Anyone here do Crossfit?

mike_gee15

Do you train at a box, do WODs, or just incorporate Crossfit style training in your training?

Health_Gal

No one I know that got involved with Crossfit had a good experience with it. Crossfit gyms / boxes are KNOWN for being extreme. That is a fact that the Crossfit organization pushes. If people want to do extreme exercises and and have a goal or extreme fitness, fine.

BUT ... the vast majority of people that go to the gym do not want or need that level of extreme exercise routines, nor do they seek extreme fitness. They just want to go to the gym and get moving to keep their health in good shape, burn some calories and possibly lose some weight.

To those people (who are in the majority) the kind of extreme training provided by Crossfit is probably beyond what they need, or want to engage in or pay for.

ubermensch13

bla bla bla....complaints about crossfit....bla bla bla. I'm not an extreme athlete, in fact, I'm not extreme anything and I do crossfit. There are BAD boxes out there and trainers that don't teach correct form or push people beyond their limits, but I have not found that to be the case at my box. I do crossfit 2x a week and do stronglifts 3x a week. Best shape on my life. Give it a shot, see what you think and remember, NO ONE can push you to do something you think is unsafe...

FitbitRed

No one I know that got involved with Crossfit had a good experience with it. Crossfit gyms / boxes are KNOWN for being extreme. That is a fact that the Crossfit organization pushes. If people want to do extreme exercises and and have a goal or extreme fitness, fine.

BUT ... the vast majority of people that go to the gym do not want or need that level of extreme exercise routines, nor do they seek extreme fitness. They just want to go to the gym and get moving to keep their health in good shape, burn some calories and possibly lose some weight.

To those people (who are in the majority) the kind of extreme training provided by Crossfit is probably beyond what they need, or want to engage in or pay for.

Two people that I know who do it...love it

One's fifty five and the others fifty, both attend regular classes, love the environment and said they work hard but too their personal limits, they have also noticed a difference

Neither are extreme athlete's

FullOfWin

Made you look

n0ob

Made you look

in tears at work...replied to your feed before here...

Gallowmere1984

CrossFit is extreme? Since when? Last time I checked, all they had going for them was a bunch of fairly hot women. Most of the men involved are about as impressive in the strength department as your average kid who's been powerlifting for a few months.

Even people who win CF games generally appear to not use commercial CF to train (most reports I have read show them as using a variation of Westside). That...right there...should tell you that it's full of fail.

Chief_Rocka

Crossfit style training in your training?

Crossfit didn't invent circuit training, they just stupified it.

NGT351

I'll admit...it's not for everybody but I love it and don't know of anyone who's tried it and didn't like it. You don't have to be an extreme athlete to gain strenth, endurance and mobility. I am not extreme but I do more in my CrossFit workouts than I ever thought I could. Great stuff!
That being said...You do have to start off slow and make sure you learn how to do the lifts properly. Otherwise, you can have a bad experience with it.

FullOfWin

Crossfit style training in your training?

Crossfit didn't invent circuit training, they just stupified it.

Have to lol

DeathDLynnBabs

Been doing crossfit for almost a year, I love it... always looking to get better, had and continue to have a wonderful experience every time I go to my box. Not quite sure how to count some of the reps and rounds into the tracking on MFP though

naculp

Can't say that I do, but I've tried it once with one of the in-laws. Anybody that recommends doing deadlifts (or any other heavy compound lifts) as fast as possible... well I just don't see the sense in that. Then again, I could just have been at a not-so-great box.

As Kenny Powers says: I play real sports, not try to be the best at exercising!

ETA: I'm one of those guys that does the exercising, so that was somewhat of a self burn. But Eastbound and Down is a hilarious show

aj445

When I was in alot better shape I use to do crossfit all the time! I loved it. Definitely going back to it.

Health_Gal

Here's a good article to read before you decide if you want to get involved with Crossfit.


"Getting Fit, Even If It Kills You" from the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/fashion/thursdaystyles/22Fitness.html?pagewanted=all

"Mr. Glassman, CrossFit's founder, does not discount his regimen's risks, even to those who are in shape and take the time to warm up their bodies before a session. "It can kill you," he said. "I've always been completely honest about that."
....

But for Mr. Glassman, dismissals of his extreme workouts merely help him weed out people he considers weak-willed. "If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don't want you in our ranks," he said.

---

Personally, I don't want anything to do with an organization that has that kind of a training philosophy. I don't want to support it with my money or my presence. Besides, I can get all the exercise variety I need from classes at the YMCA and a boot camp class I take at a local gym where they change the routine every day!

My advice to anyone that thinks they might like Crossfit is to check out the boot camp programs at local gyms instead. And don't make a long term financial commitment to ANY gym or program until you've had a chance to see what they do and tried it for at least a few weeks at the "drop-in" rate.

ItsCasey

Crossfit is not a good training platform, generally speaking, for anyone who isn't already an elite athlete. There is a great coach here and there, but for the most part, the people running these gyms are clueless. You can get certified to be a Crossfit trainer by paying $1000 and passing a 50-question multiple choice test. That's it. You don't have to be an actual trainer or have any kind of educational background in sport science, kinesiology, etc. So you have these Johnny-come-latelys pretending to be badass lifters, pushing people with no athletic skill to do squat cleans (with terrible form) as fast as they can.

