Crossfit Rant

a good summary from a bro

Crossfit programs has a great exercise menu (cleans, chins, ropes, MB throws) but very poor in the way they program this menu.  CF's overall culture is quite... interesting as well.

If I have a gym of my own, training athletes and regular Joe's, it would have all the equipments a crossfit gym offers.  However, I would not make my athletes do the things they do.

At the end of the day, most people just want to look better (muscle gain and fat loss), feel better (functional and somewhat conditioned), and stay healthy (not injured so they can do more fitness things).

and crossfit can really only accomplish the conditioning part.  However, who's to say adding a couple sprint sessions a week won't get someone the same result.

CF exercices are great, functional movements.  Some meant to be explosive and some for muscular endurance.  These movements can help serious trainees and regular joes who are recreationally active get stronger, lose weight, perform better on the field if they play a sport, and feel more functional in performing daily tasks.  

It's too bad the way CF program are designed (sets/time/rep/load and total volume) are completely misguided and do not effectively help trainees reach their goals ( I will explain the goals in a sec)... Unless the goal is getting better at crossfitting.

What I'm saying is, the skills/strength someone developed from crossfitting does not necessary transfers to their sport, lifts or health since it lacks specificity and intelligence.

In fact, CF actually encourage lifting in fatigued state which provide ample opportunities for people to get hurt. 

just search "crossfit failed" and there are TONS of good stuff to keep you up for hours watching.

"What is progression? I don't know but let's do this as many times as possible! hooray!"

Anyways, so these are the things crossfitters are constantly try to do be good at in almost every workout session.

Olympic lifting

conditioning

mental toughness

fat loss

fun
Core Endurance and explosiveness

strength training

hypertrophy (muscle size)

healthy eating - the paleo diet

the funny thing is, if they actually master any of the qualities mentioned above at an advanced level, they're probably not doing the CF program appropriately.  CF protocols are not designed for trainee to be good at anything specifically but instead, to get people mediocre results at everything... or getting good at crossfitting, which is basically putting a bunch of random exercises on a board and telling people to do as many repeitions as possible in as little time as possible... until they puke... yes, very athletic...

O-Lifts - When you can snatch or deadlift 40reps a min, it's a cardio session... that's what little girls in middle school do, light lifting.  CF deadlifts is like vertically rowing on a rowing machine.  Do you enjoy lifting like a little girl?  maybe that's why their WOD (workout of the day) are named after chicks.   CF's implementation of these awesome compound movements is a joke AND more imporantly, dangerous!

Here's real lifting with good form

And here's buying into the next big fad in the fitness industry

Strength Training - if you can do something, a movement, a lift, for more than... say 12reps, it's not strength training anymore, it's mostly sugar burning.  If you like high volume workouts 7 days a week, go play a sport!

The only people that would actually excel at CF (and only temporaorily until they stop making gains) are genetic freaks who can basically handle any chronic, high workload stressors. Young people who has the luxury to tear things up all the time.

Most mindful people who workout at a crossfitter gym don't actually do CF programs. So are most of their higher level coaches.  They are only there for the brand.

Hypertrophy (muscle size) - If you have no weightlifting experience, you will get bigger the first 6-8 month coming off the machines/couch.  Then again, you'll get bigger off of yoga or p90x if you've never done any serious lifting before.  In terms of safety and progressive poundage, CF is a horrible hypertrophy program for trainee.  Check out JCD's site on some serious muscle building programs that actually works.

CrossFit… now catering to women who never use their Curves memberships

Conditioning - or circuit training, intervals, HIIT, long steady state cardio, whatever you want to call it that is not strength training basically falls into this category.   Do we really need to run for 40mins to get a "conditioning" session in?     Who's to say 3 sets of heavy squatting @ 10RM is NOT conditioning?  does it not engage the areobic system?  are slow twitched muscle fibers not innervated?

What about doing the dishes or vacuuming the floor?  that's still consider in the fat burning zone right?

I make my clients that wants to be more "conditioned" perform front squat half their bodyweight tabata style once in a whlie but our main focus in the gym has always been increasing their max lifts. 

why can't people realize that heavy strength training DOES work on your cardiovascular system and you don't need "formal" HIIT sessions to be more conditioned?

