Is crossfit worth it?

royaldrea

I like it a lot. I have a treadmill and weights at home, and I used to TRY to go to the gym...I would get bored with both and not keep up, because although I'm not super sociable, it's boring to me to work alone and I lose focus quickly. Not that I wasn't interested, just that exercising in that manner is not the best approach for me.

I started CF when I was really out of shape (still am but much improved). I couldn't do hardly anything and the coaches and other persons encouraged me to work harder and push myself, but never pressured me to lift more or do more than I could, and would often scale down for me and put me on lighter weights when I failed. I really appreciate that.

I also hold myself much more accountable to CF than I have with anything else I've done in the past - I've only missed one class that I scheduled in the last 5 months (overslept - I have missed others but for good reason). I push myself even when I'm not feeling it - it's something about knowing that someone else is holding you to a standard, that you don't get when you're working out alone.

In terms of injuries - the only ones I've seen are from people pushing themselves further than they can go (not being pushed by the coaches, though I'm sure this varies from box to box). I'm pretty sure that happens everywhere but what do I know?

I would suggest trying it out and seeing if you like it. It may not work for you but given your background info it's likely that you'll enjoy it - and if you just can't afford it, just take a class that may be within your price range, as the workout shouldn't be that far off.

ninerbuff

Of these crossfit injuries, how many are the result of bad instruction vs how many are the result of the individual making poor decisions (improper form for more reps/better time, too much weight, bad recovery habits, etc.)?

In my life experience, my injuries...both in and out of crossfit...have almost always been the result of *my* bad judgment, not those of the instructor/trainer/coach. This includes non-fitness related injuries too.

Also, done reasonably, the oly lifts are no more dangerous than any other barbell lift. The technical nature of them is self-limiting for weight *assuming* the practitioner isn't stupid about it. I'll put newbies learning to clean with an appropriate amount of weight up against gymbros bench pressing too much weight on the injuryometer any day.

I mentioned above about what I believe the main causes for injury are. One thing that I didn't touch on was the supporting groups in CF. Statistics will show that people who usually work out in group settings as a whole, stick to exercise longer, get great support and have more fun. I doubt anyone will disagree with that. Can it have drawbacks? Just like anything else, sure.
Someone might compare themselves to someone else who is the same size and stature, see them clean a good amount of weight then they themselves don't want to look weaker, so they make the attempt (with much group encouragement), then get injured. So can group encouragement cause a lapse of judgement? Possibly.
As I've mentioned, I instruct in group fitness classes. I'm not immune to anyone not getting hurt either and believe myself to be a great instructor.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

jofjltncb6

I can see where this thread was going after just a couple posts. Your goal is to lose weight, so if that's the case your money would be better invested in a dietitian or reputable nutritionist. If your goal is gain endurance and some strength improvement, then CrossFit would be a good investment.

I like the idea of crossfit for a couple of reasons.

I hate doing cardio and know that doing cardio is a beneficial thing
I love lifting heavy things
People who do crossfit are motivated to exercise

My main problem with it (outside of the form issues and such that have been discussed over and over) is that outside of an untrained and out of shape individual, I don't see how crossfit can make you "stronger".

If you've never done any weight training at all, and have pretty low cardio "fitness", doing any amount of lifting regardless of the progression/programming is going to make you improve. I think that's where a lot of the love for Crossfit comes from, people enjoy doing it, they improve their previously basic strength and they get into better fitness.

But once you get to that certain level of strength/fitness, crossfit can't help you improve any more. You can't simply push yourself harder to get strong doing those types of workouts. You need a program that's designed to slowly increase your body's capacity to move heavier things.

I always hear crossfitters say things like "You gotta keep your body guessing", and "you never know what today's workout is going to bring", as if that's a good thing, but it seems more than a little silly to me. If your goal it to get stronger, how can you do that when you might not do the same lift 2 times in a month?

Maybe if I had trouble sticking to a program for any amount of time, I'd be more interested in trying it out, but I enjoy lifting for its own sake, whether or not I'm racing the guy next to me to finish. I also enjoy the progression, knowing that last week I did x and this week I'm going to do x+2.

IMO Crossfit is good because it gets people motivated who have never lifted, but at some point those people are going to stop seeing the progress they get initially and get frustrated and quit or move on to an actual program.

