Friends,
Sometimes the discussion taking place in the comments section is powerful enough to deserve a post of its own. I can be more efficient with my replies and give new readers a glimpse into the conversation.
On Wednesday, I posted about Crossfit and introduced my friends, Cassidy and Hunter. As expected, the topic was somewhat controversial and there are those on both sides of the discussion.
Crossfit seems to be love it or hate it program. Like just about everything else in life, I think it’s what you make of it. I’ll fall back on one of my core beliefs: consistency of any workout or nutrition program blows the sporadic perfect regimen out of the water.
Remember, sometimes I poke fun, sometimes I’m playful, but I always try to be accepting. This blog is in place not to solve the problems of the fitness world, but to share ideas and stories while educating through some level of entertainment.
Without further introduction, let’s get into the comments (many of them abbreviated) from the post.
As a formerly ACSM licensed trainer, I’m not a huge fan of Crossfit. By design, Crossfit pushes the individual to exhaustion, with invariably another round tacked on to “redline.” When you are at that point of exhaustion, good decision-making fails and safety is compromised.
I agree with tomdog that we are most susceptible to injury while at the point of greatest fatigue in our workouts and competition can lead to decisions of the less-than-sound variety. We must, as human beings, exercise our best judgment and be aware of our own limits. Crossfit, or any other program, can’t make this determination for us.
Colt:
I am sure there are lot of good crossfit coaches out there like Cassidy and Hunter but show me one SSC coach who approves of this popular work out called Grace where you clean and Jerk 135 lbs 30 times for time.
Colt and I agree on so much. In particular, a rep scheme of 30 on a complex exercise like the clean and jerk can be dangerous, even for an experienced lifter. But like I mentioned about tomdog’s comments, the athlete in training is responsible for determining the limits of his or her ability to maintain form. This is less about Crossfit and more about personal responsibility.
Josh:
I am surprised, though, you didn’t mention a critical aspect (deficiency, in my view) of CrossFit: safety and commonsense.
Josh is right. So here goes: Crossfit workouts don’t claim to keep you safe. Common sense tells us that that is our responsibility. Sensing my theme yet? I will say that my personal injuries have all been a result of overtraining, and some of the very competitive advanced Crossfit workouts can force you into a state of being over trained. Overtraining and significant pain after a workout doesn’t make you a badass, it makes you less consistent and more prone to injury. If your program, trainer or gym is telling you differently, find a new one.
Josh skillfully continues:
And as a parting shot, I’ll add that as an ethos it is internally inconsistent. They preach functional movements, spartan workout conditions, a commitment to basic building blocks but want people to shell out a grand for a six month membership? For what? To jump up and down and jam out max reps pushups? Don’t need to burn cash to do any of that.
I couldn’t agree more. With the slightest amount of resourceful behavior, similar workouts can be accessed and or created for free.
Carnivore responds to Josh:
@Josh I have a feeling Kap didn’t want to have the Haters attack him on the crossfit topic. although it would of been great for his pageviews I feel he did not write this blog with his true feelings.
To the contrary; I always write with my personal authentic perspective. That said, I’ll agree that my style is to present my own life encounters, support them with data and connect with you. My readers educate me with their own personal experiences. This stuff isn’t always exact science. If it was, we’d all eat the same foods and train the same way. The decision-making falls in your capable hands.
Speaking of personal experiences, Ryan and JW offer two very different perspectives.
Ryan:
I went to 2 Crossfit classes and disliked my experience both times. I didn’t enjoy the feeling that you were competing against others in the class (despite the notion from the coaches that you should only worry about yourself and your time), and I also didn’t enjoy the yelling and overall chaos that consumed the Crossfit facility.
JW:
I have been CrossFitting for almost 3 years and I love it. I enjoy it for a variety of reasons, but the competitive nature of the workouts is a large part of my enjoyment. I always dreamed of playing professional sports, but at a very young age, I realized that was unlikely. With CrossFit, I get to push myself to be better and stronger every day. I compete against myself, but also against people with equal levels of fitness.
Crossfit isn’t for Ryan. Love this. He’ll find his niche and soar without this product. JW is a buyer and seeing gains. Training is totally personal and everyone can be uniquely appreciated for his or her own style and choices. There is clearly no right or wrong here.
If crossfit is so great how come NFL, NHL, and MMA fighters don’t train that way?
I agree with JRE that training for sport requires a different and sometimes more specific approach. I personally would not train to play in the NFL with Crossfit workouts. However, I’m confident I can find athletes in all sports who have utilized Crossfit as part of their regimens.
Rob:
There is always something good to take out of experience…and that is crossfit has brought Olympic weight training to the forefront in the United States. They have managed to get more men, women & kids to start moving and pushing weights.
No question. The more educated folks are on the benefits of weight training, the better equipped they are to make an appropriate decision for them.
