Crossfit...Cult, or Culture?

[WillBrink]

You forgot to give it a super fear inspiring name like the "silver moon destroyer", " volcano gorilla death machine", or "boiling cauldron of despair".. Lolz

But honestly that's not a bad one given the strength component. I could rant for days about box jumps..

Or kippings, or any O lift done for high reps or....oh never mind.

[Watrdawg]

I've been lifting weights "casually" for the last decade. Based on this, allegedly I am between intermediate and advanced, with some of my lifts hitting "elite" levels.
http://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards
That said, my CF gym has kicked my ass hardcore, and made me a better athlete. I really think it boils down to selecting the right church to worship in, so to speak, based on what I'm reading here.

I've been in the gym lifting since I was in the 6th grade, 1976. Using the link I'm right in the same range as you are. I tarted doing CF almost a year ago and where I go sounds a lot like your situation. I totally agree with the last part of your statement. I'll come out of a workout and definitely feel like I've been put through the ringer. These last few months I've lost close to 10lbs but have also put on muscle. My body fat percentage has come down to 11% also. I still do my regular work out on top of CF but I've dialed that down a lot.

[WS6]

You forgot to give it a super fear inspiring name like the "silver moon destroyer", " volcano gorilla death machine", or "boiling cauldron of despair".. Lolz

But honestly that's not a bad one given the strength component. I could rant for days about box jumps..

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Our work-outs do not typically have "names". When they do, it is typically named after a Veteran who gave their life in service of our country, and based off of a work-out that they did. In Lieu of that, they are named random things like "Karen", "Sally", etc. because someone somewhere has an X they hate by that name, I guess.

[WS6]

I've been in the gym lifting since I was in the 6th grade, 1976. Using the link I'm right in the same range as you are. I tarted doing CF almost a year ago and where I go sounds a lot like your situation. I totally agree with the last part of your statement. I'll come out of a workout and definitely feel like I've been put through the ringer. These last few months I've lost close to 10lbs but have also put on muscle. My body fat percentage has come down to 11% also. I still do my regular work out on top of CF but I've dialed that down a lot.

I am guessing my body fat % is somewhere 15-17%, and would like to be 10-12% like I used to be before my last bulk. I went from 173 to 205, but can still see abs. I am at 195-198ish currently.

[WS6]

Or kippings, or any O lift done for high reps or....oh never mind.

What is wrong with kipping, when done correctly, or Olympic lifts, when done for high reps WITHOUT GIVING UP FORM? I get that some gyms don't care about form, as long as you slop through your reps, but that is not my experience here.

[WillBrink]

What is wrong with kipping, when done correctly,

They are a rotator cuff injury in the making. The irony is, the only people who should be doing them are those capable of doing at least 8-10 legit chins, but they are done in CF by those who can't do legit chins as an alternative. For those strong enough to do 8-10 legit chins, done with control, kippings are OK, albeit they have a high risk/benefit to shoulder over use syndromes and rotator cuff injury in my view. You see a bunch of people, usually women, but not always, swinging away on the kippings because they lack the strength to do them properly and controlled who should be focused on being able to do proper chins before doing any kippings, but it's usually done in the reverse.

or Olympic lifts, when done for high reps WITHOUT GIVING UP FORM? I get that some gyms don't care about form, as long as you slop through your reps, but that is not my experience here.

O lifts are highly technical lifts as a rule and beyond a few reps, form always suffers. Hence why you don't find high level O lift coaches ever having their athletes do higher reps. On some accessory lifts yes, on the primary O lifts, not so much.

There's no reason or benefit to doing high rep O lifts compared to other choices, and plenty of potential negatives. Coach Rippetoe was literally on the ground floor of CF and was an early proponent and had a direct input to it's development, than concluded it was headed in a direction he wanted no part of and distanced himself from CF. His write up on high rep O lifting:


https://www.t-nation.com/training/fa...lympic-lifting


I'd posit that best case scenario, CF still comes with a higher potential for injury, OTS, etc. but it far lower with better coaching, etc.

