10 General Physical Skills
As first outlined in the What Is Fitness? article from 2002, CrossFit recognizes 10 general physical skills. They are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. These ten general physical skills come together to prepare you for almost any physical activity.
Working on the following skills provides you with a level of fitness that is well-balanced and avoids specializing. While there are many ways that the human body can move, there are arguably 10 skills that form the very essentials of physical competence: balancing, running, crawling, jumping, climbing, traversing, lifting, carrying, throwing, and catching. Each one can be trained, developed, and improved and they all contribute to your overall physical preparedness.
Lets break them down with clear definitions and how they show up in your training and life: CrossFit identifies 10 key physical skills, outlined in the 2002 "What Is Fitness?" article. These skills include endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, speed, and accuracy.
Endurance and stamina will keep your heart healthy. Strength, flexibility, and power will keep your bones and muscles strong. Coordination, agility, and balance will help you prevent falls and fractures, and speed and accuracy will keep you excelling in the sports and activities that you love.
CrossFits foundational article, What Is Fitness?, explains that to achieve optimum physical competence, your training must develop all 10 General Physical Skills. When programming for the class workouts the goal is to be balanced in all of these 10 physical skills. You are only as fit as versed in the 10 skills.
If you lack in one area than you are not as fit as you could be. We want to be ready for anything that life can throw at us. By developing each of the 10 General Physical Skills, we can enhance our ability to meet the demands of everyday life.
From running around with our kids to lifting groceries or managing household tasks, each skill translates directly into how well we handle physical challenges outside of the gym. Today, we are going to dive deeper into the 10 General Physical Skills. This model was presented by coaches Bruce Evans and Jim Cawley of Dynamax Medicine Balls.
