As someone who’s well-versed in functional fitness, I can tell you first hand that there’s
elements of competitive fitness that I absolutely love and elements I absolutely detest.
I love the fact that CrossFit brought functional fitness to the mainstream and got more people
than ever squat, deadlift, and train with greater intensity. However I feel a big reason why
functional fitness (CrossFit in particular) gets a lot of hate, is for the follow 3 reasons:
1) A clear lack of emphasis on prioritizing basic foundational strength (especially for
beginners)
2) The “constantly varied” nature of Crossfit programming which often results in no clear
structure or progress. Random training yields random results (or little to no results at all)
3) The “metabolic conditioning” element of CrossFit which oftentimes results in illogical
workouts with way too many reps of low value movements leaving people overtrained,
broken down, or injured.
While I could write separate articles about each of the aforementioned reasons, I’ll focus on the
ladder reason. I feel qualified to speak on this topic as I myself have done literally thousands of
burpees, high-rep, box jumps, and lightweight snatches. It didn’t take me long to realize that
doing these crazy high rep metcons with these low “value for time” movements isn’t really
making me “fitter”, if anything it just left my body feeling destroyed and unnecessarily sore for
days on end.
So if you’re a high intensity training junkie like myself, let me save you the pain (multiple injuries
and lack of progress) by skipping the burpees and high rep snatch workouts and instead focus
on improving your conditioning with these two amazing cardio machines:
1) The Concept 2 Rower
2) The Assault Airbike
Without question, the rower and bike are two of the most effective machines to build an aerobic
base and improve work capacity. I’ll break down what I love about them:
● Effective-Both machines incorporate all major muscle groups in the body eliciting an
incredible total body conditioning effect
● Joint Friendly-Both the rower and assault bike are low impact machines allowing
anyone at any age/ability level to get an effective conditioning workout without taking an
unnecessary toll on your body
● Ease of use-While the rower may require more coaching/practice to dial in proper stroke
form, I consider both the rower and assault bike to be very intuitive machines and simple
for anyone to learn.

Lastly, cardio doesn’t kill your gains, your lack of cardio does. Improving your work capacity
through short, intense bouts of conditioning will actually allow you to lift longer and harder than
ever before. Your heart is arguably the most important muscle to train, do not neglect it.