2 approaches with different aims.

One’s goal is to make people capable or generally well-rounded at everything and one is to make people excellent at one or a few things. Which is better?

 

This discussion mirrors the Crossfit vs. sports-specific or adaptation specific conversation. In physical therapy school and in my CSCS training EVERYTHING was geared around causing specific adaptations in our clients, or even more zoomed in, our client’s tissues. If they came in with shoulder pain the goal was to figure out what specific tissue was the issue and cause adaptation specifically at that tissue. Or in the CSCS world, you have a middle linebacker that needs to be able to cover 40 yards in 4.5 seconds and be able to bring down someone that is 215 pounds. Specific demands require specific training stimuli. Right? As you can imagine I was very on the specific side of things and ended up not really liking nor understanding Crossfit/the capacity side of things.

Then I started practicing. And seeing real people. Dads with 3 kids. Mom’s who are busy. Young professionals who just want to be healthy. Older people that want to stay mobile.

What I started to see what that 99% of humans walking around did not need some very specific stimulus to meet their goals, but actually the opposite. They need to be more capable humans. Instead of getting an A+ on sprinting or vertical leap, they need to get a B in everything.

And my Crossfit hate started to break down slowly. Why would you ever program 10 reps of squat snatch, double under (jump rope twice per jump instead of once), and running all in a 15-minute workout? Squat snatches are a power developing movement, only to be done in very small sets with moderate load quickly with full rest…right? Jump rope is an aerobic endurance exercise, don’t pair that with a power development movement, then running! Noooo this is all wrong.

Or is it. What happens to the average human body when exposed to all of these different stimuli (when performed with proper technique of course). They become more capable humans. Their endurance improves, their power improves, their strength improves. The concept of concurrent training (training strength and endurance simultaneously) is typically bashed by the strength and condition world, but they are in a different world then most of the normal humans walking around.

That is the big difference. Most people, me included, want to be fit and able to do what life throws at me. I don’t care to be great at any specific thing but I want to be able to do it all at a high level if necessary. That is why I am now firmly in the creating capable humans camp. Come join me.

 

**Side note: these camps can play nice together and specific training can be incorporated into a Crossfit style program to target client-specific goals.