Seriously???

http://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-apology (Thanks, ST)

And people doing crossfit "get frustrated and quit" because of a lack of progress? I don't think I've ever heard of this happening.



TL;DR - I don't think you actually know what crossfit is and isn't.

3dogsrunning

Crossfit idea is great. Training from "boxes" differ immensely. Shoulder injury rates are about 25% from Crossfit according to a report from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning. That's higher than Olympic and powerlifting competitors (who move much higher amounts of weight).

If you're inexperienced in weight training, it's probably NOT a good idea to join Crossfit.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Spot on. the higher incidence of injuries across the spectrum is from crossfiters' improper form (embrace of "slop" in order to fit in the "time" limits) and overloading of the shoulder joint with more weight than the muscle and ligaments can support. Why would anyone on earth elect to overload their joints like this if they are a novice?







The problem is improper form, which you can't correct when you're throwing weight around on a barbell or doing muscle-ups for speed. Why on earth would anyone want to do them quickly, they're such incredible, impossible movements

This is excellent, thank you for providing visuals as to WHY crossfit has such a high potential for injury.

If you are a novice and are doing muscle ups, I bow to you. Or you have a background in gymnastics already.
I was CrossFitting for nearly a year, my husband is still for over 1 1/2 year and neither of us are even near attempting a muscle up.
We are still on the developing the basic movements and building the strength to do one, a lot of stuff I learned in a gymnastics seminar put on by my gym with an instructor who has a background in gymnastics, still teaches gymnastics as well as CrossFits. Only a handful of very seasoned people on our gym do them.

I also haven't done a kipping pull up yet because I have not yet gotten a strict pull-up. I was almost there before pregnancy.

There is a world of difference between what your average CrossFitter does in a daily workout than what you see the elite CrossFitters doing.

Timshel_

Is crossfit worth it?

I was a personal trainer for years and ironically I always wondered why people paid over very long periods of time to do sessions with me. I understood why they might come a few times or over a few months, but my goal was always to educate clients and help them build regiments that challenged them, helped them, and that they could do for themselves over time. But I did come to understand that some clients just needed to pay for accountability, and that my cost was motivation.

Going to crossfit could fit into either category for you. So you might sign up for a month and learn the exercises, or you might buy into the program and social aspect of it and find it becomes a great motivator and good accountability.

At the base though, there is nothing in crossfit (or that I ever taught/trained) that couldn't be learned with self-effort and motivation.

All the best.

3dogsrunning

I also hold myself much more accountable to CF than I have with anything else I've done in the past - I've only missed one class that I scheduled in the last 5 months (overslept - I have missed others but for good reason). I push myself even when I'm not feeling it - it's something about knowing that someone else is holding you to a standard, that you don't get when you're working out alone.

I sort of skipped over why I am more successful with sticking with CrossFit. It's along the same lines as this.
I enjoy the group atmosphere. That's a reason I've stuck with runnig as well, because I'm in a running group.
But also scheduling a workout seems to keep me more accountable. Plus, class size is limited. If I sign up for a class and no show, often I may be taking a spot from someone who wants to be there.
Plus I hate my name in red for a no show.
Will these motivate other people? Maybe not. Some people don't like to be scheduled of group based activities. I do.

jofjltncb6

Is crossfit worth it?

I was a personal trainer for years and ironically I always wondered why people paid over very long periods of time to do sessions with me. I understood why they might come a few times or over a few months, but my goal was always to educate clients and help them build regiments that challenged them, helped them, and that they could do for themselves over time. But I did come to understand that some clients just needed to pay for accountability, and that my cost was motivation.

Going to crossfit could fit into either category for you. So you might sign up for a month and learn the exercises, or you might buy into the program and social aspect of it and find it becomes a great motivator and good accountability.

At the base though, there is nothing in crossfit (or that I ever taught/trained) that couldn't be learned with self-effort and motivation.

All the best.

IMHO, keeping good form requires constant adjustment. When lifting alone, it simply isn't possible to get any kind of real-time feedback. At best, you can review videos to see what needs to be done, but as you know, there is often a disconnect between what an athletes *thinks* they're doing and what they're *actually* doing.

When I was in crossfit, I had that real-time feedback from trained professionals (and yes, the instructors in my gym were very trained professionals). When lifting alone, I simply don't have this.

