CrossFit–Everyone’s Doing It

For seemingly every diet there is an example of an elite athlete or two who have succeeded as a product of said diet. It doesn’t matter whether it is the Paleo diet, a Vegan diet, a low carb diet, or a no carb diet, publishing the name or names of athletes gives it cache and hopefully, from a marketing standpoint, average athletes everywhere flock to the new found miracle of performance.

The same can be said for exercise routines and methodologies. If it makes <insert athlete’s name here> stronger and faster, it will undoubtedly do the same for me. If <insert athlete’s name here> lost # pounds and gained strength, I too shall lose # pounds and become a hulk of muscle.

Unfortunately, most of us forget that most of these athletes have the luxury of focusing on being an athlete versus the rest of us who struggle to find time for our passion. Further, we are not often privy to all the details that enabled an athlete to get from point A to point B. In fact, some of the more well known diets are modified for the elite or extreme athlete.

Which brings me to CrossFit, which has exploded in popularity. CrossFit purports to be “the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.” On the other hand, the purveyors of CrossFit readily admit their “specialty is not specializing” and in fact CrossFit is meant to “punish the specialist.” These statements appear to contradict each other as in many athletic endeavors, specialty is the key.

CrossFit advocates are very passionate, which is a strength of the program. However, over the last year a rising number of physical fitness experts are speaking out against CrossFit. In fact, the dialog between the two groups has gotten nasty to the point of CrossFit being labeled “a cult.” This has done nothing but confuse people interested in improving their fitness.

Warren Ashley over at FitFinity serves up one of the best bulleted pros and cons to CrossFit that I have read:

Pro

  1. People like it – This is huge. Lots of people really enjoy Crossfit, which leads to several additional benefits.
  2. Adherence - No program is effective if you don’t stick with it, so getting great adherence is a big win for Crossfit.
  3. Effort - People who like Crossfit style training tend to work out balls to the wall. Effort goes a long way in any fitness program.
  4. Variety - The variety of the workouts plays into the above in a huge way. Because you almost never do the same thing twice, you (theoretically) don’t burn out on any one style of training. The variety of training also leads to…
  5. General Physical Preparedness – The goal of Crossfit workouts is to make you well rounded. Not huge, not super ripped, not super strong, not super fast. But pretty big, pretty strong, and pretty fast. According to Crossfit – “Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.” For this reason, Crossfit is quite popular among law enforcement and military personnel. Come to think of it, “well rounded fitness” sounds pretty good to a lot of people.

Con

  1. Seemingly random programming – The workouts of the day bounce around in a seemingly random fashion. Per strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove: “Another one was 30 muscle-ups. And if you can’t do muscle-ups, do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips. It’s just random; it makes no sense. Two days later the program was five sets of five in the push jerk with max loads. That’s not looking too healthy for the shoulder joint if you just did 120 dips 48 hours ago.” Hello, injury.
  2. Dangerous loading protocols – As an example, one workout of the day required 30 reps of the power snatch at 135 lbs. The snatch is an explosive Olympic lift, which I would never program for over 5 or 6 reps per set due to the technical complexity involved. It’s just too hard to maintain your form past that point. Likewise, the above 6 reps of 225 lb deadlifts is out of reach for many. Hello again, injury.
  3. Lack of progression – Due to the “never repeating” nature of the programming, it is difficult, if not impossible to track progress in major lifts. How do I know my strength or speed is improving if I never repeat a protocol? Most strength coaches and trainers agree that some form of measurable progressive overload is crucial.
  4. Difficult personalization – While Crossfit claims its workouts are highly personalize-able, the resources for people unable to perform the standard WOD are slim. In fact, the Crossfit FAQ explicitly states that only those with “exposure to Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and gymnastics” should attempt the WOD right away. Really? Who has that kind of experience? They say they are working on an exercise substitution list, but it doesn’t appear to be available. The truth is, no single workout of the day could possibly address the needs of all (or even most) people effectively or safely. The amount of customization required basically results in entirely different workouts.
  5. Efficiency – While it may be fine for already-fit police officers looking to get more fit, the Crossfit workouts of the day are not the most efficient ways to reach most goals like fat loss, muscle growth, maximum strength, or maximum speed.

I have considered CrossFit and have friends who have seen some successes with CrossFit. But I was pointed to a study that found cross-training is not as beneficial as originally assumed and in fact, specialization (including targeted resistance training) provides more significant benefits to the individual focusing on a single sport (the study does point out cross-training is good for people interested in general fitness).

To me, I think that’s where the debate between something like CrossFit comes to a head. It depends on what your goals are. If someone is looking to improve their marathon performance or swimming prowess it makes sense to adhere to an exercise routine that focuses on the skills and muscles necessary to succeed/improve. Conversely, if one is looking toward general or overall fitness, something like CrossFit can be beneficial.

If you are interested in what goes on in CrossFit, Junie over at All That Glitters Is Golden has a running narrative of her CrossFit workouts.

In a future post, I want to take a look at cross-training for the runner. I know, I just questioned the benefits of cross-training in a specialized sport, but I don’t necessarily believe it 100%. Something to look forward to.

17 thoughts on “CrossFit–Everyone’s Doing It”

  1. Thanks for the shout out! I am going into day 4 of the On Ramp program before they allow you to actually ‘join’ a ‘box’. Today is the first day that I woke up that I am can walk normally. Or with a bit less pain. Its not a bad pain, obviously all the running, and even the working out I have been doing with a trainer since mid November cannot compare to the workouts I am getting even in this 2 weeks of beginner CrossFit.