Matt:
I am a college baseball player who has always trained for power like you. Always doing 1-5 reps for the big compound lifts. I love this type of work out and has helped me get bigger and stronger. One thing I always struggled with was endurance through my games, something I really need as a catcher). I recently started putting a crossfit/ bootcamp workout into my routine once a week. I feel that this had helped my endurance throughout my games as I am essentially doing 150+ body weight squats a game, sometimes double if a catch double headers. I feel my body is operating the best when I am doing 3 strength workouts and 1 crossfit workout a week.
Matt’s note is proof of concept that the mental element of training is every bit as important as the physical. In his mind, he’s made a connection between his crossfit and bootcamp work to duties as his club’s catcher. He believes it, I believe it, and therefore it is.
I’d also like to make the assertion that maximal strength (one-rep max) is a definite goal of CrossFit. In fact, if you read CrossFit’s 10 domains of fitness, strength is one of them. Your one-rep max of any given lift is most definitely a priority.
The problem here is we’re assuming every gym runs crossfit.com programming exclusively. I don’t think you guys realize that CrossFit is a theory, or maybe more a collection of ideas, and is open source. It isn’t crossfit.com’s workout of the day.
He also wrote a well thought-out note on his experience making big strength and size gains utilizing Crossfit workouts. Let me reiterate that people respond differently, both physically and behaviorally, to different stimuli. Today’s theme is not about eliminating ideas. Instead, I celebrate them all for their value.
That said, whether a one rep max is a goal of Crossfit or not, I would argue that the rest and recovery systems for most (I’m sure not all) CF workouts don’t create the ideal environment for strength and power training. Better than other forms of training? Perhaps. Better than 5 X 5? I’d argue no.
I’ve been doing Crossfit for 2 1/2 years. It was a life changing experience for me and the many members of our box. I loved how it the movements were all basic and functional. I loved the fact that every class was different. I think in that first year we maybe did the same WOD twice 5-10 times. It was never repetitive.
This is just an excerpt from Brian’s articulate thoughts and is a perfect ending note. The bottom line is simple. If something is changing your life for the better, neither I nor anyone else can argue with its validity.
One thing is for certain. People who love Crossfit can’t stop singing its praises. For that reason, I’ve been gifted lovely humor below. Remember as you read to not be offended. As I said at the top of this post, I’m playful. Enjoy.
I just want to point out to everybody that if you click on the more about Gabe Kapler tab their are some pretty cool diet and exercise videos about Kap which I did not see from the mobile phone
Thanks for responding to my comment. It seems that my analysis about safety was reinforced by many other respondents to your post. The “competitive” nature of most Crossfit gyms as well as the workouts themselves, are the compromise to safety. “Personal judgement” etc. is severely affected by a group of people screaming in your face to keep pushing. Of course, there are probably several gyms out there that implement a Crossfit-type workout in their schedule while minimizing the chaos and peer-pressure that extend a person’s efforts past what is safe.
Also, I have _never_ seen at the Crossfit gyms I’ve visited in SF, LA, Boston, and NYC, a posted single recovery workout or training plan that included a 1/2 intensity week for recovery and repair. Members may discuss it, a trainer may mention it to you, but I’ve never seen it as part of the official workouts or training plans at the facilities. The aggressive workouts with a lack of basic safety is just going to result in more lawsuits with gyms being shut down. Being injured or disabled is not being healthy.
@Thomas What are your thoughts on recovery? Every 4-5 weeks tone it down to 50% of 1 rm max? I have been doing Kap’s 5×5 since he posted it and I have not seen the need to tone it down or take a week of. Although I switch it up every WO Barbell Squat on M Front Sq W and Box squat on FrI
Gabe,
Great post! As someone who incorporates a little bit of “Crossfit” work into my weekly regiment. I couldn’t agree more with this. There is a lot of value to this type of programming, but in essence, it all depends on what your goals are. I’m glad to see that you’re able not to just write it off just because it doesn’t fall in line with your goals though. Don’t forget though that cross training has been around for a long time, someone just decided to brand it a little less than a decade ago. Thanks for doing this blog, you always have such great incite!
Did anybody ever see the article about the young man who is now paralyzed from a crossfit competition?I feel crossfit can be a decent program if its written out and you are following a program that has a specific end goal. I followed Crossfit Football for over two years and had great results but they had specific programming with a designed end result. A lot of these so called Box’s are just a bunch of guys who pay a $1000 bucks for a cert and rent a warehouse with a bunch of bumper plates and barbells. Just do your due diligence before you join.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2540945/Kevin-Ogar-injury-CrossFit-athlete-left-paralyzed-waist-having-spine-severed-dumbbell.html
Kevin Ogar was a high level CF athlete who suffered a freak injury. I don’t don’t think cherry picking one guy and condemning an entire sport/community makes sense at all
I have been doing crossfit since 2007 and am an avid proponent, but it isnt for everyone. I’m in the military and it caught on with us before it exploded into the soccer mom world. I liked it a lot more when it was the “new band” that no one had heard of, haha.