That said, I'm currently lifting on my own in my own basement gym and no longer at crossfit. However, I still see the value in what crossfit offers and believe there is an argument for it long-term.

Sam_I_Am77

I can see where this thread was going after just a couple posts. Your goal is to lose weight, so if that's the case your money would be better invested in a dietitian or reputable nutritionist. If your goal is gain endurance and some strength improvement, then CrossFit would be a good investment.

I like the idea of crossfit for a couple of reasons.

I hate doing cardio and know that doing cardio is a beneficial thing
I love lifting heavy things
People who do crossfit are motivated to exercise

My main problem with it (outside of the form issues and such that have been discussed over and over) is that outside of an untrained and out of shape individual, I don't see how crossfit can make you "stronger".

If you've never done any weight training at all, and have pretty low cardio "fitness", doing any amount of lifting regardless of the progression/programming is going to make you improve. I think that's where a lot of the love for Crossfit comes from, people enjoy doing it, they improve their previously basic strength and they get into better fitness.

But once you get to that certain level of strength/fitness, crossfit can't help you improve any more. You can't simply push yourself harder to get strong doing those types of workouts. You need a program that's designed to slowly increase your body's capacity to move heavier things.

I always hear crossfitters say things like "You gotta keep your body guessing", and "you never know what today's workout is going to bring", as if that's a good thing, but it seems more than a little silly to me. If your goal it to get stronger, how can you do that when you might not do the same lift 2 times in a month?

Maybe if I had trouble sticking to a program for any amount of time, I'd be more interested in trying it out, but I enjoy lifting for its own sake, whether or not I'm racing the guy next to me to finish. I also enjoy the progression, knowing that last week I did x and this week I'm going to do x+2.

IMO Crossfit is good because it gets people motivated who have never lifted, but at some point those people are going to stop seeing the progress they get initially and get frustrated and quit or move on to an actual program.

Seriously???



And people doing crossfit "get frustrated and quit" because of a lack of progress? I don't think I've ever heard of this happening.

What he may have been trying to say is that the programming for pure strength improvement is not ideal in a WOD format. Strength improvement obviously can happen with CF, but if strength improvement is the goal it's not ideal. That's why many of your competitive CF athletes don't typically follow the typical WOD's. Also, if you watch the events many of those lifters also have a PL'ing or Olympic Lifting background which is where they much of their strength in the DL and OLY lifts comes from.

IMHO, keeping good form requires constant adjustment.

Agree for sure. As you lift you begin to understand what leverage works best for you. Also, as some gain some muscle mass it basically forces you to adjust your form. My clean grip is much wider today than it was for me in high school, or even 3 years ago. Small adjustments should be expected.

ninerbuff

I'll leave it at this:

I like the CF concept. Have never been against. I personally know 2 owners and have worked out with them. It IS challenging especially if one lacks cardio and muscle endurance. Group settings prove to be more successful in the long run, than an individual going out and doing it on their own. So there are lots of benefits to it. Am I hesitant about some of the protocols? Sure, since I don't see any real benefit of a kipping pullup other than to meet a "pullup" count in a time constraint.
Personally I think people SHOULD join CF if they are looking to get fitter and not to lose weight. Weight loss will be a by product of getting fitter (if eating is right and that's ANOTHER story for CF).

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Hornsby

I'm not at all interested in Crossfit so I would say the price is most definitely not worth it.

Flab2Fab27

I can see where this thread was going after just a couple posts. Your goal is to lose weight, so if that's the case your money would be better invested in a dietitian or reputable nutritionist. If your goal is gain endurance and some strength improvement, then CrossFit would be a good investment.

I like the idea of crossfit for a couple of reasons.

I hate doing cardio and know that doing cardio is a beneficial thing
I love lifting heavy things
People who do crossfit are motivated to exercise

My main problem with it (outside of the form issues and such that have been discussed over and over) is that outside of an untrained and out of shape individual, I don't see how crossfit can make you "stronger".

If you've never done any weight training at all, and have pretty low cardio "fitness", doing any amount of lifting regardless of the progression/programming is going to make you improve. I think that's where a lot of the love for Crossfit comes from, people enjoy doing it, they improve their previously basic strength and they get into better fitness.

But once you get to that certain level of strength/fitness, crossfit can't help you improve any more. You can't simply push yourself harder to get strong doing those types of workouts. You need a program that's designed to slowly increase your body's capacity to move heavier things.