    I am anxious to see if it improves my running, but I will say that my core and upper body are already feeling stronger, and to me that will translate into being a more efficient runner. Or that is my hope.

    After last nights WOD, which I havent blogged yet, I felt like dropping to the ground and passing out. Its intense, but in a good way. Just like anything though, it isnt for everyone, but in my OR, there are all walks of life, and even 2 of the girls I thought would never come back the 2nd night are toughing it out and I am impressed. Lifting heavy things (and learning the right way to do it) is fun!

    I am definitely firing my trainer at the gym. I’ve never gotten this kind of attention and work out before in the regular gym.

  2. You bring up a lot of interesting points here. I tried CrossFit last summer and really enjoyed it. I keep thinking I’d like to get to it on a regular basis, but right now, I’m just struggling to keep up with running healthy and adding something like that in worries me a bit. Maybe when i feel like I am on solid ground. I do have a couple of friends who are dedicated cross fitters–but they are not also runners. They look fantastic, though, so from a vanity standpoint, there’s that!

  3. Great points to consider. I tend to think CF would be best utilized in the off-season for a runner. No doubt the strength gains and variety could help us “special”ized athletes stave off overuse injuries later in the year.

  5. My problem with cross fit isn’t the workouts. My problem (at least with our local cross fit gym) is the pushing of supplements, and then subsequently trying to get you to SELL the supplements. Which are ridiculously expensive. I can’t stand that pushy crap…

    • thankful that I see not one bit of evidence at my CF box that they promote any type of supplements. its a bare bones type of place. No advertisements for anything, anywhere.

  6. thanks for a thoughtful post on CrossFit. I do think CF is good for a lot of people. I think a lot of people that wouldn’t normally lift weights now do so with CF. In addition to strength training it makes people more aware of their diet – which is a good thing.

    But with that said – (here in Boulder, CO) the CF gyms really annoy me – there attitude is CF is the *only* solution and the push to be “good enough” to participate in the CF Olympics. Sorry – I’m a mtn biker and runner – I don’t care about the CF Olympics. Plus they are hypocritical in their Paleo approach – they say tequila, wine, coffee and bacon is Paleo….uhhh…what kind of French Press did the caveman have? And how are tequila and wine not processed beverages??

    I’d like CF a lot more if they weren’t so militant in their hypocritical self-righteousness.

    For the record – I go to Alpine Training Center – where it’s just a bunch of hard work(without the hype) to get you ready to play outside.

  7. As a former Olympic weightlifter who specialized in powerlifting and gymnastics, this sounds right up my alley.

    I think that cross-training is crucial for overall health, though as stated, it won’t prepare you for your specialization.

  8. Wow, this is so timely. I have been considering CF myself, but have wondered if, given the zeal of the CF’ers I know, I could get away with only going twice a week or so. I only want to add some cross-training to my running, but I just don’t have time to go every day. Also, I can’t quite figure out how my local CF works. They don’t have a “foundations” or “beginners” series like some other franchises do, and the idea of just jumping in is very intimidating. It looks like they operate boot-camp style as well as offering a WOD, but again, I feel a little too intimidated to check it out right now. I’m going to be checking out the links you provided though – thanks!

  9. Interesting post. I too think it boils down to what one is after. If one enjoys running and wants to progress to being either faster or able to run farther (or perhaps both), then cross-training is essential to prevent injury and improve core strength so one doesn’t become “unbalanced” from a strength and flexibility perspective.

    But I don’t personally believe that the answer to such cross-training is CrossFit, at least not for me. Do I want to be able to “barely walk after yesterday’s killer workout”..? Not if what I truly enjoy is a nice morning run of 4 to 6 miles that just flows and feels good. The same goes for being so sore due to upper body work that just a normal running arm swing is problematic.

    And mixing that many types of workout prevents one from being able to dial into the most appropriate manner in which one should do each of them based on one’s current strength, flexibility, technical ability to perform the exercise, and intensity level. I have a hard enough time listening closely enough to my body to keep my joy of running from sidelining me.

    Cross-train…? Absolutely. But I don’t run every run to the point where I feel wiped out, and I certainly wouldn’t want that from my cross-training either.

    But then again, that’s just me.

    • Not being able to walk or being sore from upper body work typically applies when one first starts CF. Even someone with some base strength training will be sore.

      I believe CF should be ‘tried’ when you have a couple of weeks to go without a run if you have to, which is why I waited post-marathon and pre-Spring speed work for short distance races here.

      Personally, I have only missed one day of running because of it (and could have run but opted to not), but then again I had some base work already from the gym.

      I have 3 days of the ‘on ramp’ sessions done, and I am fine this morning. Like with anything physical, it takes some getting use to when one hasn’t used any of those muscles for a long time.

  10. I recently read a great article about crossfit and the endurance athlete and how the two do not mesh well. I’ll have to see if I can find it….

  11. I read an interview with Ryan Hall – he doesn’t cross train. He runs fast and far. That is his goal. I think Cross-fit is great if it gets people to work out and be fitter than they would have been without it. But it isn’t my cup of tea. I want to be “outside of the box”.

  13. One of my running friends is a cross fit devotee. My exercise physiologist son has serious doubts about the safety of it – that there are going to be lots of injuries caused by some of the exercises. But the people who do it seem to find it a wildly uplifting form of exercise.

  14. Crossfit huh? That seems like a LOT of hard work. Plus, I don’t have any tires laying around to smash with sledge hammers.

    Very interested to get your take on cross training. I’m skeptical too….

  15. Pingback: Beware the Hype « Last Mile Lounge

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