MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Combat readiness, always being ready for the fight. That is the goal of the Fleet Support Division as it steps up its physical fitness program to include CrossFit workouts.
The history between FSD and CrossFit begins with 1st Lt. Sean Mulcahy, the previous finance officer at Maintenance Center Barstow.
Mulcahy introduced CrossFit to Capt. Timothy Joyce, deputy director of FSD.
"I saw (Mulcahy) doing these strange exercises and asked him about it," said Joyce.
"After I did some of the workouts, I definitely noticed them working and was sold on it."
Now Joyce is implementing it into his section physical training and inviting the base to do the same.
CrossFit began with a couple posting workouts on their Web site, and now has expanded to a Web community that assists people all over the country with all different experience levels to achieve the CrossFit definition of fitness, explained Joyce.
CrossFit workouts consist of the most efficient exercises from all different genres of exercising aimed at achieving full body fitness, including cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy.
Video clips and slide shows of the exercises are available on the CrossFit Web site at www.crossfit.com. Other good information found on the Web site is daily workouts, nutritional information, and helpful exercise tips.
The main goal of CrossFit is to train athletes to perform successfully at multiple, diverse and randomized physical challenges, or basically being able to accomplish any physical task that is placed in front of you, states the CrossFit Web site.
"The difference is that if you have a CrossFit athlete and a bodybuilder competing in a lift and then a run, the CrossFit athlete would be able to compete well in the lift and then be able to beat the bodybuilder in the run. CrossFit exercises make you good at everything, not just a specialized part of the body, and that is the kind of fitness that Marines need to have," Joyce told his Marines in an introductory CrossFit class.
Joyce offered the introductory class for other work sections who wanted to learn the CrossFit method, but with poor results.
Anyone is welcome to come and try a CrossFit session and it can be modified for any fitness level, said Joyce.
"If every section could send a noncommissioned officer to learn and then they could take it back to their work sections to teach. It is fun, effective and it is something a little different than the normal," he explained.
"It would be great to get everyone involved and heighten the readiness of the base."