If you want to learn Olympic lifts, find a real trainer ... one who isn't going to put you on an orthopedic surgeon's table. This style of lifting is not meant to be done against a clock OR for high-volume reps on a regular basis. It's dangerous, and getting hurt is a matter of when, not if, especially if you already have poor movement patterns, which your Crossfit "trainer" will never know because he likely has no idea what that even means. They claim to modify or scale the workouts according to your abilities, but they don't even assess your abilities beyond "Can you lift this much weight? Okay, how many times can you lift it before you die of a heart attack and/or snap your spine?"

But as far as using Crossfit for fat-loss, the major problem is that the workouts are totally randomized. There is no progression, no cohesive plan, nothing resembling a fat-loss program. They just come up with some random lifts or movements, tell you to do 9000 of them as quickly as possible, and you're done. That's not training; it's just burning calories, and you can do that for free on your own without running the risk of your Achilles exploding after your 847th box jump.

Then there is the incredibly bad idea of doing high-intensity circuit training several times a week. This is so depleting to your central nervous system that your body can't adapt. This is why you hear so many people talk about how awesome Crossfit WAS, you know, for the month or so they actually went.

Greg Glassman acts like sacrificing yourself on the altar of extreme exercise is noble, when really, it's just stupid. If you're willing to die in the name of fitness, take up Alpine climbing. Killing yourself by falling off the rings in a warehouse gym? Lame.

jenny031477

bla bla bla....complaints about crossfit....bla bla bla. I'm not an extreme athlete, in fact, I'm not extreme anything and I do crossfit. There are BAD boxes out there and trainers that don't teach correct form or push people beyond their limits, but I have not found that to be the case at my box. I do crossfit 2x a week and do stronglifts 3x a week. Best shape on my life. Give it a shot, see what you think and remember, NO ONE can push you to do something you think is unsafe...

Thank you and EXACTLY! My box is awesome and not all that different from bootcamp style classes I've been to where they push you in a certain amount of time as well. For every bad box, there's a bad personal trainer or a bad gym. Crossfit isn't for everyone just like running isn't for everyone or heavy lifting isn't for everyone.

If you're interested, try it and ignore the naysayers. Listen to your body and if something doesn't feel right, don't do it or scale. My box is AWESOME about scaling workouts and making sure we are lifting correctly.

Also, not every personal trainer out there has a background in sport science so don't discount crossfit just because of that. :rolleyes:

Health_Gal

A good trainer can help you get in shape without needing to be associated with a Crossfit affiliate. They can tailor an exercise program especially for your needs. On the other hand, Crossfit routines are designed for athletes that are already extremely fit -- as no one that isn't in top shape can even hope to perform the extreme workouts without MAJOR modifications.

While boot camp classes at non-Crossfit gyms can be good or not-so-good, depending on the coaching, at least they are not affiliated with an organization that has such an extreme view of fitness.

I would suggest that anyone interested in a boot camp class ask to watch a class to see (1) the fitness level of participants (2) the coaching style (3) the types of exercises they have the class do. Most people like being in classes where they are somewhere near the middle of fitness levels. That way, you aren't at the bottom and struggling to catch up, and you aren't so close to the top that you have nothing to strive for.

jenny031477

Maybe some people enjoy the type of workout that CrossFit provides. And, any good Crossfit box can help you get in shape by assisting you with modifications. I have to scale a lot but that doesn't mean that I feel like I'm at the bottom struggling to catch up. I don't belong to nor will I ever join a typical, big box gym again. I've had too many bad experiences. I've had a one on one personal trainer, in the past, but can't afford her anymore. I get a great workout through Crossfit and it adds something different to my typical workout routine which, is just running.

I guess what I'm saying is if you don't like Crossfit, than don't do it. There ARE most certainly ways to modify it for any fitness level.

Health_Gal

The gym I recently started going to for boot camp is a small, locally owned gym. The classes have several participants and are small enough that you get individual attention from the instructor if you need help with form and/or modifications.

The price is $10 a class for drop ins, and you can come as a drop-in for as long as you want with no pressure to buy into a membership until you feel ready.

That is much less expensive than Crossfit. So it's a good idea to shop around and find out what's available in your area before committing to a long term membership at ANY gym.

neverstray

You will die if you do Crossfit.

Lol

/sarcasm

RobfromLakewood

I typed Crossfit into yelp and then contacted the top rated facilities in my area. Every one of them offered a free first class.No matter the place, I loved the challenge they offered my body. Some places were run better than others, only one stood out as strangely exclusionary (not a great way to recruit a new customer).

My wife went with me to all the try-outs. She liked the same one I decided to give a three-month commitment to. But she doesn't really like Crossfit in general, why I thought it pushed me more to my limits, she felt it took this aspect took much of the fun out of fitness. It really feels like personal preference on this one. Which makes some of the more extreme reactions seem odd to me. While I love it, I don't think it's for everyone, like any exercise. While everyone's entitled to their opinion, I find it weird when people advocate for any exercise that doesn't take this into account.