Let's Talk about Crossfit... This should be good.

Let’s talk about crossfit. No, this will not be a crossfit bashing session; quite the contrary –I will actually be pro-crossfit in this discussion which could take some of the people that know me by surprise.

Crossfit has a lot of criticism coming its way from people. These people are usually fitness purists who have closed their mind to anything except what their particular ‘book-of-choice’ has to say. Be it Olympic lifting (Weightlifting to true purists), strongman, powerlifting, endurance running, triathlons, bodybuilding, or just the average Joe that likes to do bicep curls in the squat rack, they all have something to say about how bad or dumb crossfit is.

This has nothing to do with this post really... He just has an epic beard and happens to do Crossfit.

Well, too bad. I look at Crossfit as I do the paleo diet issue that Andy and I discussed the other day –who cares? Who cares that there is no programming and no goal? Who cares that they do things for minutes at a time without rest? Who cares that they put things in pairs, triplets, or large groups and say “go until time runs out or you finish”? I for one do not care. Crossfit has done something that the fitness world has had yet to do in the last… I don’t know how many years! (perhaps since being overweight became an actual epidemic?)… Crossfit has gotten millions of people to exercise hard again; it has gotten millions of people to push themselves further and harder than they ever would have; it has gotten millions of people to become inspired to go to the gym again; it has gotten millions of people to lose tens of thousands of pounds; and we are silly enough to complain about the details? What?! Look at the bigger picture here people! We are all, supposedly, fitness enthusiasts/strength coaches/personal trainers who want nothing more than to help people better themselves, lose weight, and workout for life in order to stay healthy, right? Well then why are we so quick to judge and complain when something has finally done that? Is it because we didn’t think of it? What is it? I really would like to know.

Five months of Crossfit... interesting.

What I do know is that Crossfit still has issues that it could work out. Teaching people to snatch from the ground on day one is a no-no, obviously, but having someone workout hard and do a met-con –as long as it is scaled to their needs– is not. Crossfit does need to have a progression of learning for the technical movements, I agree; however, they are also working on that. They are doing this by partnering with the Burgener family (who is very well-known in the American Olympic lifting community) and going around and teaching courses on Olympic lifting…the right way. They are also hiring other very good Olympic lifters to do the same in order to help the crossfit community prevent injuries that would otherwise be nearly inevitable.

Another thing that has happened since Crossfit blew up is that what used to be dying sports, as far as lifting goes, are now seeing gains in popularity again. A prime example of this is Olympic lifting. Before I go any further, I must say that I got this example from a movie I saw on youtube which I will link here so you can watch it as well (just beware –the guy in the video uses cuss words to describe and make points and he uses them a lot. If you are sensitive to racy language, I wouldn’t watch it). Now, Olympic lifting has been a dying sport for a while, but once Crossfit started getting big, Olympic lifting started to become ‘cooler’ too. The example from the video is that a few years ago you could walk up to a random person and ask them what a clean or a snatch was and they would give you a “Why is this random person asking me questions?” kind of look. Nowadays we could do that same thing and have a pretty good shot at them knowing what the heck we are asking them. That’s a big deal! The same things are happening in strongman and powerlifting –Crossfit made them bigger by involving various types of their sports and they are now reaping the benefits of that.

Casey Burgener clean and jerking 220kgs/484lbs...he might know a thing or two about Olympic Lifting.

                                        

My final thoughts on this are that you can love Crossfit or you can hate it, but you can’t escape it. It is on ESPN now and has a $250k prize involved as well as supplement sponsorships and other huge benefits –Crossfit is here to stay. If you are against it wholly and completely still, then I feel somewhat sorry for you. You are being so stubborn, prideful, and arrogant (or ignorant) that you are missing out on a potentially great opportunity to learn. I’m not saying that you have to go all-in and love it, that you have to use it, or that you have to watch it; I’m saying that if you are not at least open to learn from it, then you are not as great of a coach, teacher, or fitness enthusiasts as you think.

Now, before I sign off, I must give my asterisk-ed beliefs. I don’t believe that Crossfit is the best way to develop strength or the best way to train athletes; however, I do believe that it is one of the best ways to come along to train the general public. I think it's great that they have created a way for people who aren't involved with sports in some way, who don't want to be huge for lifting or incredibly thin for endurance events, a way to compete and something to work for and towards. They have made it available to all -that was the key. I’ve always been a guy that seems to go against what the general fitness trend is as far as training rules go, so why should I bash on Crossfit for doing the same? After all, what’s wrong with breaking the rules (a.k.a. pushing the limits) that have been put on you and/or the fitness world?

As always, these are just my thoughts. I would love to hear what anyone else has to say on the matter!

-Chris


Update: Here is an article that I was reading that details more what I was discussing with my askterisk-ed thought. Crossfit is not the best way to train athletes or to train for strength -but it is a great way to exercise. Rippetoe doesn't dive into that aspect really, he seems to be more on the hating-Crossfit side, but you can still appreciate what he writes.