I always hear crossfitters say things like "You gotta keep your body guessing", and "you never know what today's workout is going to bring", as if that's a good thing, but it seems more than a little silly to me. If your goal it to get stronger, how can you do that when you might not do the same lift 2 times in a month?

Maybe if I had trouble sticking to a program for any amount of time, I'd be more interested in trying it out, but I enjoy lifting for its own sake, whether or not I'm racing the guy next to me to finish. I also enjoy the progression, knowing that last week I did x and this week I'm going to do x+2.

IMO Crossfit is good because it gets people motivated who have never lifted, but at some point those people are going to stop seeing the progress they get initially and get frustrated and quit or move on to an actual program.

Seriously???

http://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-apology (Thanks, ST)

And people doing crossfit "get frustrated and quit" because of a lack of progress? I don't think I've ever heard of this happening.



TL;DR - I don't think you actually know what crossfit is and isn't.

I stopped Crossfit because it didn't meet my fitness goals anymore. I wanted to improve my strength and just wasn't getting it through the classes so I can see what the poster meant. I also had zero interest in some of the things in the WODs including hand stand pushups and some of the Oly lifts.

There is a risk for injury (as there is in any exercise program) if you do stupid things.

With that said, if you're looking to get fit and improve endurance and stamina, crossfit is great.

It was also much cheaper than hiring a personal trainer to get me introduced to weight training.

JoRocka

If you are a novice and are doing muscle ups, I bow to you. Or you have a background in gymnastics already.
I was CrossFitting for nearly a year, my husband is still for over 1 1/2 year and neither of us are even near attempting a muscle up.
We are still on the developing the basic movements and building the strength to do one, a lot of stuff I learned in a gymnastics seminar put on by my gym with an instructor who has a background in gymnastics, still teaches gymnastics as well as CrossFits. Only a handful of very seasoned people on our gym do them.

I also haven't done a kipping pull up yet because I have not yet gotten a strict pull-up. I was almost there before pregnancy.

There is a world of difference between what your average CrossFitter does in a daily workout than what you see the elite CrossFitters doing.

FYI- cross fit doesn't own muscle ups.
or burpees
or power lifting
or olympic lifting.

It makes me want to punch a baby when someone asks me if I cross fit because I can clean and snatch- Or I work on muscle ups.

Seriously.

They do not OWN these concepts.

What he may have been trying to say is that the programming for pure strength improvement is not ideal in a WOD format. Strength improvement obviously can happen with CF, but if strength improvement is the goal it's not ideal. That's why many of your competitive CF athletes don't typically follow the typical WOD's. Also, if you watch the events many of those lifters also have a PL'ing or Olympic Lifting background which is where they much of their strength in the DL and OLY lifts comes from.

this.

very true- and an echo of what I said as well.

3dogsrunning

If you are a novice and are doing muscle ups, I bow to you. Or you have a background in gymnastics already.
I was CrossFitting for nearly a year, my husband is still for over 1 1/2 year and neither of us are even near attempting a muscle up.
We are still on the developing the basic movements and building the strength to do one, a lot of stuff I learned in a gymnastics seminar put on by my gym with an instructor who has a background in gymnastics, still teaches gymnastics as well as CrossFits. Only a handful of very seasoned people on our gym do them.

I also haven't done a kipping pull up yet because I have not yet gotten a strict pull-up. I was almost there before pregnancy.

There is a world of difference between what your average CrossFitter does in a daily workout than what you see the elite CrossFitters doing.

FYI- cross fit doesn't own muscle ups.
or burpees
or power lifting
or olympic lifting.

It makes me want to punch a baby when someone asks me if I cross fit because I can clean and snatch- Or I work on muscle ups.

Seriously.

They do not OWN these concepts.

What he may have been trying to say is that the programming for pure strength improvement is not ideal in a WOD format. Strength improvement obviously can happen with CF, but if strength improvement is the goal it's not ideal. That's why many of your competitive CF athletes don't typically follow the typical WOD's. Also, if you watch the events many of those lifters also have a PL'ing or Olympic Lifting background which is where they much of their strength in the DL and OLY lifts comes from.

this.

very true- and an echo of what I said as well.

