Free CF-L1 Exam Flashcards

Constantly varied, functional movements, executed at high intensity. All three elements must be present together — varying only the movements without intensity, or going hard on a single fixed routine, is not the CrossFit prescription.

Intensity is defined as average power output — power equals force times distance divided by time. Moving more load, farther, in less time raises intensity; it is considered the single best predictor of results, more than volume or duration alone.

Natural (instinctive, not learned), universal motor recruitment (same neural pathway for everyone), essential (needed for basic life), safe when done correctly, compound yet irreducible (multi-joint, can't be broken down further), core-to-extremity (force originates at the torso), and high-power producing.

Force and power are generated first at the torso — the body's largest muscles — and then transferred outward through the limbs to the load, the opposite of an isolation exercise that starts and stays at a single joint or extremity.

Variance prevents the body from adapting to a single, predictable stimulus and hitting a training plateau. Because the exact next workout is unknown, the athlete must build broad, general capacity rather than narrow specialization.

Cardio/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. A person is fit only to the degree they display all ten — excelling at just one, such as strength, is not by itself CrossFit's definition of fitness.

Phosphagen (immediate ATP-PC system, roughly 0-10 seconds of all-out effort), glycolytic (anaerobic breakdown of glucose, roughly 10 seconds to 2 minutes), and oxidative (aerobic system, dominant beyond about 2 minutes). CrossFit programming is designed to develop all three, not just the aerobic pathway.

A thought experiment where physical tasks, loads, and time domains are drawn at random from a hopper instead of being known in advance. Because you can't predict the task, true fitness means being broadly prepared for anything, not just trained for one known sport or event.

All three sit on one single continuum. Wellness is the midpoint — normal, healthy measured values (like blood pressure or body fat). Fitness pushes further along the same line to extraordinary measured values, acting as a hedge against future sickness.

Work capacity is the capacity to perform real physical work (force times distance) across broad time periods and modalities, visualized as the area under a power-output curve. Increasing work capacity across all time and modal domains is CrossFit's stated training goal.

Squat series (air squat, front squat, overhead squat), press series (shoulder press, push press, push jerk), and deadlift series (deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull, medicine-ball clean). Each series progresses from a basic pattern to a more dynamic, loaded version.

They are the building-block patterns — squatting, pressing, hip-hinging — that more complex barbell lifts and gymnastics skills are built from. Master these first, and skills like the snatch or muscle-up become refinements of the same underlying mechanics, not brand-new patterns.

The Front Squat adds a loaded bar held in the front rack position (elbows high, bar resting on the shoulders), which demands upright torso posture and greater core and upper-back tension than the unloaded Air Squat.

The bar is locked out overhead throughout the entire squat, requiring shoulder and ankle mobility, midline stability, and balance on top of full squat depth. Any breakdown in mechanics shows up immediately as the bar drifts forward or the arms bend.

Cue 'knees track over the toes.' Caving knees (valgus collapse) is a common fault that increases knee-injury risk and usually reflects weak hip external rotators or poor awareness, not a mobility limit.

Weight stays on the mid-foot to heel, not shifted onto the toes, and the lumbar curve stays neutral throughout the movement. Losing either one is a top squat fault that increases injury risk and reduces power output.

The hip crease must drop below the top of the knee. A squat that stops above this depth is a partial rep and does not meet the movement standard, regardless of load.

The Shoulder Press must be pressed from the shoulders to lockout overhead with no bend or drive from the hips or knees. Using leg drive to help move the bar is the classic fault — it turns a strict press into a push press.

One dip-and-drive: a short vertical dip at the hips and knees followed immediately by an explosive leg drive that helps launch the bar overhead, then the arms finish the lockout — no re-bend or catch is involved.

The Push Jerk adds a second dip: after the initial dip-drive sends the bar upward, the athlete re-bends the knees to drop underneath and catch the bar in a partial front squat before standing to lockout. The re-bend catch is what makes it a jerk, not a press.

Elbows lifted high and slightly forward, with the bar resting across the front of the shoulders, not on the wrists or fingers. A collapsed rack position with low elbows is a common setup fault that limits how much force can be driven into the bar.

Hips, knees, and arms, with the bar finishing stacked directly over the middle of the body — often cued as 'ears in line with the biceps' — rather than out in front of the head.

The bar starts directly over the mid-foot, with the hips pushed back and the shins nearly vertical. Starting with the bar too far forward, over the toes, forces the bar off its path and rounds the lower back.

The bar stays as close to the body as possible throughout the lift, brushing the shins and thighs. A bar that swings forward away from the body increases the load on the lower back and reduces mechanical efficiency.

Hip drive comes first. The hips extend explosively to accelerate the bar upward before the arms bend to pull it the rest of the way to the chin; pulling early with the arms, before full hip extension, is the most common SDHP fault.

