WHO WE ARE
MPH Fitness is: community, effort, and prepared, engaged coaching. We train (and eat) for health, for precise and efficient movement, and for improved performance. Ours is an unpretentious and effective formula: embrace the community of athletes and the coaching provided each workout, emphasize movement standards and the quality of each movement, and most importantly, work with intensity.
OUR FITNESS
We apply the CrossFit ethos of “constantly varied, functional movement, performed at high intensity,” an ideology rooted in simple gymnastics and body weight training (pushups, pull-ups, dips, rings, handstands, etc.), weight training (presses, squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts, kettlebells), and aerobic conditioning (running, rowing). From the Olympic athlete, to the first responder, to the homemaker, every person must move in these ways, and their needs differ only in scale, not type. Our meticulous workout programming is focused on developing capacity within Jim Cawley’s (Dynamax) 10 general physical skills: cardio-respiratory endurance, strength, stamina, flexibility, speed, power, coordination, accuracy, agility and balance.
We are vastly different from larger health clubs. Facilities that offer indoor lap pools, floors lit with LED’s, flat screen televisions and fancy machines cannot compete with us. Their opposing, segregated training protocols, like body building (isolation workouts) and mono-structural cardio (long distance running), favor only one or two of the above skills at the exclusion of the remaining, and create inadequacy at all other margins. Their restricted modalities are rarely found in nature, and they create muscular imbalances that almost always result in injury. Instead, our movements—those occurring across multiple joints and muscle groups, executed through a full range of motion—force the greatest physiological and neurological adaptation.
Our standard of functionality and physical competence is achieved via exposure to as expansive a stimulus as possible, and our charter is to train for a general physical preparedness. Gains here are facilitated via effort—intensity, which, as Coach Glassman (CrossFit’s founder and CEO) said, “…is the independent variable most commonly associated with optimizing return.” Beyond good health, we wish to exceed pre-conceived physical limits. Physical training and nutrition are two of the few legitimately fair areas in life, where there is a direct correlation between the effort expended and the results experienced, with few mitigating factors.
OUR COMMUNITY AND COACHING
We are a great, diverse community of like-minded individuals (working professionals, stay-at-home mothers, collegiate athletes and retirees, to name a few), each dedicated to the same goals. Our athletes not only have the support of our coaches, but also of each other.
We monitor progress daily, and scale all workouts to tailor to each athlete’s current fitness level. Our workouts are not easy. Only after developing both proper technique and consistency in movement, will we add the element of intensity.
Our group workout environment is an active classroom, and rather closely mimics personal training more than any other function. We analyze every moment and movement of the workout, actively coaching through its technical and psychological aspects. There is, as Coach Glassman has said, no substitute for good coaching. We started MPH to offer high-level coaching to all those in search of a more effective and expedient approach to fitness. Our athletes have unlimited opportunity to use our facility under our watchful eyes, and are free to come in on their own to practice new skills and develop additional capacities.
FAQs
- Explain the “Workout of the Day.”
- Can I start with the daily workout right away? I am really, really fit.
- If I have an injury or other medical consideration, can I still CrossFit?
- Should I do cardio?
- Can I workout privately, instead of in a group setting?
- What is the cancellation policy?
- I am a CrossFit-ter from out of town. Can I drop-in for a workout while I am in DC?
- I just moved to DC, and I’m coming from another CrossFit. Can I transfer to MPH?
- What is rhabdomyolysis?