A workout that's fast, furious and not for the faint of heart

When he spiced up their weight-lifting routines with gymnastics moves such as handstands and ring push-ups, he noticed pronounced gains in strength, flexibility and overall function and coordination. Then he added all-body fitness exercises like deep squat thrusts and medicine ball throws, and finally -- thinking that running was the most natural aerobic exercise -- added intervals. The fitness levels ramped up even more.

CrossFit and its three principles -- functionality, intensity and variety -- were born.

"It became clear that a single, blended workout of gymnastics, lifting and aerobics, done at an all-out pace, generated better all-round fitness than training each discipline separately on alternate days," says Glassman. " 'Segmented' trainers can't keep up with us on our workouts. CrossFitters may not be as strong as a pure lifter, or as fast as a pure runner, but we're better than them in everything else. And we can do more real-life stuff."

That message began to resonate with SWAT team members, Navy Seals and police. In 1995, hired to train the Santa Cruz Police Department, Glassman moved north, opened a gym, and developed more exercise routines.

In 2000, he started getting attention from the fitness world at large when he launched a website and began posting his various WODs. He gave them female names, such as "Helen," "Fran," and "Cindy," because they reminded him of hurricanes.

Glassman's theory of blended, all-out workouts gained some academic validity from a 1996 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise by Izumi Tabata of Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports. It showed that 20-second, all-out bursts of intermittent high-intensity training with little rest in between, similar in style to CrossFit, caused "significant" rises in both aerobic and anaerobic (strength) capacity.

"We already knew CrossFit was already doing that, but now thanks to Tabata we knew why metabolically," said Glassman. "The eggheads were pleased."

He's prouder of the pat on the back he got last summer from the Canadian Infantry School in Gagetown, New Brunswick, which conducted a seven-week trial of CrossFit versus its own rigorous Canadian Fitness Manual training plan. The results: CrossFit scored higher in every fitness category and was ranked more enjoyable by most of the 110 officer candidates tested.

"They found it challenging and pertinent to what we do in the military and enjoyed the competitive aspects," said test organizer Captain J.T. Williams.