Elbows high and outside as the ball is caught in the front rack position, right after full hip extension. Catching with the elbows dropped, or 'curling' the ball into the rack instead of receiving it under an extended hip, is the classic fault.

Reset the neutral lumbar curve before the pull begins, cueing a proud chest and flat back at setup. A rounded back under load is a mechanics fault that should be corrected with lighter weight before adding any more intensity.

Glute-Ham Developer. It's used for hip-extension and posterior-chain work, such as GHD sit-ups and hip extensions, that builds core and midline strength beyond what barbell lifts alone develop.

Keeping the spine in a neutral, stable position regardless of the load or movement being performed. It's the common thread underneath every one of the 9 foundational movements — lose midline stability and every other point of performance breaks down.

The Kipping Pull-Up uses a coordinated hip-drive and swing to generate momentum, allowing more efficient reps over time, while the strict Pull-Up uses arm and back strength alone with no lower-body momentum.

A pull-up — pulling the body up and over the rings or bar — that transitions directly into a dip, pressing the body up and out to support. Both movements must link in one continuous motion, not two separate reps.

It takes the bar from the floor to locked-out overhead in one continuous motion, essentially combining an explosive deadlift-style pull with a drop under the bar and a catch similar to the overhead squat, rather than pressing it up in stages.

Mechanics first — teach the correct movement pattern with no load — then Consistency, making that pattern repeatable across many reps and sessions, then Intensity last, adding load, speed, or volume. Adding intensity before mechanics and consistency are established is the most common coaching error and the leading cause of preventable injury.

Training at a sub-maximal pace, deliberately held slow enough that perfect technique is maintained on every rep. It's used to reinforce correct mechanics under fatigue before intensity is increased, especially for complex or high-skill movements.

CrossFit strength means the capacity to produce force at any speed, not just a single maximal, slow lift. A powerlifting-style 1RM captures only part of this; CrossFit also cares about force production during fast, high-power movements.

See-talk-touch moves from visual demonstration, to verbal cueing, to hands-on tactile correction, escalating only as needed. Tell-show-do-check is CrossFit's four-step teaching framework for introducing any new movement, and fault correction under both should address one fault at a time, not several at once.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, 30% fat, commonly tracked using a block-based portioning system rather than counting exact grams, though individual block and gram targets vary by body size and activity level.

Insulin stores blood sugar, moving glucose into cells and converting excess into fat. Glucagon does the opposite — it releases stored energy, including glycogen and fat, back into the bloodstream when blood sugar is low.

A chronic condition of elevated insulin levels, typically driven by frequent sugar and refined-carbohydrate intake. CrossFit's food-quality-first nutrition prescription is designed to avoid the blood-sugar spikes that drive hyperinsulinemia and the disease risk linked to it.

The Zone Diet is ratio-based — it defines success as hitting a 40/30/30 macronutrient split via block portions. The CrossFit Nutrition Prescription is food-quality-based — meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds — and CrossFit commonly layers the Zone ratio on top of Rx-quality foods rather than treating the two as competing systems.

Monostructural (cardio, such as running or rowing), Gymnastics (bodyweight control, such as pull-ups), and Weightlifting (external load, such as barbell lifts). Constantly varied programming mixes and rotates all three modalities rather than favoring just one.

A couplet combines two movements, often from different M-G-W modalities, into one workout; a triplet combines three. Pairing movements this way is how CrossFit builds constantly varied, broad-stimulus workouts instead of single-movement training sessions.

Rotating exercises, time domains, and modalities so the body never fully adapts to one predictable stimulus. It avoids repeating the same fixed routine — variance is applied within a structured framework of foundational movements, not chosen at random.

A named, fixed workout, such as the 'Girl' or 'Hero' WODs, that is repeated over time using the exact same movements, reps, and structure. Because the workout doesn't change, comparing scores across attempts tracks genuine fitness progress.

Eight rounds of 20 seconds of maximal-effort work followed by 10 seconds of rest, 4 minutes total per movement. It's a high-intensity interval method that stresses the glycolytic pathway heavily.

Scaling keeps the same movement and the same intended stimulus but reduces load, reps, or complexity, such as a banded pull-up for the same movement pattern. Modification substitutes a different movement pattern entirely, usually because of an injury or physical limitation.

A serious muscle-breakdown condition that can follow extreme, unaccustomed exertion, releasing muscle proteins into the bloodstream that can damage the kidneys. It's a medical emergency — trainers must recognize warning signs, such as severe muscle soreness with dark urine, and refer immediately rather than treat it themselves.

Diagnosing injuries or medical conditions, prescribing medication, and writing individualized nutrition or medical prescriptions. Any of these situations must be referred to an appropriate licensed professional, such as a physician, physical therapist, or registered dietitian.

Before receiving their test results. The agreement covers CrossFit's licensing terms for use of the CrossFit name and trademarks and is a required step in the certification process, separate from the pass/fail outcome itself.