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| Credit: @welcome_to_the_mill / Instagram |
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| By Emily Beers |
| A new Harvard University study published in the British Medical Journal last month lends more credibility to the CrossFit methodology: Variety is king. |
- The research, which analyzed exercise data from more than 100,000 people over 30 years, found that for longevity and health, the best recipe combines strength and cardiovascular training with playing sports and walking.
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The Details
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| For three decades, the study’s participants — 70,725 women and 40,648 men — reported on their exercise type and duration. |
- Exercise types included walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, rowing, calisthenics, weightlifting, resistance training, yoga, stretching, Pilates, as well as various sports and daily activities such as gardening, digging, chopping, and climbing stairs.
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| The result: Those who included the most variety in their exercise routines had a 19 percent lower risk of premature death than those whose routines lacked variety. |
| Worth noting: Two weeks ago, we reported on another new study from Australia that found high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is most effective for maintaining muscle mass and reducing fat. That said, HIIT is an important part of the puzzle, while other activities, such as walking and stretching, add to it. |
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Flying the CrossFit Flag
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| These findings are consistent with what CrossFit founder Greg Glassman laid out in his famous “World-Class Fitness in 100 Words” in 2002: |
- “Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, clean and jerk, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week, mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.”
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One Big Thing
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| Researchers also found that variety in exercise was associated with positive health outcomes, even after accounting for the total time participants spent exercising. |
| Again, this aligns with the CrossFit methodology, which holds that a brief warm-up followed by a five-minute Fran or 12 minutes of Tabata intervals is often sufficient for one training session. |
The Big Picture
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| While this is just one study and not without limitations—most notably its reliance on self-reported exercise data—it lends meaningful weight to what the CrossFit community has observed firsthand for more than 25 years: varied training works. Furthermore, variety in training is arguably at the heart of what keeps it fresh and fun. |
| As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life. When it comes to fitness, it may also be a key ingredient for health and longevity. |
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