I recently joined a new CrossFit facility here in Montpelier called The Confluence.  I’ve had the introductory lessons and having returned to Vermont after a family trip, am launching back into it.  I’ve been watching the Workout Of The Day (W.O.D.) on their website and frankly, was getting a little turned off by the routines.  Looking at a Knees To Elbows (KTE) and Handstand Pushup assignment the other day, I thought, “No way can I do those.”  When I went online and saw YouTube videos of buffed thirty-somethings doing them with ease, I was even more convinced.  I’d completely forgot about scaling and how important that is to most CrossFit participants -- particularly folks like me in their late 60’s.

I talked about this today with Nick, the fitness trainer, and he explained how they scaled the routines.  The KTE’s could be done with the knees just brought up to the horizontal plane, with the thought that later on, they could worry about touching the elbows.  Some participants could do them fully -- others scaled them.  He went on to explain that no one at the workouts did a full handstand pushup (everyone is learning as we go) but rather knelt on a box and did a pushup from there.  

He put together a little routine for me called a AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) consisting of 10 squats, 5 KTE’s, 10 Box Jumps, and 5 Pushups.  I had ten minutes to do as many as possible.  Here’s how we scaled them:  

• Squats - as low as you can comfortably go
• KTE’s -- don’t worry about the elbows, bring the knees up to horizontal
• Box Jumps -- do stepups, rather than jumps
• Pushups -- OK to do them from the knees.

It’s important to find out what works for you, and not get put off by the “gung ho” routines on the web.  The principles are the same, whether you do them all flat out or scale them.   
 

Nick and I talked about CrossFit for seniors, for physically unfit folks, for non-athletes -- and the importance of scaling exercises to fit an individual’s fitness level and goals.  It’s a subject I’m very interested in -- stay tuned.

 Photo by  ColbyOtero