10 General Physical Skills

CrossFit’s fitness standard can be broken down into three main parts, let’s look at the first, the 10 general physical skills.

Fitness is such a loose and ill-defined term that it really helps to break it down into understandable and useable parts. If we want to become more competent physically, regardless of whether this goal is for athletic performance or functional longevity in life, there are ten improvable factors which we must address, separated into the path by which you can force adaptation:

Adaptation achieved through training

The first 4 skills are significant in their ability to improve through training, if you push yourself inside and outside of the gym in a systematic and measurable way then you will receive a systematic and measurable increase in your biological capacity

1 - Cardiovascular / Respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process and deliver oxygen

2 - Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and

utilise energy.

3 - Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.

4 - Mobility - The ability to maximise the range of motion at a given joint.

Adaptation through training and practice

These 2 skills adaptation is achieved by doing training and practice in tandem to illicit an improvement.

5 - Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.

6 - Speed - The ability to minimise the time cycle of a repeated movement.

Adaptation through practice

These 4 skills require an adaptation primarily in the nervous system, achieved through practice

7 - Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.

8 - Agility - The ability to minimise transition time from one movement pattern to another.

9 - Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies centre of gravity in relation to its support base.

10 - Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity

In any successful athlete, all 10 aptitudes are present to a high degree (to varying degrees, dependant on the demands of the sport). A training plan is effective if it improves on these factors.

As you begin to train and practice in a structured and measured way, as we do at CrossFit Cairngorm, you will see these factors individually begin to improve in the gym and on the hill. Cumulatively you will feel more “athletic” but if you were to cut up the adaptation into distinct chunks they would fall squarely into the 10 buckets outlined above. Follow the statement below and your overall athleticism will improve the most:

Prioritise that which you are weakest at

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In the next article we will focus on the CrossFit’ s Second Fitness Standard: The Hopper / The Unknown and Unknowable

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References and attributions:

The CrossFit Journal “What is Fitness” https://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf

“The Ten General Physical Skills” is an excerpt from Dynamax training