CROSSFIT???

sipe1980

I have been doing Crossfit since January and I love it. I have never felt more fit. It is pricey but well worth it. Our 'coach' always gives instruction to anyone new and group instruction before a WOD that may contain lifting technique. He is very conscientious and carefully monitors the athletes to make sure everyone is using good form.

Go Crossfit Confluence!

savvystephy

Interesting discussion. I know crossfit is out of my budget now (will be going to graduate school) so I have just been heavy lifting on my own. I am glad to hear multiple sides of the story though - that way I can get a better look at a gym when I am interested in joining one / have the funds to do so.

Those women are so motivating. I can only aspire to be strong and muscular like them.

lovpretty

I tried one day of it and loved it

HOSED49

$100.00 bucks a month is pretty steep. I have the luxury of working out here at work, and have incorporated the Crossfit workouts into my routine. The routines are very beneficial for you as far as functional strength and endurance goes. In my line of work, I need functional strength! I have made my own olympic rings for the workouts, PVC pipe is about $3.00, biggest expense is whatever type of strap you want to use to secure it. We use them for pull-ups, push-ups, dips, muscle-ups etc...They sell online for $40-$50. I made my own pull up bar, my own paralettes, my own medicine ball. So basically the $100.00 that I would have spent at an affiliate, I used to make the tools they have in a Crossfit Gym. You can easily google DIY or homemade rings, paralettes etc for instructions on how to make them. The main site has instructional videos for you to learn technique on the olympic lifts or even the WOD's for the day. There is even a forum to go to along with the journal which is $25.00 a year and alot more instructional videos. Basically you can do the WOD, or you can download the different workouts and do whichever one of those you want to try. Need more cardio? Look at Crossfit Endurance's website.
Every workout turns into a cult following, why...maybe because it works! But they dont all work for everyone, so you either try it and like it or not....no ones forcing you into anything. Crossfit works for me, and if my co-workers wish to try it, I will start them out small and see if they like it or not. If they do great! If not, Great! I am still going to do it as it has made me stronger and faster and leaner at 37 years of age. It's not for everyone, but you wont know unti lyo utry wether yo uwill like it or not. And some days, when the workouts really tough, I dont like it, but I love myself after I finish the workout anyways!

stroutman81

I didn't see where anyone said anything about forcing people into trying it.

That's not the point, at all.

And "packaged" workout ideas like this get buried in zealotry not b/c they work - but because of a lot of fancy marketing and folks who think uncritically.

If you enjoy it and if you've been successful with it, that's great. I'm happy for you. The point, however, of communities such as this is so all sides of a question/debate/discussion can be presented and hashed out. This way uninformed people can make better informed decisions.

And the point remains, a lot of the ideas espoused by CF don't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. That doesn't mean people can't improve their fitness following such programs. It simply means they're not very grounded in scientific rational, which most aren't going to care about anyhow. The same can be said for p90x and their muscle confusion principle.

And in an already very battered field (fitness), the last thing we need is a wildly popular fad pumping out so-called CF professionals by having guys pay a grand and go to a 3 day seminar. We already have enough so-called "professionals" bringing down the state of this industry.

Different perspectives, is all. I make my living in this field. You view it as just another workout choice. No fault to either perspective. But it's obvious how we're going to see things a bit differently.

Best to you.

hill242

I appreciate your thoughts and comments on Crossfit, stroutman.

Azdak

I didn't see where anyone said anything about forcing people into trying it.

That's not the point, at all.

And "packaged" workout ideas like this get buried in zealotry not b/c they work - but because of a lot of fancy marketing and folks who think uncritically.

If you enjoy it and if you've been successful with it, that's great. I'm happy for you. The point, however, of communities such as this is so all sides of a question/debate/discussion can be presented and hashed out. This way uninformed people can make better informed decisions.

