Do You Have to Know How to Do a Pull Up for Crossfit Level 1 Certification

Call up back in October when I attended the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course? Yes, it's been a while and now that I've been coaching CrossFit for half-dozen months I figured it was finally fourth dimension to write a review of my experience!

Allow's start with why I attended the Level 1 Trainer Course. I manage Metro Fettle Club and Metro CrossFit. We offer CrossFit at both of our locations so equally the general manager information technology made sense for me to complete the Level 1 Course then that I tin motorcoach classes and so that I can concord an amalgamation. I had only been CrossFitting for most eight months when I attended the course but given my background in fitness every bit a personal trainer, grouping exercise instructor and yoga teacher, I felt confident that I was fix. 1 thing that I have learned from the many certifications I take received is that in that location are always all levels in omnipresence. For example, at the CrossFit L1 we had anybody from stay at abode mom's wanting to safely practise garage workouts at dwelling with their teenage children to middle of the road people similar me to serious CrossFitters with years of feel who wanted to open their own box.

It'due south recommended that you study the CrossFit Training Guide earlier your Level 1 Course so that you take a good base cognition of the principles of CrossFit and the information you lot volition be presented with in the course and then that you are prepared for the exam. This guide is bachelor for download on the folio I linked to higher up for anyone that is interested. If you're into CrossFit and want to get a meliorate understanding of the principles behind it, nutrition philosophy and a breakup of the primal movements then I suggest y'all give this a read. I read through the entire thing once and then went dorsum through and outlined central points to fix for the test. Anybody talks about how difficult the examination is merely as long as you read the guide, pay attending during the lectures and take notes, you should be fine. They embrace basically everything that is going to be on the test in the lectures and then I was certain to study my outlines and my lecture notes.

My L1 grade was at CrossFit Charlotte. The form is on Sabbatum and Sunday from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.yard. with a ane hr break for lunch each 24-hour interval. I arrived around eight:30 a.m. on the get-go day to get checked in and settled. There were around 50 people in my training course and six trainers. My head trainer was Joe Alexander. The prepare-up was just like my CrossFit Endurance seminar where we were bundled in a semi-circle of chairs around a whiteboard. The way these weekends work is that you lot alternate between lecture and practicing movements. I love this because you don't become tired or sleepy and the data makes more than sense because y'all do it correct after you lot discuss it.

Our course was broken into ix lectures – 5 on day 1 and 4 on 24-hour interval two. The trainers alternated giving the lectures and it was nice to have the variety in personalities. They all practice an first-class job of thoroughly explaining their topic and writing key information on the whiteboard. They also give you strong hints when you should really pay attention to something (pregnant it was test material).

Hither is a list of the lectures:

Twenty-four hours ONE

1. Opening Lecture: What is CrossFit
2. ix Foundational Movements Overview + The Squat (Air Squats, Front Squats and Overhead Squats) – followed past outdoor movement practice and drills in minor breakout groups
3. What is Fitness & The Four Models to Define Fitness
4. Overhead Press, Push button Press, Push Jerk – followed past outdoor movement practice and drills in small breakout groups
5. Technique and Intensity

*On day i we besides completed the benchmark WOD Fran as well every bit reviewed musculus ups, kipping pull ups and thrusters

DAY Two

1. Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift High Pull, Med Ball Clean – followed past outdoor move practice and drills in small-scale breakout groups
2. Nutrition
3. Glute Ham Developer – Hip Extension, Back Extension, Sit down Up
4. Programming

*On day two we also completed a vii minute AMRAP of med ball cleans, hand release push button ups and ab mat sit ups, drilled snatches and took our examination.

When we checked in the get-go day and received our name tags there was a number in the corner that assigned us to our breakout groups. I recollect we had 5 groups of 10-xv so you lot were able to get more one-on-one work with the trainers as nosotros drilled the movements that we were lectured on. Each time we did a breakout the trainers would rotate to a new grouping so that y'all got a chance to work with all of the dissimilar trainers over the course of the weekend.

Nosotros completed a conditioning each day of the course. The first day is always Fran and I was dreading it something serious.

Fran

21 – 15 – nine

Thrusters (95/65)
Pullups

I told myself going in that I wasn't going to put as well much pressure on myself. Half dozen months ago I was not nearly as skillful at kipping pullups or quite equally stiff every bit I am now to do the 65# thrusters. I was even more intimidated when they gave us a x-infinitesimal cut off. They broke us into three heats and every bit I watched the first heat, I knew I was going to have to alter. Basically everyone was finishing in under 8 minutes. At that place was one girl still going until the cutoff and the entire crowd of l-some people were crowded around watching her. I did NOT desire to be that girl in the spotlight badly trying to finish. Don't go me incorrect, information technology was really cool to run into everyone auspicious anybody else on but for me trying to RX was not worth beingness the last one standing.

