As we prepare to head into 2019, it’s pretty apparent that the world of fitness has come a long way over the past handful of decades.
Even in just the past twenty years, we’ve seen the idea of fitness evolve from Richard Simmons leading us in a Sweatin’ To The Oldies workout, to tech companies investing in ideas like ClassPass that allow you to work out at one of tens of thousands of fitness studios that accept your membership.
With seemingly less time to do the things we want to do in life, our fitness has become a task we try to squeeze into our day, and the shift toward shorter and more efficient classes reflect this desire.
And, just like how we see NBA teams using data analytics to better understand how proficient the players on the court are, lots of gyms are starting to offer data to their members to allow them to track their progress.
This “gamification” of a workout is in place to motivate athletes to give their all as the timer winds down, knowing that that if they push themselves, they might achieve a better score than last time.
(For what it’s worth, it’s a method we use at our box to help our athletes track our progression, and we think there is much value in seeing your line graph steadily rise the longer you do CrossFit.)
There is no doubt our lives are going to get more hectic (not less) as we move closer to the middle of the century, and some fitness forecasts claim we will try to squeeze our fitness into ever-shrinking windows. And while experts believe you can still reap benefits from 30 minutes of exercise, new guidelines suggest that should be the minimum amount of work you put in.
Luckily, for those who want to spend a significant amount of time at the gym, there’s CrossFit – a type of exercise that’s built for the future.
When you schedule your workout for the week, you know you won’t spend more than five hours during the work week getting fit since each class is one hour long. With the first half of the class dedicated to mobility and stretching, and the second half focused on the WOD, you ensure your body is getting warmed up properly before you dive in.
If you are looking into a gym that offers 30-minute workouts, while it might save you time, your body is going to struggle to adapt to the quick start and finish, not to mention 30 minutes is on the low end of the time you should spend working out every day.
So, you can certainly cut down on how much time you want to spend at the gym, but you might not get the returns you’re looking for.
As far as tracking your data, we’ve always incorporated a bit of analysis into our athlete’s workouts. Every athlete who belongs to our box uses the Wodify app to track their progress over the life of their membership. This is especially important if an athlete wants to pull numbers to see how their front squat, for instance, is progressing.
Not only does it show steady improvement, but it helps give the athlete a goal to shoot for. Numbers don’t lie. These numbers help our athletes improve their fitness game and they don’t need a data scientist to decipher the results.
As we look toward the future, we believe time spent in the gym, and the availability of tools to let you track your time at the gym, will define how people get fit.
If those are the requirements for effective exercise, CrossFit checks off both boxes and is well-positioned to lead the pack into the future of fitness.
Interested in trying CrossFit? Contact us today to get started!