prescribe dumbbells instead of kettlebells.  If your gym has kettlebells then feel free to use them instead.

Finally there are a few things that you have to understand doing these workouts.

1) As I said before the point is to keep the spirit of the original workouts to allow you to do CrossFit style training.  You have to understand that in a globo gym there will be no perfect way to substitute some things.  There is no perfect way to substitute the olympic lifts, there is no perfect way to substitute a rope climb, there is no perfect way to substitute a 400m run in the middle of a hard workout.  If your goal is to compete in the sport of CrossFit then you are going to need practice doing the specific lifts that are involved in that sport and you will need to find access to the proper equipment and training environment.  If your goal is simply to utilize CrossFit methodologies to lose weight, get in shape, become generally strong, etc. then you will do fine substituting certain lifts for similar equivalents.

2) I do not post scaled workouts.  If you want to try to scale a workout please try to ask yourself what the purpose of the movement you are substituting is.  For instance if you cannot do pull ups, a lat pull down is not an appropriate scale for the pull ups in "Fran".  However, a lat pull down may be an appropriate scale for a strength day involving weighted pull ups.  If you would like to ask me my recommendation for scaling a movement please post it in the comments under the workout and I will do my best to answer in a timely manner.

Finally, if you choose to follow these workouts the source that I draw from is the daily workout posted on www.crossfit.com. Please go to this website and read the FAQ and some of the links as well as www.journal.crossfit.com to educate yourself about the CrossFit training style.

Good Luck.