The Crossfit Hierarchy. How Solid is Your Foundation?

In the world of crossfit, you are considered "fit" if you are proficient or posses all 10 of the fitness domains. You are unfit if you lack any of the 10 domains.

What are they you ask? They are: endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination, agility, accuracy and balance.

The first 4 domains (endurance, stamina, strength, and flexibility) are the physical changes. This comes from doing the WOD's while perfecting form and range of motion. The last 4 (coordination, agility, accuracy and balance) are neurological changes developed from the programming. Speed and power arise from the combination of the other 8 domains. Speed and power outputs are a direct result of your physical and neurological adaptations.

Now that you know the 10 domains of fitness, here is the hierarchy.

1) Diet- Eating a good diet gives your body the necessary elements that it needs to perform optimally. If you feed your machine crap, your body will not be able to perform it's best and you most likely will not feel well. If you feed your machine whole healthy food, then you lay a foundation for your body to perform it's best and you feel good and recover better.

2) Metabolic Conditioning- Training for endurance and stamina allows for your body to build a capacity in each of the 3 metabolic pathways. (aerobic, lactic acid, and phospho-creatine) The more you train this, the more adaptable your body becomes and the easier the transition is for your body between the three pathways.


3) Gymnastics- Training in gymnastics allows you to establish a foundation in flexibility and body control. (balance, accuracy, agility, flexibility, and coordination)

4) Weightlifting and throwing- Training with weights builds strength. Having the ability to control objects in various movement planes makes us stronger.


5) Sport- This is the application of "Fitness" into a competitive atmosphere where there are more randomized movements and skill mastery.

I hope that you can see that there is a natural progression to crossfit. Each tier builds on the next. Even though it is random and constantly varied..... there is still a method and progression to achieving maximum power output. If you are lacking in any of these 10 domains... but want to lift more, heavier and faster, then think first about this hierarchy. How solid is your foundation?