Pros:
-I love the competitive part
-variety for me keeps me excited and I feel like it challenges my body and mind
Cons:
-people get way too obsessed with it and it can be cult-like. people go to a crossfit “box” (jeez, just call it a gym) and it becomes their entire social scene, etc. I just go and work out. Sure I small talk with other people there, but I have my own friends and life outside of exercise. I dont mean you cant or shouldnt socialize with people you exercise with, but it seems like there is a strong tendency with corssfit people to go over the top. fight club picture above says it all. i think that is why the haters hate crossfit. i would call my self a crossfit self-loather, haha.
-I strongly feel that it is for athletes who have a solid foundation in fitness and understand their bodies and limitations. I have worked out at a few different crossfit gyms and the good ones bring new people along very slowly and have beginer, intermediate, and advanced classes. I hate seeing new people who are not in good physical condition trying to do clean and jerks or muscle ups. they are going to hurt themselves.
crossfit isnt new and can be done anywhere. it is circuit training plus olympic wightlifting and gymnastics (at the crossfit advanced level). I have worked out in crossfit gyms, done my own crossfit-like workouts at a regular gym, and we built our own crossfit gym when I was deployed in the middle east. you dont need to pay for a crossfit gym, but I find that I do push myself more because of the competiiton. I also like that the trainer (if they know what they are talking about) is watching me and correcting my form. I got a lot better at my olympic lifting techniques when I went from doing crossfit on my own to going to a crossfit gym.
it is very dependent on the specific gym and coaches. one of the best ones I went to had a strong focus on strength and we did a lot of 5X5s but we would normally follow those up with a metabolic condition (METCON) workout after. that place was great.
i have found crossfit to be the best workout for me and my goal of functional fitness. i definte functional as the ability to pull myself up on a ledge, pick up another human being and carry them to safety, march for a few hours at a time with weight, run distance or sprint, push my body up off the ground repeatedly, etc. that is what we in the military (and I would argue police and fire) need to be able to do. I dont think it is the best training for sports. sports training should be more tailored to that sport.
if people do crossfit and they dont check their ego at the door then they will get hurt. just because you have lifted weights for years doesnt mean you can walk in the door and snatch 185lb repeatedly. just because you jog a few times a week would you go run a marathon? you need to work your way up slowly to more difficult workouts.
Tim, I couldn’t agree more with your comments. You can complement your fitness in a variety of ways and “crossfit” is just one way to do it. When you are in a crossfit class you must use your own common sense. However, I have found myself in a crossfit class going to far!! The problem I have is that occasionally I will definitely compromise my form just because the timer is about to go off. If you are like me (46 year old ex-athlete that sits in an office chair most of the day), you must “check your ego at the door”. Use the brain that God gave you and you will not get hurt!! But the competitiveness will slip up on you.
I hate the fact that crossfiters shit on everything that’s not crossfit. Why do they call gyms GloboGyms?
You’re offended that they’re called globo-gyms? That’s just a universal term instead of having to specify 24 hour or LA Fitness or Planet Fitness.
There are bad apples in every segment of a population but I don’t look down on anyone that’s attempting to better themselves.
Hey, all. Love the commentary here. Please keep this discussion going. We can all sharpen each other.
Kap
http://www.stack.com/2014/01/16/crossfits-injury-rates/
Watch the video of the crossfit box. Sad to say but that’s what’s wrong with crossfit
http://www.stack.com/2014/01/16/crossfits-injury-rates/
This what is wrong with Crossfit. Sad to say but watch that video and that’s what the average box looks like
The Fight Club poster is priceless. Too true. I have been doing crossfit for about five years in addition to running and pilates. I enjoy the lifting the most. I was a college swimmer and we did some work in the weight room but not a lot. CF taught me good Oly lifting form and made me the strongest runner I’ve ever been. And the pull-ups. That’s when I felt amazing. What woman doesn’t dream of repping out pull-ups? CF isn’t for everyone, and if you want to get stronger, just get some solid lifting instruction and you can make magic happen without the chaos and weirdo gym competition. Love this site, by the way. Good stuff all around and I appreciate your candor and insight. Cheers.
In reply to my comment about strength in cf: Crossfit won’t lead to strength gains as quickly as a 5×5 program… But you also aren’t trying to only pack on 1rm strength with Crossfit. You’re chasing multiple goals at once, so obviously they will all progress slower than if you were doing 5×5.
Still think there’s a huge misunderstanding of crossfit’s “point”
This video made the rounds awhile back and we all laughed at it. This is not what the average box looks like at all. I’ve traveled to a number of boxes around the country and have never seen anything like this.
Thers’s also soething to be said about making sure the area around you is clear. I never watched the video of the accident, but my first reaction to the stills was “why are there stacks of anything near him right now?” It really stuck out as not safe. (Which is also to say, it’s not the sport. Unsafe conditions can happen anywhere. And an uptick in the popularity of a workout will lead to an uptick in injuries just by sheer numbers. I wish Ogar the best of luck.)