4 rounds for time of:
10 traditional burpees
15 knees-to-elbows

#3 – The Metabolic Pathways

Three metabolic pathways provide the energy for all human action. These “metabolic engines” are known as the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway. Total fitness, the fitness that CrossFit promotes and develops, requires competency and training in each of these three pathways. Balancing the effects of these three pathways largely determines how and why we do metabolic conditioning, or “cardio,” at CrossFit. We do not favor one or two pathways to the exclusion of the others, and we recognize the impact of excessive training in the oxidative pathway, which is common in so many other fitness programs.

Stimulus and Strategy:

deadlift 1.1.1.1.1
Today’s workout is a heavy day. Ensure all 5 sets are heavy enough to be actual working sets where you’re getting stronger. All sets should be at least 70% of your 1-rep max or a load that feels moderately heavy. Look at the recent 5-rep back squat day from Oct. 20, 2025, to get an idea of your capacity for performing 8 reps in today’s effort. Note that today you can build to a heavy set over the course of 5 working sets. That said, all sets should be challenging. Heavy is the goal today, but always prioritize mechanics, only going as heavy as technique allows.

The Four Models

#1 – The 10 General Physical Skills

CrossFit proposes that there are 10 general physical skills any fitness program should develop:  cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. An athlete is as fit as they are competent in each of these 10 skills. A program develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these 10 skills. We want good capacity in all ten skills and balanced capacity across the list.

30-foot R/L dumbbell one hand overhead walking lunge

20 R/L alternating dumbbell snatches

20 pull-ups

Repeat 3 times

CrossFit defines fitness as work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This means we measure and compute fitness by the power output an individual can produce across a hypothetically unlimited set of tasks or workouts, across an unlimited number of time domains, from the shortest sprint to the longest challenge we can imagine. It’s a measure of the work an athlete can do in a given amount of time, averaged across all tasks. See how Galpin was right on track?

To support our definition, we have four standards or models that explain what we’ve seen in the real world with hundreds of thousands of athletes, and these models support the reasoning behind our definition.

21 hang power cleans
15/21-calorie row
15 hang power cleans
10/15-calorie row
9 hang power cleans
7/9-calorie row

On a recent Rich Roll podcast, Roll’s guest was Dr. Andy Galpin, a well-respected performance coach and researcher. At the very beginning of the interview, Roll asked Galpin, “What is fitness?” and commented that he was asking because discussing fitness requires a functional definition. CrossFit had this very same thought over 20 years ago, and when we went in search of a workable definition, we found, to our dismay, that a suitable one did not exist. So we created our own — more on that in a second

Run 400 meters,

walk backward 400 meters.

Repeat 5 rounds

30 deadlifts 60 Situps 30 Goblet squats

REST 5 MINUTES

20 deadlifts 40 Situps 20 Goblet squats

1,000-meter row
400-meter run
750-meter row
400-meter run
500-meter row
400-meter run
250-meter row
400-meter run

With a pair of dumbbells, 4 rounds for time of:

50-meter weighted lunge 350-meter farmers carry

3 rounds for time of:
500-meter row
12 bodyweight deadlifts