Naturally, this is a question all CrossFit enthusiasts and trainers are presented with regularly.

Of course, we can always use the standard Crossfit basic answer:

“CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program built on constantly varied, if
not randomized, functional movements executed at high intensity.”

However, for many people, this is not enough.

One of the things that makes CrossFit unique is that it addresses the fact that the fitness needs of an “Average Joe” are identical to that of a top athlete – the only difference being intensity (speed & weight) and volume. In all cases, the best results come when training included functional movement (that which replicates real life movement), at high intensity and with constant variety. Any exercise program that meets these three criteria can be considered “CrossFit,” from shoveling dirt, hauling rocks and cutting down trees to weightlifting, pull ups and sprinting.

Crossfit is Scalable
Many people who are first exposed to CrossFit training via the workout of the day, or WOD as it’s commonly called in Crossfit, become instantly frightened by the workout and quickly dismiss it as something they cannot do. If someone new to Crossfit sees something like 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 situps and 400 squats, they are likely to think, “yea, right”, and move on. This is where scalability comes into play.

CrossFit is scalable to individual ability levels.

A 75 year old woman and 24 year old super stud can utilize the same superior movements in training by just scaling the loads and duration, keeping the intensity at a level that intense for them.

What is different about CrossFit compared to a normal work out at the gym?
In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical workout consists of isolation movements and extended aerobic sessions. The fitness community from trainers to the magazines has the exercising public believing that lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, sit-ups and the like combined with 20-40 minute stints on the stationary bike or treadmill are going to lead to some kind of great fitness. Well, at CrossFit we work exclusively with compound movements and shorter high intensity cardiovascular sessions. We’ve replaced the lateral raise with push-press, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort our athletes will do five or six at short distance.
Why? Because compound or functional movements and high intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result. Startlingly, this is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientific fact and yet the marginally effective old ways persist and are nearly universal. Our approach is consistent with what is practiced in elite training programs associated with major university athletic teams and professional sports.

Why Crossfit? Results. Period.