Big Deal About CrossFit?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
21

[quote]ironwill68 wrote:
P.S. that guy in the pic should be charged with child endangerment and his kid taken away by human services, what a dumbass!! Good way to get your child killed or permanently disabled dipshit! What an A- hole![/quote]

agreed!

I happen to enjoy crossfit and the benefits of being well rounded individual. Crossfit with a strength bias works for me. I don’t like all the bashing of it, but I understand this isn’t for everyone for one reason or another. I do agree they took a bunch of training methods and combined them and then gave it a name but they have been doing very well as of terms of growth. So I guess the big deal is it works for us average individuals that require no specialized training to become elite level keyboard warriors.

22

I don’t bash crossfit, I have done the workouts and they are challenging, just not the year round thing for me.
People need to find what they like or enjoy training wise. I don’t believe the "it will make you a better runner and be able to lift as well as powerlifter thing, its marketing… I get it, just like people who say the kettlebell will do it all, Brand X protein powder for size and cuts, or the brahma bull workout system for developing size strength power.

23

Any type of training will work, if you put the effort and are consistent with it. Training is about personal goals, enjoyment, and challenging yourself.

24

[quote]ironwill68 wrote:
I read somewhere that 80% of people who start crossfit quit in 1 year, probably because the intensity is so high. [/quote]

80% of people that start any workout program quit within a year, that shouldn’t be used to judge the intensity.

But that quote is exactly what makes crossfit so special, it’s great marketing. Don’t hate the playa hate the game.

25

Cross Fit is definitely appropriate for discussion under a forum titled “conditioning”. I’m not sure where the confusion lies here with some of these posts. It is a conditioning based platform. There should be many threads discussing it on here since it is also a sanctioned “conditioning” based competition. Am I missing something here?

26

Crossfit is circuit training with a few MAJOR FLAWS. For starters, you don’t need to know anything about training to open a CrossFit; so the market is saturated with a bunch of idiots that think playing high-school baseball 12 years ago qualifies them to run a training center. Second, these same terds are supposed to teach non-athletes how to perform olympic lifts; I will not even begin to go into how wrong that is.

Finally, it is a catabolic nightmare. Yes, it is great for weight-loss, but not great for fat-loss. It creates pretty nice female physiques (due to their physiological response to this type of training) but tends to create skinny and unimpressive males.

27

I just love how everyone who is anti-crossfit believes that what goes or is wrong with it isnt almost the exact same shit that goes or is wrong with every other “style” of training. I was prepared for this when I started taking martial arts when I was young. My style is better, yours is developed by a woman, its all speed and no power etc etc. Its a way to train, it works for some - not for others.

Just like everything else. Different strokes - different folks. If it boasts a catchy slogan, like anything else it can be stripped down and made fun of. Yeah there are pictures of people doing stupid shit claiming to be part of crossfit, but theres pictures of people doing stupid shit while doing anything out there. There are also posted pictures of 1/2 naked females, occasionally, like on yesterdays mainsite post. Its great and its not, just like life, it has its moments.

28

[quote]Dave.Hicks wrote:
Crossfit is circuit training with a few MAJOR FLAWS. For starters, you don’t need to know anything about training to open a CrossFit; so the market is saturated with a bunch of idiots that think playing high-school baseball 12 years ago qualifies them to run a training center. Second, these same terds are supposed to teach non-athletes how to perform olympic lifts; I will not even begin to go into how wrong that is.

Finally, it is a catabolic nightmare. Yes, it is great for weight-loss, but not great for fat-loss. It creates pretty nice female physiques (due to their physiological response to this type of training) but tends to create skinny and unimpressive males. [/quote]

I’m not interested in any qualms with their business model. I’m only interested in the conditioning aspect of the discussion.

Your physical assessments are fair, but they only apply to those who embrace crossfit as their sole training platform. I would argue that if used wisely, crossfit can yield positive results for strength and “conditioning” (the title of this forum).

Example: I finished my heavy squat and bench today with one of their workouts involving overhead squats and such. Sometimes after a heavy low rep day I’ll drive straight to the local crossfit gym and hit the workout with them just for a little adrenaline rush with some competition. This has introduced my body to some new forms of abuse and has resulted in better conditioning (that word again).

29

[quote]Dave.Hicks wrote:
Crossfit is circuit training with a few MAJOR FLAWS. For starters, you don’t need to know anything about training to open a CrossFit; so the market is saturated with a bunch of idiots that think playing high-school baseball 12 years ago qualifies them to run a training center. Second, these same terds are supposed to teach non-athletes how to perform olympic lifts; I will not even begin to go into how wrong that is.