[Chuc]

CrossFit done properly will benefit your general fitness but it will most definitely lead to injury when done incorrectly. I only do the three main lifts. Even with those, I've seen enough people do them incorrectly and get injured. I have retreated ro the privacy and comfort of my basement for my workouts away from the silliness found at most commercial gyms.

[Grizzly16]

Crossfit is a great plan for someone with no goals to get in shape. I did it for 6+months. I got much better at... crossfit. With some improvement in real life fitness needs for my life. After realizing the juice wasn't worth the squeeze I found this article for SSD/Mountain Athlete: http://strongswiftdurable.com/strong...e-different-2/ that addressed many of my own observances plus a few more really good points. I've been following some job specific plans from Rob and seeing much better real world improvements.

Back to the OP the crossfit boxes/gyms around here aren't cult like. For the most part they are filled with good coaches who focus on reducing the injury causing parts of crossfit and on generating an atmosphere where anyone is welcome but everyone is pushed to get better. When I canceled my membership I talked to the head guy about why I was leaving. He understood I wanted to focus on different areas and wished me well. I'll still swing by occasionally for one of their work outs.

[WS6]

They are a rotator cuff injury in the making. The irony is, the only people who should be doing them are those capable of doing at least 8-10 legit chins, but they are done in CF by those who can't do legit chins as an alternative. For those strong enough to do 8-10 legit chins, done with control, kippings are OK, albeit they have a high risk/benefit to shoulder over use syndromes and rotator cuff injury in my view. You see a bunch of people, usually women, but not always, swinging away on the kippings because they lack the strength to do them properly and controlled who should be focused on being able to do proper chins before doing any kippings, but it's usually done in the reverse.



O lifts are highly technical lifts as a rule and beyond a few reps, form always suffers. Hence why you don't find high level O lift coaches ever having their athletes do higher reps. On some accessory lifts yes, on the primary O lifts, not so much.

There's no reason or benefit to doing high rep O lifts compared to other choices, and plenty of potential negatives. Coach Rippetoe was literally on the ground floor of CF and was an early proponent and had a direct input to it's development, than concluded it was headed in a direction he wanted no part of and distanced himself from CF. His write up on high rep O lifting:


https://www.t-nation.com/training/fa...lympic-lifting


I'd posit that best case scenario, CF still comes with a higher potential for injury, OTS, etc. but it far lower with better coaching, etc.

I get that CF has a higher "potential" for injury, but I simply accepted it as necessary if you're going to do something that dynamic. I can do well over 10 pull-ups, strict, and when I kip, I make sure no jerkiness happens. Plenty of kipping in gymnastics, and no issues result when done CORRECTLY. Yes, higher potential, but unless I miss the mark, it's simply because there is more going on. Much like you are more likely to be hit by a car on the street than in the bed. Have I misunderstood and is it "worse than I thought"?

[ramairthree]

I have said this about it before.

"It was a concept that total, functional fitness is a base for performance.

Gymnasts have the best flexibility and body weight use strength.
You should do some gymnast skills like muscle ups, mini parallels, etc.

Olympic lifters have the most explosive strength.
Do some Olympic lifts.

Power lifters are the strongest. Do dead lift, squat, and bench.

Sprinters and longer distance runners have niches in capacity,
Do some of each.

Old school stuff like rope climbs, medicine balls, etc. we're great functional fitness things even though old fashioned. Shiny nautilus machines and stuff were not.

It made for a good well rounded base of fitness you could add your specialty stuff on top off.

SOF guys found that in general,
Doing a combination of body building exercises and running as they had been doing for decades did not optimize performance.

Functional programs such as cross fit could.

Then everyone thought cross fit was cool and it became a ****tarded mix of competitions, edgy, cool to do, stupid stuff getting added into, who could come up with the coolest, edgiest, most outlandish exercise to add to it, etc.

Instead of being scaled to individuals some did not scale and got hurt, etc.

Every five foot tall 100 pound chick can now think she works out like a seal, etc."

I could add more detail.
Don't think I need to.