Specificity vs. Generalization

We often talk about how CrossFit is great for so many things; it's great for endurance, strength and explosiveness, which is everything that you need in sport and in life. CrossFit group classes will elevate you in all these disciplines, gradually. If you are consistent with your group class training, you will see results over time. Nothing happens over night but on the same token, you can make things happen more quickly if you are more specifically dedicated to one discipline or movement over another.

For example, would you expect 200lb Olympic Weightlifter to run a 4 minute mile? Or a ultra marathon runner to snatch 200lbs? More often than not, people will answer no and that's completely expected! If you've ever played a sport growing up, you know the importance of skill specific training in order to excel. However, if we are not dedicated to a specific sport, then generalized training is more effective for staying healthy overall.

When we look at group classes, the programming is structured so that we are training constantly varied, functional movements. The movements and disciplines are programmed in a way that they are always in a mixed rotation. This is generalized training and you can expect to get better at everything, just not as quickly as if you were to dedicate 100% of your efforts to one single movement or discipline.

In contrast, if you have very specific goals like increasing your pulling strength so that you are able to perform pull ups or chest to bars, then personal training allows us to focus 100% of our time on a single clearly outlined goal. When we dedicate all of our attention and efforts during our personal training sessions to this one goal, we are able to achieve this goal more quickly than if we were to participate in group classes.

There is no right or wrong, it all depends on what your goals are and what your intention is with training. That's why we offer group classes, personal training and hybrid memberships (which combine group classes and personal training), so that you have options and can crush whatever your goals are!