Finally, it is a catabolic nightmare. Yes, it is great for weight-loss, but not great for fat-loss. It creates pretty nice female physiques (due to their physiological response to this type of training) but tends to create skinny and unimpressive males. [/quote]

You can go into any gym and find this problem, so why did you direct this specific to crossfit?

Yes when they started they had alot of problems with who was training, but a lot has changed over the years and quite a few of them a very knowledgable now.

30

[quote]redrum wrote:

[quote]Dave.Hicks wrote:
Crossfit is circuit training with a few MAJOR FLAWS. For starters, you don’t need to know anything about training to open a CrossFit; so the market is saturated with a bunch of idiots that think playing high-school baseball 12 years ago qualifies them to run a training center. Second, these same terds are supposed to teach non-athletes how to perform olympic lifts; I will not even begin to go into how wrong that is.

Finally, it is a catabolic nightmare. Yes, it is great for weight-loss, but not great for fat-loss. It creates pretty nice female physiques (due to their physiological response to this type of training) but tends to create skinny and unimpressive males. [/quote]

I’m not interested in any qualms with their business model. I’m only interested in the conditioning aspect of the discussion.

Your physical assessments are fair, but they only apply to those who embrace crossfit as their sole training platform. I would argue that if used wisely, crossfit can yield positive results for strength and “conditioning” (the title of this forum).

Example: I finished my heavy squat and bench today with one of their workouts involving overhead squats and such. Sometimes after a heavy low rep day I’ll drive straight to the local crossfit gym and hit the workout with them just for a little adrenaline rush with some competition. This has introduced my body to some new forms of abuse and has resulted in better conditioning (that word again).
[/quote]

If you would like I have a link to a crossfit affiliate that does just this sort of workout. They start with working on a major lift for strength and then do one of their “WODS”. Let me know and I can PM you the link.

31

[quote]redrum wrote:
Your physical assessments are fair, but they only apply to those who embrace crossfit as their sole training platform. I would argue that if used wisely, crossfit can yield positive results for strength and “conditioning” (the title of this forum).
[/quote]

I agree with the above. If you look at the program as a whole, some workouts look like circuit training, but the whole program involves more than that. And each affiliate puts its own spin on things, which is good. For instance, my Olympic weightlifting club is based at a CF gym because the own is very big on the Olympic lifts and building strength in general. He’s even posted on his WOD blog that if you want to get better at Crossfit (yes, they do have their own competitions) you should gain a solid base of strength. That’s a lot different than the typical CF mantra of just do CF and get great at everything.

CF is popular among the military and I can see why. Most military tasks, and I would argue that mosts tasks involving life in general, don’t require the endurance of a marathoner or the strength of a power lifter. They require some of both. And CF tries to do that. It does a decent job overall. Could it be better? Sure, and a smart CF trainer (I know there aren’t that many but there are a few) will figure out a way to make it better, whether it’s bringing up strength or endurance.

I’ve done CF WODs. They are challenging. No, they are not my only workout program, but a good add on to existing workouts.

32

American Alpinist Mark Twight (Gym Jones), had it best when he said we need to " drop this dilletante shit of trying to be good at everything, only to end up at mediocrity" (close enough without quote directly in front).

The problem with 85% of Americans is that the go to easy <85% on their hard days and to hard >65% on their easy days only to end up completely MEDIOCURE !!! crossfit is a great marketing stategy like all of those who buy into all of the stupid infomercials…Do your homework, get proper rest, training and food consumption down and then look through the transparency of it all…

33

TNation is often CF unfriendly and was the primary reason that kept me from trying it. I used to run cross country and wrestle in high school, and have always enjoyed workouts that put you on the boarder of throwing up. I’ve seen a bunch of WoD videos that looked insanely tough, and last month while on vacation I joined a CF gym for the week (was either that or Planet Fitness). In the affiliate where I was a daily routine looked something like this:

warm up (3 rounds)
250m row
10 samson stretches
10 lateral lunges

skill (squat)
10, 8, 5, 3, 1

WoD (3 rounds of 21,15,9)
Power Cleans
Toes to bar
box jumps

As you can see, there is a focus on strength with the squats, and conditioning with the WoD.

In the week I was there, I pushed my first prowler, and flipped my first tire. Everyone was very team oriented and even cheered you on (coming from a shitty commercial gym where I say an average of three words a week to other members, I was amazed). The other CF members challenged me (for the love of god I didn’t want some chick or skinny dude to beat me). I haven’t been this motivated since my last high school wrestling practice.