It is interesting that you direct that at me. I didn't claim they owned it and am not sure how my post implied that. In fact, I would agree with that point. I was responding to a post that cited the high incidents of people be injured in crossFit from doing muscle ups. Muscle ups aren't exclusive to CrossFit. My point was muscle ups are not in anyway easy and most novices would not even be close to being able to attempt one let alone do one, poor form or not, unless they had a gymnastic background or a pretty decent strength background (in that case they may not exactly be a novice)


No one here claims that the elite only to the WODs. We average people don't only do the WODs. Before every WOD we work on technique and strength. Those who are interested in specific improvements also tend to do additional training. I don't think anyone would dispute that.

Sam_I_Am77

No one here claims that the elite only to the WODs. We average people don't only do the WODs. Before every WOD we work on technique and strength. Those who are interested in specific improvements also tend to do additional training. I don't think anyone would dispute that.

That's pretty true. Typical elite CF'rs that compete don't use traditional WOD's at all like I mentioned above because they know that the strength programming for WOD's isn't good.

3dogsrunning

No one here claims that the elite only to the WODs. We average people don't only do the WODs. Before every WOD we work on technique and strength. Those who are interested in specific improvements also tend to do additional training. I don't think anyone would dispute that.

That's pretty true. Typical elite CF'rs that compete don't use traditional WOD's at all like I mentioned above because they know that the strength programming for WOD's isn't good.

For maximum strength training benefits, no, the WODs aren't. But CrossFit is not just the WODs either.

It comes down to what your goals are. CrossFit can improve my cardio base, it has. Is it the best way for me to train for a distance race, no.
Can it make you stronger? Yes. If pure strength is your goal, there are more efficient options.
That doesn't mean it can't benefit an individual.

2boo2

i think it is funny how people say that crossfitters have bad form. They need to remember that each Box is different. Some emphasize form over anything else. I have had coaches that won't let anyone do kipping pull ups/dips unless they can demonstrate they can do strict the strict version. The same coaches will tell the people that they need to banded pull ups/ dips during timed WODS.

Also we don't do kipping pull ups, muscles ups, or dips everyday. Half the class is spent on mobility and skill work (learning proper form).

I admit some boxes are not that good and they give others a bad name. I would not trust any box that has a "groupon" deal that allows you to join without either testing out or doing an "on ramp".

I have seen Master PT , PT and Group X classes with worse form. I have seen some many PT teach people Dead lifts and squats which such poor form (i.e. rounded back, knees caving in, etc). Then the PT start adding weights even when their clients can do a proper air squat.


Poor form is also in group exercises classes. For example, look at any body pump class. The instructors don't go around correcting the rounded back and caved in knees during the squat tract. Also why do half squats? Because they don't want to have their posterior chain actually work? Also, they never emphasize the importance of keeping a neutral spine. The push ups in body pump will destroy your shoulders.

Point is.... there are good and bad points to everything. You just need to know how to filter it.

AlyRoseNYC

I love my CF gym, but I wouldn't pay $140. Also, if it was going to put a major strain on my finances, I would find something else to motivate me.

kelly_e_montana

I went to a CrossFit gym one time for an "evaluation test". I liked the workout. It was fun...BUT the particular one I went to, the people running it were not very knowledgeable. The owner didn't even know what "getting toned" was. There are a lot of shady CrossFit gyms. If you find a good one AND you can afford it then it's up to you but like others have said you can pay a lot less and still get results if you actually workout or spend the same amount and get personal training. The gym I went to was going to cost me $180 a month.

The reason the owner didn't know what "getting toned" was is because the concept of "getting toned" is ridiculous. Getting toned is losing body fat. If you want to "get toned" in the colloquial sense, then yes, those pink Barbie weights would be a great alternative to developing coordination, strength, flexibility, and explosive power through Olympic lifting.

Timshel_

The reason the owner didn't know what "getting toned" was is because the concept of "getting toned" is ridiculous. Getting toned is losing body fat. If you want to "get toned" in the colloquial sense, then yes, those pink Barbie weights would be a great alternative to developing coordination, strength, flexibility, and explosive power through Olympic lifting.

A good crossfit owner would be able to articulate that, minus the condescending tone, to help someone new to the program.

Wilbur_NOLA

Don't most people do crossfit so they can brag about doing crossfit to other people?

http://liferxd.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/memecrossfit.jpg