Functional Strength: Fit to Fight, Fit for Life

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Jeff Barnett is a fitness enthusiast from Huntsville, Alabama. For the past ten years he has pursued strength and health in numerous ways including serving as a Marine Corps officer. He posts his daily workouts on his website, CrossFit Impulse .

This is Part 2 of Jeff's series on using total body fitness to get into the best shape of your life. Read Part 1 here .

In part one of this two part series I examined the mental game of physical fitness. While some of it might have seemed like Dr. Phil tough love bullshit, my intent was to prepare you for the road ahead, should you choose to travel it.

In part one I talked about the importance of knowing why you exercise. This column will not be very useful to you unless you share some variation of my reason for exercising: achieving total body fitness for a more fulfilling life. I want an increased capacity to perform physical work. I want to take part in recreation for long periods of time without tiring. I want an improved sense of balance, coordination, and control of my body. I want to look attractive for my wife and exude to others the appearance of a confident and disciplined individual. Last, I want to care for the body I’ve been blessed with by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and suffering less from sickness.

Crossfit

The method that I have discovered that works best for achieving this goal is Crossfit . You can read all about the Crossfit program on their website, but I can give you a quick and dirty synopsis: achieving the most widely applicable fitness possible through a varied, intense, and frequent regimen of metabolic, gymnastic, and weight training. In order to understand what this philosophy is, first let’s examine what it is not. Crossfit throws out all traditional weight-lifting mantras of muscle isolation, strictly anaerobic training, and lengthy rest periods. It also omits extremely repetitive endurance training that usually leads to over-training and joint degradation.

You can get an excellent definition of the Crossfit program in this issue of the Crossfit Journal .

However, you can easily imagine the goal of Crossfit fitness with this example:

What type of fitness do you want when escaping from an emergency or natural disaster?

Run moderately fast to keep danger at a distance

Unfortunately, running is the only way to develop this. It hurts badly at first if you’ve never run frequently, but if you push through the pain for about 4-5 weeks then it will gradually become enjoyable. I used to think that I just “wasn’t a runner.” That’s because I wasn’t—until I made myself get on a track and run. You don’t always have to run a long distance. Intervals of 400m and 800m will usually deliver what you need. A long run every 7-10 days will keep your endurance in check.

Upper body strength to climb into a tree or scale a tall fence

I hope you weren’t relying on bicep curls. You’re going to need complete back and shoulder strength as well as strong forearms for a power...

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