And the point remains, a lot of the ideas espoused by CF don't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. That doesn't mean people can't improve their fitness following such programs. It simply means they're not very grounded in scientific rational, which most aren't going to care about anyhow. The same can be said for p90x and their muscle confusion principle.

And in an already very battered field (fitness), the last thing we need is a wildly popular fad pumping out so-called CF professionals by having guys pay a grand and go to a 3 day seminar. We already have enough so-called "professionals" bringing down the state of this industry.

Different perspectives, is all. I make my living in this field. You view it as just another workout choice. No fault to either perspective. But it's obvious how we're going to see things a bit differently.

Best to you.

In addition, having some positive things to say about specific exercises while at the same time challenging/disagreeing with/criticizing the shortcomings of the underlying rationale and philosophy are not at conflict. Sometimes a workout routine or aspects of a routine can be positive and beneficial even if the underlying explanation and culture is hooey. I feel the same way about Pilates.

And I rank both Pilates and Crossfit way above Super Slow ;-)

stroutman81

And I rank both Pilates and Crossfit way above Super Slow ;-)

Hahaha! Don't even get me started on Super Slow.

cluther

I've been doing Crossfit for 3 and a half years. I'm a woman, 6 months shy of 50 years. I was never athletic and have arthritis in my hands and knees. (Bad genes; osteoporosis at age 42.) When I started Crossfit I couldn't squat to the 24-inch box without pain in my knees. I had to lift myself out of a chair with my arms. I was "skinny fat" at 32% body fat, but still thin for my height and weight. I cried my first day at Crossfit as I realized how weak and out of shape I was. Today I am only 15 pounds lighter, but now at 20% body fat. I can do most WODs with minor modifications (as fast as I can, but I'm not setting any records). Yes, I still have knee pain although DRAMATICALLY less. My functionality has improved tremendously. It took me 2 years to learn to do a kipping pull up. I can now do 7 in a row. I can't lunge but I can do box jumps and double unders. I run but not distance. I feel so blessed because I have a wonderful trainer who has been a Crossfit affiliate owner for many many years who focuses on form and technique first. (His gym was one of the first 20 affiliates.) Crossfit can be modified to many limitations. Correct form is the key. New knees are likely in my future but I will go in to it with amazing quads! I feel great.

hill242

That is so awesome, cluther!

jruggles656

I did crossfit for 5 month and also followed the paleo diet for two months of that and droped from 288 to 235. I recently started CF again at an actual "box" near me and I love it I used to do it at home and the box is so much better everyone I meet in the crossfit "cult" as some people call it are never full of big egos they are alwayssuportive and very motivating in my eyes theyare there to help others as well as them selves as far as the cult like areas of CF I kind of enjoy it I like being partof something that is making so many people achive great health and fitness goal even if they just threw a name onit and made it a comunity of great people. I like wearing the tshirs and telling people what it is and how intenseand fun and how great u feel aboutyour self after a work out but that could bebecause it did so much for me and I will always have a. Special place for crossfit in my heart and he people I have met doing it =D

hugh_jass

Crossfit has changed the way I workout. I do pay $85/mth to workout at a crossfit gym but the way I see it is that a personal trainer costs about $50-$60 per session and at a crossfit gym you get a lot of personal trainer attention (at least at my gym) so it's almost like buying a share in a personal trainer. What I like about crossfit is that it's efficient, no need to spend an hour or two in the gym when you can go all out and be done in 20-30 minutes. And the best part is the community. At my gym all workouts are class format, most classes are between 5-10 people. When people are done their workout they start cheering on the others who aren't done yet. It's not uncommon for high-fives and congrats to be passed around after a long and hard workout. I truly feel at home.

andreanoly

I have lost 10 inches off my hips (that is nearly a flipping FOOT!) and I can attribute it to CrossFit for the last 5 months 2-4 days a week. I'm in so much better shape than I was when I started. Have lost 35 lbs. (but realistically I have lost 71 # of fat and gained 37# of muscle). I wouldn't trade those CrossFit WOD's for anything in the world. No one can tell me they don't work.

stroutman81

Anything works for losing fat as long as it establishes a calorie deficit. Period.

