Crossfit- Your thoughts/opinions

hahaha. I saw the title of the thread and was like "oh health gal is gonna be on this!" I was surprised it wasn't until page 3! This is someone asking what you think about crossfit- totally aprpopriate to say you don't like it

Ok. So my two cents: I love crossfit work outs, but form is uber important. i haven't ever gone to a crossfit gym, but i do bear complexes, 20/20/20, etc. The exercises are totally awesome if you are looking for intensity, which I am. I view it as a substitute for HIIT cardio, which is part of my program. I do not consider it lifting, as my lifts are heavy. Crossfit stuff is done with warm up level weights.

That's my 2 cents.

that makes the timed stuff make more sense

Obviously, CrossFit isn't for everyone. I do CF-style workouts and love the variety and the intensity.
But attending a box is out for me because of the expense and because I'm just not into the social aspect.
As for CF being a "cult", that's just BS. Same thing could be said of distance runners, weightlifters, and any other fitness activity that deviates from the norm of "treadmill for 30 minutes and a class three times a week".

I'm leary of the olympic lifts and doing them either for a set amount of time or a set number of reps. Without proper form you are running some serious injury risks. I know people who really enjoy it though. I think it depends on your goals. If CF motivates you then go ahead do it and enjoy. If not, then I think you can get much farther much faster with traditional body building type resistance training or cardio stuff if you want to do cardio stuff.

I have a friend that is really into it, and she looks like a different person than when I met her. Prior to doing it she ran her first 1/2 marathon in about 2hrs 35min. She's short so it was a jog pace for her. When she was younger she was an athlete (gymnast, college cheerleader). Doing crossfit helped her lose the last of her pregnancy pounds from 2 kids. More extraordinary however, she just ran a tough mudder (about the same distance as a half marathon, but with 25 or so killer obstacles along the way) in 2hrs and 5minutes. She has 6 pack abs, super low body fat. She looks like an olympic gymnast. All this in 45mins a day of cross fit, and a very disciplined healthy diet.

I'd love to do it, but A) I can't afford it and I just got arthroscopic knee surgery, dr. said nothing resembling plyo for me due to some high grade articular cartilage damage from a prior injury. But, I'd say if you have the money to shell out for the gym, it definitely gives some drastic results.

2. Cult-like. You have to conform, wear the Crossfit clothing, do Paleo diet, and wear compression socks or you're not cool. :laugh:

Told ya. Try disagreeing with the tribe in their online forum and see what happens.

the amount of posts saying that people were able to do a crossfit work out at planet fitness is really turning me off of crossfit.

i thought the two were basically diametrically opposed. i hate PF but its the only gym thats on my way home.

I like how it challenges my body, but about a mile from my house is a park with a mile track, with workout stations 1/4 mile from each other. Plus I live in SoCal, so the weather is good for being outside most days. I did some introduction classes, looked up on youtube, found cheaper alternatives basically. None of the exercises I do are so incredible that I feel concerned about proper form (push-ups, knees to elbows, burpies, jump roping, etc.).

More power to those who like the cross-fit atmosphere, I like the workout, but prefer the expense of the way I do it.

I joined CF gym last October and only went 2 days a week, now I go 4 to 5 times a week. I am by far one of the slowest and I am always getting corrected on my form. At my box form come first then we work on strength and speed. Form is very important to prevent injury as was mentioned several times here.

I totally went out of my comfort zone to walk into this box, i was affraid that because I basically have never excercised until early last year I might be looked at as weak.

Instead I walked into complete encouragment, made some great friends and am getting stronger, my shape is changing and I feel great.

I actually dead lifted 200 yesterday, which I know is not much for the guys out there...but for me it was a great accoplishment and was able to do the WOD as RX's for the dead lifts.....

It seems you are like minded and if you find the right box will LOVE it

Yes, but MANY Crossfit boxes ARE into pushing people to go to the extreme.

While some Crossfit boxes and coaches can be reasonable, encouraging participants to push their bodies too hard and go to the extreme is what the Crossfit organization is all about -- and why I always recommend that people avoid it.

I think "reckless" is a good word that describes their methods.