Just strength train more often when you have the time and the recoverability, then go home and stay home.   Leave the luxury you have for submaximal (lower quality) movements for something better, like hiking, walking your dog, or zumba.   If you really want conditioning, find a hill to sprint on or sign up for a YMCA basketball league to play on. Something that's actually competitive, fun, and non-retarded.

Strength training will always precede conditioning for improving athleticism and general fitness. The only exception is if you're an endurance athlete.  Then again, endurance athletes aren't really 'athletes'... not kidding.

Mobility Work? No, Must be a 5RM OH Squat Day  with PVCs

Mental Toughness - have they heard of the breathing squat? or a sport we call "pickup soccer" against kids 10 years younger than you that lasts 3hrs in the Texas heat?

Fat Loss - Most lean people you see doing CF are already lean going in.  if you want to talk about the science behind body re-composition (fat loss, muscle gain), talk to a bodybuilder and see what they have to say about CF training. 

If people actually lose weight doing crossfit, it's probably because they stop eating bread and pasta doing paleo... i'll expand on this later

Fun - checked.  who doesn't like using exotic movements, equipments, and making a lot of noise at the gym?  it sure beats machines at a commericial gym.  this is how crossfitters establish their eliteness.  sharing pictures and numbers of what a hardcore WOD they had that day on facebook.  If didn't post it on youtube, they didn't workout.

It's not so fun when they're in crutches 3x out of the year, though.

Core - snapped.

He Obviously Trained at a CF gym

Paleo - yes, it's probably one of the best "commercial" diets out there for people seeking to lose weight or "feel" healthier. It's less miserable compare to atkins, south beach, veganism.  They're easy to learn and has tons of online support to offer motivation and accountability.   It may helps you lose weight if you use to eatin a lot of starch.  It will help you pack on muscle too if you used to believe that the vegetarian diet is the best diet ever. 

However, if you actually believe that our digestive system and overall human genetics hasn't change at all for the past 4 thousand years, proceed with this diet.  This also means you have to sleep for 12hrs a day, you can't eat any processed foods (includng whey, omega3, & multi-vitamins), only drink spring water, you should beat your wife when she doesn't listen to you, and wear vibram shoes anywhere you go (cuz that's primal bro!).  it's true, these are all basic paleo requirements.

If you're exposed to crossfit due to doing paleo, here's what robb wolf (author of Paleo Solution) has to say about CF.

If you're following Paleo 2.0 (supposedly better for mental and physical health while supported by research), you may realize that it's almost identical to the mediterranean diet.  Do that instead.  Just realize that most low carbs diets don't really support performance if you're serious about training.

ok, I should wrap up my rant now...

If you want to get stronger, you have to lift heavy things!

If you want to get bigger, you have to lift heavy things and eat!

If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less and move more.

A calorie IS a calorie and insulin is NOT your enemy.

if you want to improve your sport, do the sport more, hire a specialized/tactical coach.

If you are bore with your current training program, go out and explore other options that aren't completely dangerous.  Go to a rave concert or a punk rock show and rock your socks off.  That's all the fun and conditioning people needs to be healthy anyways, then when you're done, get under some heavy bars.

there's strength training, then there's kippin

If you want core, drive your car into the middle of an intersection, shut off the engine and proceed to push your car out of people's way.  but seriously, just go to the park and hold things above your head and buy a punching bag and go at it.

If you want to be more 'conditioned', hold your breath as long as you can until you pass out.

If you want mental toughness, do the 'hold your breath' thing again, but longer.

If you want range of motion, talk to a athletic trainer or physical therapist first if you actually need it.

If you want to learn and improve your O-lifts, hire a "weightlifting" coach,  USAW certified.   Not a crossfit instructor who got their $2000 CF cert from a weekend workshop.

all jokes and ranting aside...

What is your definition of "fitness"?

 Do you want to be great at "exercising" or "crossfitting" while risking your health?  Or do you actually want to improve specific physique, strength, health, and performance goals in a progressive and personalized manner?

Pick a goal and get good at it, then move on to another.  Stop trying to work at everything all at once cuz most likely you're not going to reach any of them.

Dan John - I Hate Medium (training)

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/i_hate_medium&cr=