[quote]usaffirefighter wrote:
I’ll start clotheslining the bastards!![/quote]
That sounds like a great fitness craze itself.
DANEQ, just to let you know your picture of Naked Bruce is breath taking.
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
I find running is more “functional” than high rep olympic lifts for endurance.[/quote]
How about high rep olympic lifts and running together?
Crossfit-type workouts are effective for GPP. If all you want to do is be in good shape then they’re perfect. If you want to be big and strong then they suck. They’re a tool, nothing more.
I got to go to the crossfit games this year and some of those guys were pretty big. And no matter how you look at it, clean & jerking 225lbs for 30 reps is pretty strong.
[quote]Kliplemet wrote:
how do you know they were crossfitters? what distinguishes them?[/quote]
The easiest way to tell if they are a crossfitter: you can strictly BB curl whatever weight they are using for compound movements such as pushpress, front squat, and snatch.
Since it’s getting people into lifting and staying in shape I really don’t have a problem with it. It sounds like the group you came across were a bad bunch. I go to GB3 and run into Crossfit people all the time. As long as they aren’t fucking around and just wasting space I have no problems with them.
Say what you want about crossfit (I do), but I don’t think there has been a single more effective agent in promoting squat depth than crossfit.
IE, everyone in my gym who squats to parallel is a crossfitter. Or they had a good HS coach. But mostly crossfitter.
Or me. But I’m too good to stop at parallel.
What’s wrong with getting people away from wussy aerobics and the machines associated with them? One of my good friends (now in Afghanistan) uses Crossfit and he’s one of the most fit people I know.
At least Crossfit promotes front squats. 
[quote]Otep wrote:
Or me. But I’m too good to stop at parallel.[/quote]
right on.
[quote]Kliplemet wrote:
how do you know they were crossfitters? what distinguishes them?[/quote]
They were doing a God loves Crossfit cheer in between sets and passing out koolaid.
Plus the crossfit t-shirts they were wearing tipped me off.
It seems like the OP’s main complaint shouldn’t be directed against Crossfit, but against people who do Crossfit half-assed. There are plenty of half-assed bodybuilders, half-assed powerlifters, half-assed MMA guys. They all get in the way of anyone who’s trying to get in a serious workout.
[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
Crossfit-type workouts are effective for GPP. If all you want to do is be in good shape then they’re perfect. If you want to be big and strong then they suck. They’re a tool, nothing more.[/quote]
/Thread
[quote]StevenL wrote:
oh yeah, GO BROWNS!!! [/quote]
nope, this is /thread
[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:
It seems like the OP’s main complaint shouldn’t be directed against Crossfit, but against people who do Crossfit half-assed. There are plenty of half-assed bodybuilders, half-assed powerlifters, half-assed MMA guys. They all get in the way of anyone who’s trying to get in a serious workout. [/quote]
Exactly. The gym I work at has a handful of pathetic crossfitters who hog the equipment and do their cleans with 40 lb pre-loaded curl bars. However, there’s a small handful – maybe 3-4 Crossfitters – who kick serious ass. They move a shitload of weight and work hard when they do it. They come in, bust their ass, and leave.
Just as most ‘bodybuilders’ are 50 lbs overweight and in a perpetual bulking phase while the great physiques are the exception, so it goes with the Crossfit crowd.
Does his rant remind anyone else from that scene in Superbad when the fat kid is talking to his home-ec teacher and saying “no offense but” and then proceeds to verbally take a shit on her chest, but it’s ok because he said no offense and excuse me? Ok, my rants over…
Most Crossfit workouts are timed so if they were taking breaks to talk they were not doing it correctly most likely.
So in essense they were just like guys who do 1/4 squats, curl in the squat rack, or any other douche baggery.
A tool is a tool no matter what his training style.
[quote]johnson575 wrote:
I got to go to the crossfit games this year and some of those guys were pretty big. And no matter how you look at it, clean & jerking 225lbs for 30 reps is pretty strong.[/quote]
No one gets a body that can clean & jerk 225 for 30 reps by just training crossfit.
Whenever they put up beastly videos of big guys throwing around big weights, they’re always weightlifters who are friends with Mike Burgner or Strongmen who just show up one day to give Crossfit a shot.
Occasionally some good crossfitters who must be exceptionally gifted shine through - but they’re usually gymnasts or Navy Seals or some other athlete with a background that explains their level of fitness.
To top it all off, whose that bald guy in all their lecture clips whose the “founder” of crossfit? He doesn’t even look like he runs, much less touches a weight.
Crossfit is a very interesting phenomenon, and the main goal of it is really interesting. But for the most part, what they do with Barbells is sort of a crime.
The running, the rowing, the bodyweight exercises, the kettlebells, that’s all cool. But FRAN? What the fuck are you doing with a 95lb Barbell that could be challenging if it’s not a front raise?
95# tabata Front squats as written by Dan John
95# tabata front squat/press as written by Dan John
95# Bear complex referenced many times by different T-Nation authors.
etc.