Anything works for gaining muscle as long as it provides a tension overload with sufficient volume at the muscle.

A wise man once said, "As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Crossfit is merely one method of applying the foundational principles that fat loss and muscle gain are built upon. It just so happens that it's an extremely heavily marketed method that many people are flocking too. And truthfully, guided by the right coach, it can be a very reasonable approach.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad coaches and "box" owners who espouse CF methods in extremely unsafe manners. I mean, locally here I've witness time and time again olympic lifts being taught to rank novices under extreme states of fatigue, which for anyone who understands olympic lifting knows, is a huge no-no.

Like any other method though... it's about taking the good and weeding out the bad.

Glad you realized a lot of success personally... congrats!

tgh1914

All right, so here's my question. And, mind you, I do not claim to know much about XF; I'm just going off of what I've heard from friends on MFP and IRL like with bootcamps & such. But I've never participated in it formally myself. What appeals to me is not only being able to become fit aesthetically (ripped, whatever) and that is part of my goal, but being able to perform better in a wide variety of situations - a court, a field, a track, in the mountains, etc. This is my ultimate goal. And I'm not particularly interested in training too specifically (for lack of a better phrase). I can't train exactly how a pro basketball player would train, cuz I wanna do more than that. I can't just run sprints only, or just lift weights only, or just go hiking all the time - you get my point? So what's the best training for someone like me?

@stroutman - I think I understand some of your issues with XF - the recklessness, the lack of scientific approach... But what would you recommend for someone who wants to improve all around fitness & ability? I'm interested in not only increased size & strength, but also flexibility, coordination, lateral quickness, improved endurance, jumping, sprinting, power movements, etc. I'd call it 'functional ability' but I know there are some problems with that term as well. As of now I've been doing P90X, running, basketball, hiking (when I can in flat old Texas), and some of my own workouts on bars & rings. But I'm no expert and I'd like to take it to a next level. Would XF not be a good move?

I'm not particularly interested in paying for an expensive XF gym or trainer, but I'm not real certain another trainer in a regular gym would serve me any better, would it? And I am considering joining a gym as well since I think I've gone as far as P90X can take me.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

stroutman81

All right, so here's my question. And, mind you, I do not claim to know much about XF; I'm just going off of what I've heard from friends on MFP and IRL like with bootcamps & such. But I've never participated in it formally myself. What appeals to me is not only being able to become fit aesthetically (ripped, whatever) and that is part of my goal, but being able to perform better in a wide variety of situations - a court, a field, a track, in the mountains, etc. This is my ultimate goal. And I'm not particularly interested in training too specifically (for lack of a better phrase). I can't train exactly how a pro basketball player would train, cuz I wanna do more than that. I can't just run sprints only, or just lift weights only, or just go hiking all the time - you get my point? So what's the best training for someone like me?

@stroutman - I think I understand some of your issues with XF - the recklessness, the lack of scientific approach... But what would you recommend for someone who wants to improve all around fitness & ability? I'm interested in not only increased size & strength, but also flexibility, coordination, lateral quickness, improved endurance, jumping, sprinting, power movements, etc. I'd call it 'functional ability' but I know there are some problems with that term as well. As of now I've been doing P90X, running, basketball, hiking (when I can in flat old Texas), and some of my own workouts on bars & rings. But I'm no expert and I'd like to take it to a next level. Would XF not be a good move?

I'm not particularly interested in paying for an expensive XF gym or trainer, but I'm not real certain another trainer in a regular gym would serve me any better, would it? And I am considering joining a gym as well since I think I've gone as far as P90X can take me.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Good questions man. Over on my forum a while back, someone started a thread asking, "Why do you do it? Why do you train?" My reply was something along the lines of, "I want to be able to run faster, punch harder, jump higher, and climb higher than everyone else when society as we know it ends."

