What's crossfit ?

Okay, piggybacking on this... Why do so many people dislike Crossfit?

Okay, piggybacking on this... Why do so many people dislike Crossfit?

In a nutshell crossfit is The Jack of All fitness aspects the Master of none of them.

This is pretty much it. Take gymnastics, olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and whatever any other expert has brought to the table and you get this chimeric cult of koolaid drinking addicts.

Crossfit is essentially a deconstruction of fitness. Their model of performance relies on mechanical output of the exercise with the highest goal being power. This is why you see the kip implemented in high-rep pull ups. So long as they cross a full range of motion from fully extended to fully raised over the bar, the net work of a single pull up, work in physics terms ie force (weight) X distance (pull up height) is equal. Power is measured as work done over time (Newtons * meters / seconds) , so the kip is implemented as a technique to get the most work done in the least time.

There's a lot of criticism against the kip. First is that it's a cheated pull up. This is more of an argument by definition, and most examples used show people failing the kip and not reaching a full range of motion. Trainers are instructed to police their gyms of that behavior. But so long as the full range of motion is reached, the body is performing that work; the momentum becomes additional stress on the shoulders to rotate the kinetic energy back upwards.

The second common argument is that it isn't safe. If that's the case, then all of the high rep exercises should be unsafe as well, particularly the weightlifting and powerlifting ones, especially when executed in tabata intervals. The body adapts. Now, it is true that athletes unaccustomed to this level of stress on their joints are at a greater risk because of their ability to push themselves to the point of injury, but sedentary individuals face little if any risk because their body cannot handle the workload necessary to injure themselves. Seasoned crossfitters face few problems from properly executed exercises.

The third common argument is that kipping pull ups are ineffective in a life saving situation. While strict pull up performance can suffer after training with only kipping, you'd be hard pressed to find someone doing high-rep kips without managing a single strict pull up. Further, one of the milestone goals of crossfit is to perform a muscle-up. That's when you pull yourself up on the rings, flip your grip over at the top, and then push out of a dip position so that your arms are at your hips. This level of advancement certainly qualifies as potentially life-saving, more so than just a pullup, and it's an intended goal for every crossfitter.

Now, there is a problem with how crossfit's handled, and that comes from it's franchising. Gym owners think they can get in on an expensive fad so they jump in without having a clue. If you're looking to join, investigate your gym first. If they have an introductory course for newcomers, that's a good sign. If they have a strict and rehearsed explanation of the squat, olympic lifts, and anything else with heavy attention paid to technique, then you're in a good place. leighann881's video with death-gripped cleans is clearly the work of idiots.

Through crossfit I've found the most diverse and informed resources for all kinds of skills. Every coach I've met is repulsed by imperfect form, though some trainers's egos for their times have inexcusably let that slip.



this honestly isn't a sales pitch, I just felt like some clarification was in order. An auspicious first post, I'm aware.

sedentary individuals face little if any risk because their body cannot handle the workload necessary to injure themselves.