In the passion for helping those who needlessly suffer,  I have found that ultra-fitness has been my biggest weapon to help my patient’s mild depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, mania, obsessive compulsiveness, fatique, and general low levels of enthusiasm for life.    

     When I was a Soccer and Lacrosse player in high school,  I remember my overall emotional and physical balance would keep me healthy under all types of stress.   As college, medical school, and the life of a doctor overshadowed my physcial fitness energies, I found myself constantly in need of something that I couldn’t put my finger on.  It was a mild anxiety and mild depression that crept up on me without my knowledge.  I used to think it was just “part of getting older”  or “part of life”  but I now realize what I was doing wrong throughout my 20’s…

      I realized that my stress level was greater than my fitness level and the resulting negative slope was what I now call the “downward slope of unwellness”   Although I was still working out almost every day with weights and some cardio, it wasn’t enough to balance the heavy tolls of work and living in New York.  

     It wasn’t until about age 30 that I realized I was in a “fitness deficit”,  even though I worked out 5 times a week!  It was the intensity of the soccer field that was gone leaving me in a “relative mild depression”    In a flurry to get back what I now realized I had lost, I started searching for better ways to safely gain cardiovascular fitness and found indoor rock climbing and “the summit” (older post).  They gave me a good fix of what I was looking for but never held enough ground to get me through the whole week.  Still looking for more, I consulted my older brother who is a world certified Moutaineer and Alpine touring ski guide.   He had recently gotten into a new workout called “crossfit” and urged me to join in.  He said,  “this is the only workout I’ve ever done in gym that has even come close to the ice climbing and alpine touring trips I do all winter.”  A “bad” patient myself, I was very reluctant to change anything even though the rewards from my workouts had been only partially fullfilling.   I hedged for a few more months and then finally started checking it out.  

       I limped in trying some of the isolated exercises like “burpees” and “Box Jumps” without actually doing the real “workout of the day.”  I immediately felt the rewards and my hunger for crossfit began to grow.  It wasn’t until I did a “workout of the day” called “fran” that I became completely hooked.  The rewards were so massive that I felt at 33 years of age that I was back in high school.  It furthered solidified all the subtle wellness mistakes I was making in my twenties.

       As a passionate practitioner of medicine and wellness,  I can’t help telling every patient about the crossfit revolution regardless of the reason they have come to see me.  Mild depression and anxiety work into every facet of life and if not addressed, creep up on patients unconsciously.  

      Although I’m a huge fan, I have found that the crossfit site, without real one-on-one coaching, isn’t very easy to follow for a beginner.  As a 3 week beginner myself, I’m going to outline how I got massive rewards from this innovation so far.  If there are any crossfit experts out there reading this,  feel free to comment on my instructions as this represents my personal amazing experience with this “new” type of workout.  

        As a beginner, I’ve been selecting out the workouts of the day that have less powerlifting moves in them.  I did a more advanced move the other day as a tester and indeed pulled my back out likely do to improper form.  I will be outlining and detailing some of the safer routines for any beginners like myself.  If you are a beginner to exercise in general,  it’s safer to wait on this intense workout until you have done some standard cycling or treadmilling for a few weeks.  (if cleared by your doctor of course.) 

     For those that have done some of the isolated exercised and are ready for a “workout of the day”, I think “fran” is great place to start because you can adjust the weight to your specifications.   (I used 65 pounds on day 1 and now use 75 on week 3.  Will be increasing as my form improves.)

Here it is:

“Fran“

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups  

Post time to comments.

   As I mentioned earlier,  these workouts of the day aren’t very clear to a total beginner, so i will elaborate here.  

         21 “Thrusters” using any weight as shown in the video link.  You should have a weight that is difficult to get many repititions from but not too difficult to do a small handful.  After doing a bunch,  you take “mini breaks” just to catch your breath as if you were in a soccer game hanging off the ball for a moment.  You don’t take a long walk to the water fountain or have any conversation like you used to do with classic weight lifting.  The whole routine is one long set with breaks only to catch your breath momentarily.  You get back into the fight as soon as possible.  (see video for these little breaks)

      Immediately after thrusters, you catch wind only if needed and start your pull ups.  you can use the assisted pull up machine or swing your legs.  This pull up is different than the isolated pull ups of bodybuiling back workouts.  It’s more of a full body functional move.  Use the small breaks to get though it. 

After the pull ups,  you catch some wind only if needed (no real breaks here),  and start your 15 thrusters.  Change weight only if you can’t even do a couple of them.  

then the pulls ups–15,   9 more thrusters,  9 more pulls ups.  no real breaks, just short breaks to catch wind.  

The whole routine is intensified by the fact that you are timing yourself.   you’ll see “for time” on the workout of the day.   Knowing that thousands of people around the world are doing and timing the exact same workout you are doing is very motivating and brings massive rewards.

******As with any exercise routine,  the conversion from regular cardio and weight lifting to crossfit style working out comes with several real risks.   You must be mindful of your limits especially in the first few weeks.  Specific concerns for this routine would be your heart, your back, your shoulders, your knees, and neck.  Be careful and ease into this new amazing culture.  You still have plenty of time to recapture your youth…

    Having access to hundreds of mildly depressed patients and online clients everyday,  I will make a crossfit section here and update all the beginner details in an effort to clear the heads of all my patients. This new clarity will open up infinite possibilites of tackling any health challenges including the ruthless ones of the skin. 

hope you feel the energy here, 

be well, 

-Dr. Neal

©2008 “Introduction to “crossfit”" by Dr. Neal Schwartz