CrossFit itself is defined as that which optimises fitness through constantly varied, functional movements performed at relatively high intensity. CrossFit is also the community that spontaneously arises when people do these workouts together. In fact, the communal aspect of CrossFit is a key component of why it’s so effective. It is universally scalable, allowing anyone – regardless of experience, age or fitness level – to take part.

CrossFit was founded and developed by Greg Glassman, in Santa Cruz, California. As a college gymnast, Glassman recognised improvements in his own training through mixing gymnastics with weight training and cardio. He began training people in local gyms before being asked to train the Santa Cruz Police Department in 1995, which is when Glassman set up his own gym. CrossFit.com was born in 2001 as an open resource for sharing a workout of the day “WoD” along with exercise and demo videos, and an open discussion forum. Then the affiliate programme began in 2003, with a mere 12 across the US. In 2005 this grew to 16 affiliates, in 2009 there were 3,400 affiliates and today, in 2015, there are currently over 11,000 affiliated CrossFit “boxes” (or gyms). Read more here

Yes! CrossFit is for anyone and everyone. It is scalable for any age or fitness level. At CrossFit EVERYONE is an athlete. It does not matter what your current level of fitness is. You can expect to see improvements in all 10 areas of fitness – Cardiovascular and Respiratory Endurance, Strength, Stamina, Flexibility, Coordination, Agility, Accuracy, Balance, Power and Speed. By focusing on these skills, our athletes will not only see improvements in body composition, work capacity and health markers like blood pressure and cholesterol etc., but will find that they will perform better in sport and exercise as well as in their daily lives outside of CrossFit. Literally it will change your life.

Our ultimate goal is to make you fitter for everyday life through functional movement – stuff we do every day. How do we do this? We do this through a mix of weight training, gymnastics training and cardiovascular exercise, increasing your competency across 10 general physical skill areas: Cardiovascular respiratory endurance, Stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, balance, accuracy and agility. In doing this, CrossFit seeks to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Capacity is the ability to do real work, which is measurable using the basic terms of physics (force, distance and time). Life is unpredictable (much more so than sport) so real world fitness must be broad and not specialised, both in terms of duration and type of effort (time and modal domains).

The biggest challenge with introducing new people to CrossFit is the misconception that CrossFit is not for beginners. One of the most common things we hear from new people is “this is great, but I’m not fit enough yet – I’m going to get fit on my own and then I’ll be back in 3 months”.

The sad reality is that we often do not see those people again in 3 months. When we check up on them and see how they are going they are generally in no better position than they were 3 months ago and still don’t feel like they are ready.

As a trainer this is the most frustrating thing as I know that with our help, their fitness would have sky rocketed in that 3 months to well beyond what they would have achieved on their own.

Can CrossFit seem intimidating? Totally.

We know that, and that’s why we are here to walk you through step by step.

Before you come for your Free class, take a read of the biggest misconceptions we get from new athletes.

Biggest misconceptions as a beginner:

1. CrossFit is Elite

Your average CrossFit member is not elite. The CrossFit Games are Elite. The athletes who qualify for the Games make up less than 0.01% of CrossFit participants. CrossFit Moss is made up of regular people just trying to improve their health and fitness. Moms, Dads, Students, Grandparents and Full time workers simply coming together to get better.

2. Everyone is already in such great shape, I’ll be holding everyone back.

Our member base is massively varied in fitness level and all workouts are scaled to the individual. Everyone might look really fit when you’re standing from the door but in reality you’ll find many of them were beginners just like yourself not very long ago.

The group sessions are designed and programmed in such a way that everyone is working at their own level. It’s often the fittest who finish last as their workload is increased to match their ability.

3. I need to get Fit first before I can do CrossFit.

We will get you fit. Our fundamentals program is a nice slow transition which will take you through all the basics at a pace to suit you to make sure you are both comfortable and safe.

4. I’m too old, it’s too late for me to start training.

The older you are the more important it is to start exercise as soon as possible and even more important that you do it with qualified trainers. Do you want to be the 70yr old in a nursing home or the 90yr old that still able to chase after their grand kids?

5. People will look at me and think that I don’t belong here.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions. We are always welcoming of people who are already fit but our biggest passion is for those who have worked up the courage to try something new. Both our trainers and members love to see someone who’s getting out of their comfort zone and you will find you’ll have more support than any other place you’ve been.

Even after you’ve read these we know you’ll still be nervous but that’s ok. Anything worth doing is probably going to scare you a little bit. The hardest part is starting, after that it’s all downhill (and then back up the hill again. Come on, its CrossFit).

Following completion of your fundamentals course, you are then ready to begin classes! Your first workout at CrossFit Moss will be a fun and challenging experience. Each class typically starts with a dynamic warm-up, then a focus on either a skill or strength element, followed by a workout. All movements are fully scalable, meaning everyone takes part in the same workout, so we scale as required, to make sure correct movement mechanics are met and intensity levels are relative to you. It’s likely you will have learned new things, be a little bit “sore” and excited to come back for more.You’ll also find a bunch of friendly and like-minded athletes, supporting and cheering each other on!

No. The beauty of CrossFit is that all exercises are based on movements that you already do–like squatting, pushing and pulling. Workouts are programmed to inspire the beginner and challenge the advanced.

Try it and find out! The answer to this is really a combination of all the other answers in this section. We’re not doing anything new or complex – we work hard, we vary our training, we do it together and the community aspect of CrossFit is one of its most successful elements.

CrossFit is about variance and adaptation. We “program” our workouts for General Physical Preparedness, or GPP. We don’t have leg days, back- and bi- days, or cardio days. We believe the body is a whole system, and strengthen it as a whole. Our coaches also give you basic education in diet and nutrition. We believe that nutrition is the foundation of health and fitness and know that how we feed our bodies determines how quickly we achieve the results we want. So for you, this means you’re a better runner than the best weightlifter, a better lifter than the best marathoner, and generally physically prepared for anything in your everyday life. The best part is that you’re joined by like-minded people who want to be and feel better, and every class is lead by qualified CrossFit trainers.

CrossFit teaches 9 Foundational Movements. The mastery of these 9 movements correlate directly to the efficiency of the exercises performed during your workouts and transfer to the development of other skills you see often in WODs.