Evolution
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:45AM by Jon Gilson
The contention, like most that endure, made perfect sense. Get too strong, and your endurance will suffer. Too much endurance, and your strength will drop. You can’t have everything.
Fortunately, perfect sense and reality do not always occupy the same space, their neat relationship thrown askew by the inexorable march of athletic evolution.
The fact that we missed: previous feats of athleticism will always be surpassed. Sprinters will sprint faster, lifters will lift more. Quarterbacks will throw more accurately, batters will hit more home runs. CrossFitters will get stronger and faster.
Once, we said that developing the capacity of a novice across a variety of physical disciplines would create the fittest men and women on the planet. Unavoidably, we’re being forced to remove the word “novice” from this definition; it no longer applies. Our fittest are not novices, but legitimate contenders in nearly every arena.
For the first time, we’re seeing the strong, the fast, the enduring, occupying the same space. The guy with the 5-minute mile is deadlifting 500 pounds. He’s putting out half a horsepower for ten straight minutes. He’s jumping four feet in the air. He’s running eighty miles. He is world class; his accomplishments are not a compromise.
Simultaneously, we are seeing adaption to imposed demand that does not follow traditional pathways. Now, the strongest are not the largest, the fastest not the most waiflike. Strength is achieved through increased neurological efficiency rather than mass. Speed is achieved by getting stronger, not running more. Athletes are borne from variety rather than specificity, exhibiting unheard of strength-to-bodyweight ratios.
We are throwing training on its ear, and this is just the beginning. This discipline is in its infancy, still far from widespread, still the province of few. There may come a day when our definition of fitness is not a compromise, when we no longer sacrifice mastery in one domain for competency in many, instead choosing mastery in all.
That day has started to dawn.
Josh Wagner fights 485 in Aromas. Picture courtesy of CrossFit.com.
Reader Comments (13)
Jon, this is perfect... nothing more to say except you hit it on the head...
Well written and timely.
Glad to be CrossFitting!
Jon,
I agree with the heart of your article, that CrossFitters are achieving increasingly impressive results in diverse and seemingly contradictory categories of fitness.
I also agree that we have only seen a small sliver of what's to come in this area.
Nonetheless, can we really call a 500 lb. deadlift or 5 minute mile world class? Hyperbole may weaken your argument here.
It is very exciting, still, to think about how our standards of fitness will be blown away by the next crop of CrossFitters. I remember when a 3 minute Fran was world class, 50 pullups was insane, and deadlifting over 400 meant you were strong.
Another excellent article! Thanks Jon!
Russ, those benchmarks separately aren't world class, but when you have an athlete that has them all... well world class may be a great way to describe him.
A bit of hyperbole, yes, but these ever increasing strength and speed numbers show one thing: if generalists aren't hitting world-class numbers yet, they will be. I remember when I started hitting "elite" times, and then they started moving. They haven't stopped!
Best,
Jon
Yes. Absolutely. Here here... to all of it!
I, for one, am incredibly grateful that I am here to witness this evolution at this point in time. Sure, the feats of the future will be amazing, but these times of new discovery are exhilarating in their own unique way.
Viva la evolution!
Jon, generalists won't hit "world class numbers" perse, but their combined talents make them world class athletes. There is a difference in fitness between a guy with a 700+ pound deadlift and a guy with a 575# deadlift and a 5:45 mile. I'll sacrifice a bit of pulling power for overall fitness and so will most of us, but I won't sacrifice my fitness to be able to pull 700, which will put my deadlift into the area of starting to get world class... know what I mean?
The Elite CrossFitters are world-class athletes for sure.
Jon,
You are a multi-faceted talent. Thank you for your great wisdom and insight and I look forward to watching that great video being overnighted to the Black Box Summit in Austin, Texas. I hope that visitors to CrossFitChron.com will one day appreciate the writing, just the same. Your thoughts were on point. Look forward to seeing you sometime in the near future, as sectionals are right around the corner....and this husband doesn't want to watch his wife from the sidelines again. :)
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Always great to read your insights Jon. Esp your comment on "Athletes are borne from variety rather than specificity"....
Hey Jon,
Kevin from Vagabond CrossFit... Well put in another great article... Could not agree with you more in the sense that CrossFit is making leaps and bounds in the fitness world and starting to create some elite athletes who can hang with the best... I mean over the last year and a half, CrossFit has just exploded in the sense of numbers and calculations for power output and work output.. Once, again Jon your a breath of fresh air and always look forward to reading your material...
Kev
Vagabond CrossFit
I love it! This was a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the recent drama. We will be joining the CrossFit family of Affiliates next week and we are excited to be part of something great.
Thanks for the great writing and all of your contributions to CrossFit!
Jon,
I loved this post man. You are such a great writer. I am still trying to figure out how to be as succinct as you are. Anyhow, feel free to shoot me an email sometime. Linds and I always like chatting with you. Also, don't forget to sign on for the December 29th WOD for SMA.
http://www.sicfit.com/blog/post/show/id/9-A-Fight-Against-the-Unknown-and-Unknowable-Curing-SMA-
Confirm "Again Faster's" participation in the comments.
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