Of course I'm being facetious to a degree. The point is though, I'm not looking to be the most muscular guy out there. Hell, my genetics wouldn't allow for it even if I were using anabolics. I mountaineer. I mountain bike. I hike. I play flag football. Like you, I'm interested in being functionally fit.

The problem with the term functional is it has become a buzz word to mean one specific type of training, which is usually bogus. In reality, functional is context specific. What's functionally fit for a sprinter won't be functionally fit for an endurance athlete. Put differently, the development of our physical capacities must match the things we do in life.

The Crossfit mentality suggests that you can be the best at everything all at once. That's nonsense. As humans, we have a limited ability to manage stress... and the stress of training is no different. Our choices in the gym are accompanied by compromises. If we want to be the best endurance runner, we're going to have to dedicate a large volume of attention to endurance training and because of it, we're going to sacrifice strength, muscle, power, speed, etc. and vice versa.

I belong to a forum that's full of strength coaches who work with top level athletes. Recently we ran a thread on there about crossfit and I wanted to share some of the comments here. Mind you, many of these people are working with highly paid athletes. These are some of the brightest minds in the strength & conditioning field:

"Do you know one world class athlete who does crossfit? I don’t, because training to failure repeatedly outpaces the opportunity for repair."

"A better question is "Do you know any elite athlete that went through the developmental process by Crossfit?"

"Crossfit trains to mediocrity across a broad spectrum of physical traits without regard to what an actual sport demands other than their own "sport"."

"Crossfit isn't an athletic development model because it doesn't adequately develop all aspects of athleticism...period. Are there some good Crossfit affiliates out there...I'm sure and they have good coaches as well. But most seem to follow the WOD blindly from what I can tell. You can't learn proper progressions, athletic development, etc. in a weekend cert...sorry."

"crossfit didn't invent circuit training. It's a recurring trend I hear now that whenever someone throws in circuit training all of the sudden its "crossfit." Crossfit is circuit training gone ape**** with no regards to safety."

"I still firmly believe that Crossfit is a dangerous trend that hopefully will eventually go away. I hold out hope that eventually they will hurt all their clients and run out of gullible folks willing to sacrifice their bodies for a "good" workout. One wise strength coach told me that Crossfit will be like Nautilus. When I was a kid there was a Nautilus center in every town and Nautilus training was all the rage. 10 years later, it was gone. I can only hope."

"Crossfit is a Brand...and it's branded well. (no argument)
Their Brand sells the idea that they have "formulated" some type of training methodology that's revolutionary.
They have a strong following from those who benefited from their own dedication to an exercise program and gained results and now believe Crossfit is "IT"! They bring their friends and network and build comraderie within the gym which is attractive to prospective members. However their logic and workout methodology is sorry and I genuinely disagree with it. WOD is like a first-year teacher going to class with no lesson plan flying by the seat of their pants. Except the teacher had to at-least earn a degree and student-teach under a mentor for 6 months. I believe Crossfit certifications are earned in weekend.
I know 2 women (30 yrs. old; and 50 yrs. old) who have already BROKEN their wrists from falling off from a kipping pull-up to failure and 1-arm Supine TRX movement. One came from a Crossfit gym is Boston and the other from a gym in Texas. The one that broke her wrist performing a kipping pull-up was told the next day to "tough" through it. Fortunately she left and got it X-rayed and put in a cast. I train a wrestler (wrestling lessons only) who was hyped on Crossfit (a different gym) before he started with me....the kid came in mid-week and mid-season sore as he could be from 200 overhead KB swings the previous day (he had a shoulder injury that they even knew about?)....WOD's are silly and negligent. I'm discouraged to be associated with other "professionals" using this APPROACH to training. Furthermore I find the technique demonstrated on their videos horrid and their logic shallow and ignorant."

