FIT FOR LIFE: Why we train for GPP General Physical Preparedness Forging elite fitness.“Finding the Fittest on Earth.” “Constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.” CrossFitters tend to go on at considerable length about being fit, becoming fit, staying fit, who’s fit, where to get fit — and, most of all, what fitness actually is. It’s a difficult concept to put into words. But if you’re going to try, you could sum it up in three letters: GPP. In sports training, GPP, or general physical preparedness, means essentially what it says on the label — it’s a measure of how fit you are overall, how prepared you are to undergo demanding physical activity. It’s not how awesome you are at specific skills and techniques, but how athletic you are on the whole. There are 10 basic aspects of fitness: 1. Cardiovascular endurance: keeping yourself fueled with oxygen 2. Stamina: maintaining high energy levels over time 3. Strength: moving heavy stuff 4. Flexibility: having joints that can move through a full range of motion 5. Power: being able to produce fast, strong bursts of force 6. Speed: being able to move your body quickly 7. Coordination: being able to combine multiple movements smoothly 8. Agility: switching from one movement to another smoothly 9. Balance: Not being a klutz 10. Accuracy: Nailing the speed, direction, or intensity of a particular movement Blend those things together and you’ve got a person who can jump in and tackle any physical challenge on the whiteboard any day of the week, whether it’s pistols or pull-ups, snatches or squats, handstands or tire flips, deadlifts or rope climbs, or even a 5K, just because. If you’re a sport-specific person, this is the foundation of awesomeness upon which you build the specific skills you need to improve your game, whether it’s throwing, running, lifting, jumping — you name it. For our purposes as CrossFitters, or as people who don’t play sports but are just trying to be fit for health and fitness’ sake, this is the game. Whether or not you ever get sport-specific is up to you, but now you’ve got a base for it. How do you train to improve your GPP? GPP training can be almost anything that builds up those 10 general skills, and it can even be different for every sport. For a football player, doing squats is GPP training, because squats build balance, posterior-chain strength, flexibility, and power. For a powerlifter, squats would be sport-specific because they do them in competition. For us, almost everything we do is training to bring us to a higher state of general physical preparedness. CrossFit has borrowed GPP training from loads of other sports — mainly powerlifting, weightlifting, Strongman, and gymnastics — and combined it all to make people strong, fast, and coordinated. From burpees to rowing to pushing a prowler, almost every CrossFit movement is used to improve our general fitness. It’s why our workouts are so varied compared to other training regimens — it’s why you might be asked to run, climb, jump, push, and pull, all in the same hour. It might not seem like it when you’re throwing wallball #87 of #150, but wallballs are improving your life. Seriously. The wallball hits every single one of those 10 fitness targets, which is why they suck so, so very hard — they tax your entire system!!! The thing to do is analyze yourself. Look at that 10-item checklist. What are you good at, and what are you not-so-great at? Can you deadlift heavy, but your running stinks? That’s fine if you want to be a powerlifter. But to more all-around fit and a better CrossFitter, show up on running days and improve your cardiovascular endurance. Do you have limited range of motion? Really pay attention to your flexibility with every workout and don’t skimp on the mobility work. Do you have lots of endurance, but you’re not so strong and powerful? Show up on Olympic lifting days, because nothing will build power, strength, coordination, agility, and balance like cleans and snatches. How can GPP improve my life? CrossFit is practiced by loads of people who are not athletes, but people trying to get fit because it improves the quality of their daily lives. Strength guru Mark Rippetoe once wrote that “strong people are harder to kill, and more useful in general.” This is true also for people who have a high level of GPP. I don’t care what it is — anything is a lot easier when you’re strong, fast, coordinated, and powerful. Why do you train? What keeps you coming back? What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses?
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 23:06:26 +0000
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