It’s this decades million dollar or $4-billion-dollar question. CrossFit is a fitness regime founded in 2000 by “Coach” Greg Glassman.

After a decade of working on fitness regimes, he built an empire of over 11,000 gyms or as we like to call them “boxes” around the world. The reason they are called boxes, is that it literally is a box with some equipment that is not usually found in an everyday gym. The set up varies from location to location. You get a bar instead of dumb bells. No weight machines are present, everything is done with body weight or free weight. Cardio is done on a rowing machine, cycling, swimming etc. The founder also came up with an international competition to find the fittest person in the world from over 200,000 participants.

But what is it? By definition, CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity. I know the first time I heard the definition of CrossFit it didn’t truly make sense to me until I practiced it daily.

‘Constantly varied’, just means that because of the wide range of training methods and movements, the workouts will always be different. Not only are the movements “varied” but the way that they are applied, weight, time, and distances also add to the variation of workouts.

‘Functional movements’ are probably the easiest to explain. They’re exercises that make daily life easier and better. Running, rowing, jumping, throwing, pressing things over your head, pull-ups, and loads more. No other strength and conditioning program anywhere works with the number of movements and tools like CrossFit.

And finally, ‘performed at high intensity’. By placing a large focus on either time or reps, the intensity is increased because you’re battling the clock and yourself.

Outside of everything what that fancy book definition doesn’t tell you is that CrossFit is a community. It’s spending one hour with people that you’ve shared the blood, sweat, and tears with. It consists of a group of amazingly friendly and welcoming people that make you feel like you are part of something. From CEO’s to interns everyone is there to get fit and have fun.

John Shanlian, an AllandAbout fan, works hard at the CrossFit box every morning to get his routine fix for the day. He was scared and intimidated at first and didn’t actually show up for his first class. He pushed himself to try and attend a few classes and he’s been hooked ever since. He says that it’s all about lifting, metabolic conditioning and gymnastics, three areas mixed into one type of fitness regime.

Constantly working on your weaknesses to improve along with working on your strengths makes it a well-rounded experience. Once you get into it, you make friends who then become a family, a cult and a community that strives and pushes harder towards being healthier and fitter.

Join a class near you today! And let us know your experience.

Written by: Daniel Martins, Head Coach, CrossFit T23, Doha, Qatar