I shot a video of the first minute of the first heat so that y'all can come across the crazy pace some of these people were going at. Fran is one of CrossFit's most intense workouts. I ended upwardly modifying to 55# thrusters and a mix of kipping and jumping pull ups. I would kip as many as I could each round then switch to jumping. I recall I finished somewhere in the 7 minute range. I totally got called out by the trainers for not getting my butt below parallel in the thrusters and had a "butt ball" placed underneath me to ensure proper depth in my thrusters. Information technology was a humbling feel! I'thousand glad I went into it with an open up listen because information technology was seriously tough and a little scary.

I went abode the get-go 24-hour interval and studied my lecture notes and training guide outlines. Overall, I felt pretty good about everything but these types of courses are but information overload so I was trying to get everything directly in my head and pick out the key points of what we discussed in our lectures.

I really enjoyed the second day'south lectures, especially the nutrition lecture.

(source)

I was pleasantly surprised by the diet lecture. I was expecting information technology to be "Paleo or die" but it wasn't at all. Our trainer emphasized that your nutrition (nutrient = fuel) is the foundation of fettle. We accept to fuel our bodies properly to non merely perform well in concrete activeness only also to preclude the common diseases of civilization such every bit heart disease, obesity, diabetes, etc. The recommended diet was really the Zone Diet where you eat in blocks of balanced proteins, carbs and fat. Each cake should exist made upwards of 40% carb, 30 % protein and xxx% fatty. This nutrition focuses on eating whole foods (meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar) in balanced ratios for optimal diet and performance.

I loved it when our trainer pointed out that Paleo tin can be a trap because people think they can consume as much as they want as long as it'due south Paleo. That'due south non true. Overeating anything can cause insulin spikes and lead to excess calorie consumption and weight proceeds. She shared with us how she gained x pounds when she went Paleo because she thought information technology was a free for all to eat almond butter and bacon. The Zone Diet is less restrictive than Paleo and allows for better control over the mode you fuel your torso.

All that said, I like the principle of the Zone Diet and I would say that I by and large include the 3 elements in all of my meals simply I could never adhere to the block counting and nutrient measuring/weighing that the Zone Diet requires. I would get crazy. I call back it is a great starting bespeak for those who are struggling to understand how to fuel their body, how much to eat and when. Then I think this style of eating can become a footling more than intuitive.

Our day ii workout was a 7 minute AMRAP of med ball cleans, hand release push ups and ab mat sit down ups. It wasn't really very challenging simply it was meant to drill the med ball clean technique into us. They are surprisingly tough.

Our last lecture was on programming. We discussed how to keep it within the CrossFit principles of constantly varied, high intensity and functional movements. We did a week of programming together where we learned how to consider the rep scheme, task v. time priority, what type of movement it was (gymnastics, weightlifting, etc) and the time domain. They encouraged us to "programme for the best and scale for the remainder" along with going over the importance of scaling.

Here is where I had some bug with the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Grade. We spend i hour talking about programming and quite a few people taking our couse wanted to go out and open up their ain affiliates/boxes. We spent Cipher time talking about how to effectively motorcoach. I call back that these ii skills are critical for anyone to succeed every bit a CrossFit coach and I couldn't believe the lack of emphasis on them. Now I understand the importance of having a good shadowing/mentoring program at your gym so that you lot tin can further develop coaches afterward they complete their grade. Let me get in clear that completing this course alone is not going to brand y'all a good CrossFit coach. A skilful coach is someone who not only understands the CrossFit principles and movements but really gets how to communicate that to their athletes.

We concluded the day by taking a grouping photo and taking our test. Speaking of the group…the Level 1 course was the strangest training I accept ever attended. No one really talked to anyone else. In every other preparation that I take attended I accept eaten luncheon with other attendees or chatted with them during breaks but this grooming felt so different. I walked away from the weekend feeling like I didn't even know anyone else's proper name. We never did introductions of whatever kind (not as a big group or in our modest groups)…it was just strange.

The test required careful reading of the questions (they do endeavour to word things differently and trick you lot) but information technology was not as difficult equally everyone had made it out to be. I took my time with each questions and stuck to the idea of choosing "the best answer" (it was one of those where more than one answer could have been correct). After completing our examination we had to expect in a holding area for everyone to finish before coming dorsum in for endmost remarks. Nosotros received our test results most a week later via email.

In closing, I am glad that I attended the preparation grade. It gave me a skilful foundation to come back to Metro and bus CrossFit, especially in regards to the 9 foundational movements. But equally with most things, y'all acquire the nearly by doing. Actually coaching classes, doing enquiry on my own, watching athletes and taking other charabanc'south classes has taught me more than annihilation.

I hope this postal service provided some expert insight on the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course. I would beloved to hear feedback from anyone else who has completed it and I welcome questions from anyone considering information technology.

fletcherburses.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.peanutbutterrunner.com/crossfit-level-1-trainer-course-my-experience/

Share this post