So why does CF get so much hate? My theory is that the cult sports of Powerlifting, O lifting, and Bodybuilding are happy to be just that. Cult sports. All of a sudden this upstart sport of CF uses great marketing and becomes mainstream in just a matter of years. Now the traditional cult sports aren’t the only ones doing “advanced” lifts (I say advanced because of the lack of people in Planet Fitness type gyms doing anything more complicated than a quarter squat on a smith machine). You’ve got thousands of new people doing Power cleans, snatches, and deadlifts who would never have known what a deadlift was, had they stayed at their yoga class at their local commercial gym. And all of a sudden the eliteness of our traditional cult sports is under attack.

Then there’s the form/technique argument that I always hear. When I got into weightlifting I joined an Olympic lifting club. I can confirm that my Olympic coach, is more qualified to teach O lifts than the instructors at your average CF gym, but WTF… the 105lb girls there just want to learn basic form and aren’t competing for a single max effort lift, and they don’t need advanced instruction. And to all the critics, let’s see how good your clean form looks 5 minutes into your WoD.

And that’s my CF observation!

34

I have never really done more than a couple of workouts with a mate who loves his CF as I mostly do phases of bodybuilding and than powerlifting. But I must admit for conditioning it would have to be one of the best ways to exercise.

35

I hate it because they employ the concept 2 erg and butcher the graceful sport of rowing, giving people back issues in the process.

36

my gf dragged me to a free saturday class. I have to say I was impressed. The social aspect, availability of bumper plates, rings, and a climbing rope pwas awesome. The female “talent” was top notch. They preach squatting to as much depth as possible and the workouts are balanced in biomechanic terms (moreso than bench n curl, for sure).

I may join at some point, using the bumper plates to continue my strength training, the classes for endurance and to see my gf bust her hot ass till she is pouring sweat (of course I only have eyes for her haha), and the rope and rings because I recently decided I want to try out for american ninja warrior next year and do some parkour.

I am not a bodybuilder and it isn’t for you if you are. I am not a powerlifter because flat benching is uncomfortable for me, suits are gay, and full squats > wide stance parallel squats. I train for my own brand of awesomeness and the facilities at crossfit lend themselves to that. Price can be prohibitive, however, and I have repeatedly warned my gf to show me her snatch before performing it with weight (lol). That critique I completely agree wi

37

also thrilled I could finally have access to a prowler and tire

38

I’d like to add one thing: my gf and her gaggle of girlfriends love this shit. The best workout is the one you wake up excited to do, and the cult lends itself to that. One has lost a ton of weight. I used to jab at crossfitters but no more, it has it’s place and it hits closer to home than I would have thought.

39

I will say this about CF, it has helped bring O-lifts back to popularity. I am not a CF’r myself, but I am an O-Lifting coach, and since CF has hit mainstream the call for qualified O-lifting coaches has risen (and that is very good for me). And actually just to comment on the few CF gym-owners I have met, most of them have been or are planning on going through a USAW class in order to learn proper Oly technique and how to coach proper technique.

In addition to O-lifts, it has also helped introduce more folks to things like prowlers, tires, etc. . . Now, I can understand that some people like their favorite “apparati” being “underground,” but it is just good to see that stuff out there. CF is not for me, but I as a trainer who believes that there are many ways to cook a steak, skin a cat, flip a tire, etc… there’s a place for it.

40

I like some things about crossfit, but there is more that I don’t like. Here’s a basic pro/con list.

Pro:
Variety of exercises makes things interesting
Lots of less popular exercises are being made more popular (olympic lifting, gymnastics, some strongman)
Gets women to do at least some strength training
Great general conditioning

Con:
Olympic lifting - while I like that it is getting more attention, this is not something that should be done in a circuit. This is not something that should be taught by someone who has had a 2 day course on Crossfit - some of which was with olympic lifting (yes, I realize this is not every single trainer, but that is what the cert takes). Olympic lifting is it’s own sport for a reason - it is hard as shit. I feel they’re best left out of any program in most situations. I know there are some great olympic coaches out there teaching the lifts to CFers, but even then, I just don’t feel they should be apart of Crossfit.

Little/No periodization - Yes I know, there are occasionally some intelligent individuals in CF that know what this is, but most of the time that is not the case. There is just a mash-up of workouts that people show up to in no particulr order.I’d like to use John as an example. He was doing 5 CF workouts a week and skiing 3-4 days a week. He got tendonitus.

The CF mentality - Again, this is not universal, less so than the other “cons”. For those of you who wondering why CF draws so much hate, this is the reason why. All avenues of hate towards CF start here. I really don’t feel like I need to explain more about this.

Can CF be something great? Sure, it just takes an intelligent trainer, which aren’t as common as they should be.