I don't share these to paint a picture of veiled hate on the XFit community. I share it to let you see some of the flaws pointed out by great minds in the field.

At the end of the day, my own training is structured based on what I'm trying to develop right now. And this changes based on my weaknesses and my goals. And when I'm not building up certain capacities, I'm at least maintaining them. As an example, right now I've no big mountain climbs scheduled and I'm not a warm weather hiker for the most part. I don't need to keep my conditioning levels high. So they're on maintenance... 2-3 brief sessions per week that are mostly steady state work.

What's prioritized right now is strength and power work. I'll have 4-5 sessions per week for this. And even within this category... certain things are being emphasized while others are being put to maintenance. For instance, I might have a lagging muscle group or movement pattern so I'll throw more volume at that and put other things on maintenance.

This exemplifies how we have a limited ability to deal with stress, so you have to divvy it up how it best meets your needs at the current time.

If I were to simply look at everything I like doing, you'd see that I enjoy endurance based stuff, pure anaerobic based stuff, and other things that are a mixture. Crossfit would run me through the ringer trying to bring everything up all at once. Based on all of the research in this field, the advice from all of the pioneers in this field, and from my own experience working with numerous athletes though, my improvements would be watered down compared to a sensibly planned/periodized approach.

That should be a start to your answer but I'm certainly open to continued conversation.

SHBoss1673

Excellent post Steve!

As you are far more knowledgeable than I in this field, I would like to extend that question posed by tharrop and maybe become a bit more specific.
For myself, I do a lot of team based contact and high agility sports. I play football in the fall, and baseball in the summer, I know most don't think of baseball as an explosive sport, but if you think about it, it really is. I play center field and pitch, both positions require very fast zero to maximum speed with sudden directional changes. I am also a very fast player and a base stealer, which just means more stop and start (and injuries apparently). In football I play "center field" as well, free safety to be exact, another position with a lot of direction change and stop and start (although not as much as baseball oddly enough).
So that being said, my question is this:
While being low body fat and looking lean and strong is nice, I'm all about performance enhancement. As such, I tend to focus on agility, quickness, and reaction time (AQR) drills (plyometrics, lower and mid body drills), but I also try to enhance some of my endurance (although not to the degree that I do my AQR stuff). Do you think that trying to get in a few days of traditional weight training would be pushing it and cause my body to fight against itself? Up until now I've been trying to get in 2 days that I do basically about 15 minutes of light steady state cardio to warm up, 45 minutes to 1 hour plus of weight training, then about 10 minutes just to cool down and stretch, then I do 3 full days of hard AQR training, then 2 days of steady state cardio for about 45 minutes to an hour (moderate level). You think I'm spreading it around to much? I have noticed that I have a difficult time gaining significant muscle mass, even though I do eat at a slight calorie surplus most days and eat very clean on most days. Essentially, I'm just looking to keep my existing speed, maybe increase start time, and increase my "functional" strength (there's that word, but in this case I mean, leg and rotational speed for pitching and batting).
So think I'm spreading myself to thin?

Sorry Tharrop, I didn't mean to hijack your question.

Azdak

All right, so here's my question. And, mind you, I do not claim to know much about XF; I'm just going off of what I've heard from friends on MFP and IRL like with bootcamps & such. But I've never participated in it formally myself. What appeals to me is not only being able to become fit aesthetically (ripped, whatever) and that is part of my goal, but being able to perform better in a wide variety of situations - a court, a field, a track, in the mountains, etc. This is my ultimate goal. And I'm not particularly interested in training too specifically (for lack of a better phrase). I can't train exactly how a pro basketball player would train, cuz I wanna do more than that. I can't just run sprints only, or just lift weights only, or just go hiking all the time - you get my point? So what's the best training for someone like me?

