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Tikrit, Iraq. Late 2009.
I was about halfway through my deployment and had been working out hard on a regular basis. I ran, I lifted, I did an untold number of calisthenic reps and movements. And I was just a truck driver. A 22 year-old on a dangerous adventure, on the other side of the planet, and driving a rig that looked like it belonged in a Mad Max movie. As is typical in these situations I talked to my family when I could. One such conversation was with my cousin Andrew who said, “Hey, have you heard of CrossFit? They have this workout called Murph…”
After that conversation, I began to question my level of fitness. I thought I was pretty fit. I was wrong. As time would go on, I would learn more about CrossFit and about 10 years after that conversation I would become a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer.
In the Level 1 seminar, we learned “what is CrossFit.”
CrossFit is defined as constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity. To the uninitiated or anyone who doesn’t speak the fitness lingo, that sounds like a lot of buzzwords. If you’ve ever been in one of my classes you’ve probably heard me say the following:
“Don’t worry. I’m gonna break this down, Barney style.”
CrossFit focuses on what is called General Physical Preparedness or GPP for short, as opposed to Specific Physical Preparedness(SPP) where you train in one athletic discipline like long distance running or olympic lifting. Simplified, GPP means training a large number of exercises in a lot of different combinations so that you can be good at a lot of things or, circling back, being generally physically prepared for just about anything. CrossFit even precisely names and defines 10 general physical skills in which we strive to gain balanced capacity. They are: cardiorespiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance.
The example I hear a lot that explains the difference between a GPP athlete and an SPP athlete is this: in an athletic competition of say a runner, powerlifter, gymnast, and a CrossFit athlete, each athlete would dominate in their respective athletic disciplines but wouldn’t do well in others. The CrossFit athlete wouldn’t win an event, but they would do well in all of them and probably win overall in points.
The Combat Fitness Test
During my time in the Army, our physical fitness test consisted of 2 minutes of push ups, 2 minutes of sit ups, and a timed 2 mile run. Around the end of my first enlistment, fitness in the military started to evolve. In 2008 the United States Marine Corps started implementing the Combat Fitness Test, performed between July and January to go alongside the regular Physical Fitness Test (PT), which is completed during the rest of the year. It consisted of an 880-yard dash in uniform, 2 minutes of pressing 30 lb ammo cans overhead, and a “maneuver under fire drill” which included more sprints(with and without ammo cans), crawls, a buddy drag and fireman’s carry, and a dummy grenade toss. As of 2022, and after extensive testing, the United States Army switched to the Army Combat Fitness Test. It includes a 3 rep max deadlift, 2 minutes of hand release push ups, a timed sprint-drag-carry event with a 90 lb sled and (2) 40 lb kettlebells, a timed plank, a standing power throw with a 10 lb medicine ball, and a timed 2-mile run. As of this year, the standing power throw was removed. The United States Air Force and Navy made similar changes to their fitness tests, but mainly for airmen and sailors in Special Warfare career fields. The various branches of the military did their homework. They started to realize that what the members of their respective branches were doing in combat and their military specialties didn’t match how their fitness was being measured through the PT test that had been in place for decades. Sure you could max out the PT test, but could you carry your buddy if they got hurt? How about loading equipment into the back of a vehicle that’s chest high? Could they get that heavy machine gun overhead and hand it off to the gunner in their turret?
Our folks in uniform have to be fit. But what about the other 99% of us? What does GPP have to do with you, me, and grandma? While coaching a couple of my Masters athletes a while back they told me about going to a Grandparents Day at their grandchild’s school.
“We were shocked! We were the only one’s without walkers, canes, or oxygen tanks. We took the stairs with ease. We workout with y’all all the time, but after seeing how other folks our age are holding up we realized what a difference CrossFit makes for us.”
GPP isn’t just for trying to turn regular people in Captain America. It’s FOR regular people. Period. In the words of CrossFit founder Greg Glassman:
“The needs of the elderly and professional athletes vary by degree, not kind.”
Where one needs functional competency to maintain independence, the other needs functional mastery to maintain dominance. Improved hip capacity will help a pro ball player’s throw to first; it will also reduce the chances of grandpa falling in the tub. The squat is the perfect tool for both.”
From the July 2023 CrossFit.com article “GPP: What It Is, Why You Need It, and Why CrossFit’s the Best Way To Get It” Stephane Rochet (CF-L3), former CrossFit Seminar Staff Flowmaster, and currently CrossFit HQ’s Senior Content Writer said:
“…this training produces an injury-resistant, well-conditioned athlete who can run up and down the field tirelessly or throw powerful punches in the championship round… CrossFit training builds grandparents who lug their own groceries, run the grandkids ragged, hike the local peak, and participate in a charity 5K. These CrossFit athletes have built their GPP to the point where they do not succumb to falls, injuries, or chronic diseases like the rest of their peers. GPP is equally critical for performance and quality of life.”
When I went to my CrossFit Level 2 Trainer seminar late last year, I picked the deadlift as the movement I wanted to coach/teach on our second day.
“This is a life-essential movement y’all. Picking up a bag of dog food, uncooperative toddlers, your drunk bestie. This is the move that will allow you to do so and, when properly executed, not wind up looking like a Life Alert commercial.”
George Bernard Shaw is famously quoted as saying, ”We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stopped playing.”
To back this up Dr. Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in an interview with Columbia Magazine said, ”Exercise is the closest thing we’ve found to a magic pill for combating the effects of aging,”
In an October 2022 article from the National Council of Aging titled “How Exercise Helps You Age Well,” some of the benefits of working out on a regular basis listed were:
- Bolstered Immunity. In a study of adults ages 55-79 with longstanding exercise routines, participants were found to have the immune systems of younger adults
- “Slowing the biological clock.” After examining data from more than 5,800 adults ages 20-84, a Brigham Young University exercise science professor discovered that adults that engaged in exercise for 30-40 minutes, five days a week, had an almost nine-year “biological aging advantage”.
- Better, younger mental attributes. “Better mood, better energy, better memory, better attention.” -Wendy Suzuki, neuroscientist and author, after becoming a regular at the gym. Research suggests not only can regular exercise delay aging in the brain, but that moderate to intense exercise may slow aging by 10 years.
In the last 20 years I’ve trained as a soldier, marathoner, ultramarathoner, triathlete, and trained in physique. I started training in CrossFit in late 2018. I’m creeping up on 40 and I’ve broken every single one of my personal records (PRs) several times in all those disciplines in the last several years—with no major injuries too, and I’m not slowing down.
Here’s the bottom line. Whether you’re fighting terrorists or the aging process, GPP is the winning strategy to living a long, healthy, active, and independent life.
I’ll see you in the gym soon!
Travis Hahn
CF-L2
References and Further Reading:
https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/gpp-what-it-is-why-you-need-it-and-why-crossfits-the-best-way-to-get-it
https://www.ncoa.org/article/how-exercise-helps-you-age-well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Combat_Fitness_Test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Fitness_Test
