About Us

Yakima CrossFit is the largest and most established facility in the Yakima area.  We have a seasoned group of coaches with a depth and breadth of experience and knowledge in exercise instruction and the sport of CrossFit.  Every member is celebrated and developed at their own pace based on individual needs and goals in a team atmosphere where you bond with the person next to you.  You work and sweat by their side and then celebrate your successes together!  Whether your goal is to compete in CrossFit, be in the best shape of your life, or just have more energy for your friends and family, the recipe is simple:  Just show up to class and let us help you be better than you were yesterday.

The hardest part is just having the courage to walk through the doors for the first time.  After that, we've got your back and will take care of you and will guide you towards happily achieving your goals.  So come in and join our community of supportive and like-minded people who strive to accomplish their goals and encourage others to reach their's.  CrossFit is a fitness program like no other.  You owe it to yourself to come down and try out a free workout and see what you've been missing at Yakima CrossFit.  Call or text Yakima CrossFit for more information at (509) 952-4475 (text only) or (509) 895-4959.

About CrossFit

After considerable research, study, debate and experimentation CrossFit offers it’s program based on “The 10 General Physical Skills” widely recognized by exercise physiologists.  These cover every area of athletic activity and the three human energy pathways: the phosphagen (high-powered activity – less that 10 seconds), glycolitic (moderate-powered activity – 10-30 seconds), and oxidative (low-powered activity – in excess of several minutes).

  1. Cardiovascular / respiratory endurance – the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.

  2. Stamina – the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.

  3. Strength – the ability of a muscular unit or combination of muscular units to apply force.

  4. Flexibility – the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given point.

  5. Power – the ability of a muscular unit or combination of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time.

  6. Speed – the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.

  7. Coordination – the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a single distinct movement.

  8. Agility – the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.

  9. Balance – the ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to it’s support base.

  10. Accuracy – the ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity

Our fitness or CrossFit-ness, comes through molding men and women that are equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, and multi-modal sprinter or sprint athlete. “Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete, gymnast and weightlifter and you’ll be fitter than any world-class runner, gymnast or weightlifter” ~CrossFit

How does Yakima CrossFit incorporate metabolic conditioning (“cardio”), gymnastics, and weightlifting to forge the world’s fittest men and women?

Metabolic conditioning

 

Biking, running, swimming, rowing, speed skating, and cross-country skiing are collectively known as metabolic conditioning.  In the common vernacular they are referred to as “cardio.”  This is aerobic activity.  In essence, efforts at low power and lasting in excess of several minutes are aerobic.  While aerobic activity increases metabolic conditioning and stamina it can have a negative impact on muscle mass, strength, speed and power.  Not good for most athletes and those interested in elite fitness.
The key to developing the Cardiovascular system without an unacceptable loss of strength, speed and power is interval training.  Interval training mixes bouts of work and rest in timed intervals.  One example of a common interval series you’ll see in CrossFit workouts at YCF is the Tabata Protocol; 20 seconds of sprint-level activity followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times.  It sounds easy; it’s not!  Training this way will increase both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning with no loss of muscle mass, power, speed and strength levels.  It meets the demands of the time-conscious athlete by giving you the biggest bang for your metabolic conditioning exercise buck.

Gymnastics

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Gymnastics includes not only the traditional family of competitive sports that we’re familiar with from the Olympics but also climbing and calisthenics and a host of other activities where the aim is body control.  It is from this realm of activities that we can develop extraordinary strength (especially upper body and trunk), flexibility, coordination, balance, agility and accuracy.  In fact, the traditional gymnast has no peer in terms of development of these skills.
CrossFit uses short parallel bars, still rings, pull-up and dip bars, and a climbing rope to implement our gymnastics training.  The starting place for gymnastic compentency lies with the well-known calisthenic movements: pull-ups, push-ups, dips, and rope climb.  These movements need to form the core of your upper body strength work.  We will set goals for achieving benchmarks like 20, 25, and 30 pull-ups; 50, 75, and 100 push-ups; 20, 30, 40, and 50 dips; 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 rope assents without any use of the legs!

Weightlifting

 

CrossFit uses Olympic-style weightlifting techniques that develop strength (especially in the hips), speed and power like no other training modality Successful weightlifting requires substantial flexibility.  Olympic weightlifters are as flexible as any athletes.
The Clean and Jerk and the Snatch are workout staples that develop coordination, agility, accuracy, and balance.  both of these lifts are nuanced and challenging.  Moderate competency in these Olympic lifts also confers added prowess to any sport or physical challenge.  The core of our resistance training includes exercises based on the deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk.  These movements are the starting point for any serious weight-training program.  They elicit a profound neuro-endocrine response.  That is, they alter the body hormonally and neurologically.
“most of the development that occurs as a result of exercise is systemic and a direct result of hormonal and neurological changes” ~CrossFit
Bicep curls, lateral raises, leg extensions, leg curls, flys and other traditional body-building movements have no place in a serious strength and conditioning program primarily because they have a blunted neuro-endocrine response.  A distinctive feature of these relatively worthless movements is that they have no functional analog in everyday life and they work only one joint at a time.  Compare this to the deadlift, clean, squat, and jerk which are functional and multi-joint movements.

Wrap up

Gymanasts have no peer in trunk and hip flexion, upper body strength in multiple joint angles, agility, accuracy, balance, coordination; their domain is body control.  Weightlifters are masters of power, speed, and hip and leg strength.  Powerful hip extension is the most critical element of human performance and none have the capacity of the weightlifters.  Sprinters have enormous physical potential due to their metabolic competency across anaerobic and aerobic pathways and the speed, power and total conditioning that sprinting demands.  Yakima CrossFit will provide a challenging, well-rounded workout regimen that will prepare you, the CrossFit athlete, for any and all situations in life.  It requires a minimum of time.  The vast majority of the WOD’s are 20-30 minutes long making them ideal for busy professionals.  A three-day on, one day off – or – five day on, two days off schedule will produce amazing results in strength and stamina that will make you efficient, healthy and safe!