@stroutman - I think I understand some of your issues with XF - the recklessness, the lack of scientific approach... But what would you recommend for someone who wants to improve all around fitness & ability? I'm interested in not only increased size & strength, but also flexibility, coordination, lateral quickness, improved endurance, jumping, sprinting, power movements, etc. I'd call it 'functional ability' but I know there are some problems with that term as well. As of now I've been doing P90X, running, basketball, hiking (when I can in flat old Texas), and some of my own workouts on bars & rings. But I'm no expert and I'd like to take it to a next level. Would XF not be a good move?

I'm not particularly interested in paying for an expensive XF gym or trainer, but I'm not real certain another trainer in a regular gym would serve me any better, would it? And I am considering joining a gym as well since I think I've gone as far as P90X can take me.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Good questions man. Over on my forum a while back, someone started a thread asking, "Why do you do it? Why do you train?" My reply was something along the lines of, "I want to be able to run faster, punch harder, jump higher, and climb higher than everyone else when society as we know it ends."

Of course I'm being facetious to a degree. The point is though, I'm not looking to be the most muscular guy out there. Hell, my genetics wouldn't allow for it even if I were using anabolics. I mountaineer. I mountain bike. I hike. I play flag football. Like you, I'm interested in being functionally fit.

The problem with the term functional is it has become a buzz word to mean one specific type of training, which is usually bogus. In reality, functional is context specific. What's functionally fit for a sprinter won't be functionally fit for an endurance athlete. Put differently, the development of our physical capacities must match the things we do in life.

The Crossfit mentality suggests that you can be the best at everything all at once. That's nonsense. As humans, we have a limited ability to manage stress... and the stress of training is no different. Our choices in the gym are accompanied by compromises. If we want to be the best endurance runner, we're going to have to dedicate a large volume of attention to endurance training and because of it, we're going to sacrifice strength, muscle, power, speed, etc. and vice versa.

I belong to a forum that's full of strength coaches who work with top level athletes. Recently we ran a thread on there about crossfit and I wanted to share some of the comments here. Mind you, many of these people are working with highly paid athletes. These are some of the brightest minds in the strength & conditioning field:

"Do you know one world class athlete who does crossfit? I don’t, because training to failure repeatedly outpaces the opportunity for repair."

"A better question is "Do you know any elite athlete that went through the developmental process by Crossfit?"

"Crossfit trains to mediocrity across a broad spectrum of physical traits without regard to what an actual sport demands other than their own "sport"."

"Crossfit isn't an athletic development model because it doesn't adequately develop all aspects of athleticism...period. Are there some good Crossfit affiliates out there...I'm sure and they have good coaches as well. But most seem to follow the WOD blindly from what I can tell. You can't learn proper progressions, athletic development, etc. in a weekend cert...sorry."

"crossfit didn't invent circuit training. It's a recurring trend I hear now that whenever someone throws in circuit training all of the sudden its "crossfit." Crossfit is circuit training gone ape**** with no regards to safety."

"I still firmly believe that Crossfit is a dangerous trend that hopefully will eventually go away. I hold out hope that eventually they will hurt all their clients and run out of gullible folks willing to sacrifice their bodies for a "good" workout. One wise strength coach told me that Crossfit will be like Nautilus. When I was a kid there was a Nautilus center in every town and Nautilus training was all the rage. 10 years later, it was gone. I can only hope."

"Crossfit is a Brand...and it's branded well. (no argument)
Their Brand sells the idea that they have "formulated" some type of training methodology that's revolutionary.
They have a strong following from those who benefited from their own dedication to an exercise program and gained results and now believe Crossfit is "IT"! They bring their friends and network and build comraderie within the gym which is attractive to prospective members. However their logic and workout methodology is sorry and I genuinely disagree with it. WOD is like a first-year teacher going to class with no lesson plan flying by the seat of their pants. Except the teacher had to at-least earn a degree and student-teach under a mentor for 6 months. I believe Crossfit certifications are earned in weekend.
I know 2 women (30 yrs. old; and 50 yrs. old) who have already BROKEN their wrists from falling off from a kipping pull-up to failure and 1-arm Supine TRX movement. One came from a Crossfit gym is Boston and the other from a gym in Texas. The one that broke her wrist performing a kipping pull-up was told the next day to "tough" through it. Fortunately she left and got it X-rayed and put in a cast. I train a wrestler (wrestling lessons only) who was hyped on Crossfit (a different gym) before he started with me....the kid came in mid-week and mid-season sore as he could be from 200 overhead KB swings the previous day (he had a shoulder injury that they even knew about?)....WOD's are silly and negligent. I'm discouraged to be associated with other "professionals" using this APPROACH to training. Furthermore I find the technique demonstrated on their videos horrid and their logic shallow and ignorant."

I don't share these to paint a picture of veiled hate on the XFit community. I share it to let you see some of the flaws pointed out by great minds in the field.

At the end of the day, my own training is structured based on what I'm trying to develop right now. And this changes based on my weaknesses and my goals. And when I'm not building up certain capacities, I'm at least maintaining them. As an example, right now I've no big mountain climbs scheduled and I'm not a warm weather hiker for the most part. I don't need to keep my conditioning levels high. So they're on maintenance... 2-3 brief sessions per week that are mostly steady state work.

What's prioritized right now is strength and power work. I'll have 4-5 sessions per week for this. And even within this category... certain things are being emphasized while others are being put to maintenance. For instance, I might have a lagging muscle group or movement pattern so I'll throw more volume at that and put other things on maintenance.

This exemplifies how we have a limited ability to deal with stress, so you have to divvy it up how it best meets your needs at the current time.

If I were to simply look at everything I like doing, you'd see that I enjoy endurance based stuff, pure anaerobic based stuff, and other things that are a mixture. Crossfit would run me through the ringer trying to bring everything up all at once. Based on all of the research in this field, the advice from all of the pioneers in this field, and from my own experience working with numerous athletes though, my improvements would be watered down compared to a sensibly planned/periodized approach.

That should be a start to your answer but I'm certainly open to continued conversation.

Well stated. I have seen similar conclusions and opinions on other professional forums. Sometimes I enjoy looking at the crossfit videos and picking up an idea or two for some new compound exercises. But it's an unfortunate fact of the fitness business that too often people are not satisfied with solid, scientifically-based, focused training programs. They feel compelled to develop workout ideas into a cultlike group that becomes centered around tribal loyalty and dogmatic purity.

RangerSteve

Anything works for losing fat as long as it establishes a calorie deficit. Period.

Anything works for gaining muscle as long as it provides a tension overload with sufficient volume at the muscle.

A wise man once said, "As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

Crossfit is merely one method of applying the foundational principles that fat loss and muscle gain are built upon. It just so happens that it's an extremely heavily marketed method that many people are flocking too. And truthfully, guided by the right coach, it can be a very reasonable approach.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad coaches and "box" owners who espouse CF methods in extremely unsafe manners. I mean, locally here I've witness time and time again olympic lifts being taught to rank novices under extreme states of fatigue, which for anyone who understands olympic lifting knows, is a huge no-no.

Like any other method though... it's about taking the good and weeding out the bad.

Glad you realized a lot of success personally... congrats!

^^^^^

People need to listen to this guy. You hit the nail on the head with the high rep to near failure with the olympic lifts. How someone could possibly think this is a good idea is beyond any sort of rational comprehension. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with 100+ pounds over your head and a heart rate of 195.

tgh1914

I appreciate the responses here. And no apology necessary, SHBoss, your questions are similar to mine too.

I get it that I need to realize that I can only 'effectively' focus on a few things at a time. So I'll need to just be kinda picky as to what I'm going to spend my energy & time on improving, while just hoping to maintain in some other areas. So, I'm probably done with P90X & will do a more traditional (3 days of) weight lifting at a gym instead, and I just can't give up running all together so maybe just once or twice a week.