Is crossfit worth it?

Anyhow, I let the talk about crossfit keep me from looking into it for several years. Then a couple of years ago, I was seeing my chiropractor for an injury that I had caused myself and mentioned that crossfit sounded too dangerous. He told me that I had a remarkable ability to injure myself all by myself. Maybe I should let crossfit have a go. At the very least, I'd have someone else to blame for my next injury. In my time in crossfit, the only injury I suffered was a minor strain from trying to deadlift too much weight. I suppose that just makes me another crossfit injury statistic and is evidence that crossfit is dangerous and should be avoided.

Anyhow, I let the talk about crossfit keep me from looking into it for several years. Then a couple of years ago, I was seeing my chiropractor for an injury that I had caused myself and mentioned that crossfit sounded too dangerous. He told me that I had a remarkable ability to injure myself all by myself. Maybe I should let crossfit have a go. At the very least, I'd have someone else to blame for my next injury. In my time in crossfit, the only injury I suffered was a minor strain from trying to deadlift too much weight. I suppose that just makes me another crossfit injury statistic and is evidence that crossfit is dangerous and should be avoided.

:flowerforyou:

And to answer the OPs question:

No one can assess your financial situation and tell you what you can, and cannot, afford except for you.

I will say though that CrossFit has completely changed my life for the better. It's the only workout program that I have been able to stick with for more than a year and there are several reasons why:

1. I like doing activities where I can benchmark my progress. Certainly you can do this with other workouts. I just like the CrossFit workouts.

2. Our class sizes are usually around 20 people and there are two trainers on the floor. Between warmup, strength and then preparing for the WOD, almost everyone gets some personal attention. Also, they make themselves available during open gym and after WODs to help people out - and that's included in our price.

3. Bumper plates.

4. The community. Some people say it's cult-like. I think that's bullsh&t. If CrossFit is cult-like then so is any running group, biking group or team sport. Anytime you get a group of people together who have the same interests, they are going to want to hang out together. Prior to joining CF, I had very few friends here because I was a recent transplant. I've met some amazing people at my box and we are now friends inside and outside of the gym. They are the reason why I get up in the morning at 5am to go workout.

5. Results. I haz them.

Watch out....your bias is showing. As a PT, you have every reason to hate on CF.

CrossFit is a great way to learn how to lift, especially if you are too shy/embarrassed to use a weight room or can't afford a personal trainer. We have a 6 week, 3X/week, beginner training course called elements, which then transitions into beginner WODS and then into the real deal. Every box is different. If the trainers aren't taking the time to teach you, find a new one.

Thing is I don't HATE CF. I mentioned here a couple of times that I like the HIIT approach of it. My opinion was for the OP: probably not a good idea to try to learn a clean and jerk right off the bat. Would probably be better to strengthen body first with front squats, deadlifts and standing shoulder presses before attempting to learn clean and jerk. I don't know of any trainers that would take a brand new inexperienced client and have them start of "learning" a lift like the clean and jerk from day one.

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

So, learning the lift with a PVC pipe is too advanced for you?

Again, you are assuming that all CF boxes are starting people off with weighted C&J right away. You're wrong.

Well, this is quite a different tone from your first post. Perhaps if you were this balanced in your opinion the first time, CF-ers wouldn't get defensive.

There are bad boxes, there are good boxes. There are also bad trainers, and there are good trainers. There are lazy athletes, and then there are athletes who take the time to learn. You can't paint us all with one broad brush.

Actually, I just realized.. I was feeding my 3 month old when I was trying to finish the post. Aaaaalmost had enough nap time to finish..

I apologize for my tone.

I learned how to lift from a trainer who had a college degree, advocated crossfit, yet didn't have a basic understanding of human physiology and the mechanics of muscle and bone and ligaments working as a machine. I had to pick up Ripptoe's Starting Strength, which is where the images above are from.

His whole thing is that any horizontal movement of the loaded bar creates a moment arm, increasing the lateral stress on joints and reducing the total amount of weight that can be lifted with that form.

If you go to the classes, the crossfit training camps that they have, the trainers there don't teach much form either, and there are several accounts of how the creators of crossfit kept lifting closer to their old style than with crossfit, while charging several thousand per person and not teaching them anything more than their style of HIIT.

It's hypocrisy at it's worst, and it's dishonest. The old phrase fool me once means, to me, that if you've determined that someone is dishonest, stop associating with them. But Crossfit is a brand, and it's easier to sell something new and somewhat shiny with blemishes, rather than embrace the knowledge that lifters have gained through their hard work and efforts over the last hundred years.

I'm just one of those weird people who can't get past that, I'm sorry.

And, what I'm saying is that you are painting with a very broad brush. In our Elements class all we focus on is form. And then people are graduated to the beginner class. And THEN people are graduated to the actual CF class.

it can be done at home, with a reasonable equipment investment.

the crossfit gyms around me require a week or two of classes before joining the gym where they teach you some basic olympic lifts.

i'm thinking about taking the class to get may feet wet, and maybe do a month at the gym, then do it from home.

In my opinion it's absolutely not worth the money. You'd be better served finding somebody to go to the gym with. Your profile says you're in Seattle, I'm sure you could even find someone on MFP in the Seattle area that would want a gym buddy. Paying four times as much for Crossfit isn't worth it especially when you could do the workouts on your own to be honest.

This. Also Crossfit is notorious for ridiculous exercises that promote terrible form and potential injury. I would never spend $140/mo for the risk of hurting myself and getting put out of commission for weeks or more. Stick to your gym, and practice good form on your own.

Anyhow, I let the talk about crossfit keep me from looking into it for several years. Then a couple of years ago, I was seeing my chiropractor for an injury that I had caused myself and mentioned that crossfit sounded too dangerous. He told me that I had a remarkable ability to injure myself all by myself. Maybe I should let crossfit have a go. At the very least, I'd have someone else to blame for my next injury. In my time in crossfit, the only injury I suffered was a minor strain from trying to deadlift too much weight. I suppose that just makes me another crossfit injury statistic and is evidence that crossfit is dangerous and should be avoided.

Actually, you summed up the article that Christian Thibaudeau wrote last month for T-Nation. It's interesting you compare what he wrote to your firsthand experience, it sounds like his theories about why crossfit shows a lot of results quickly is spot on

http://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-apology

I'm an old fan of CT's stuff. Stopped keeping up with t-nation years ago though when they seemed to focus more on their latest super-supp (Indigo, maybe?) than solid information. I'll check this link out though. Thanks.

I get bored with the gym, and the workout classes are never convenient times, and it's about 15 minutes in the opposite direction where I live (anyway, giving excuses).

Those are all excuses. $140 a month, how many hours of work is that for you? Is it enough to keep what are pretty flimsy excuses at bay? Why do you believe that joining a crossfit gym will make you dedicated and consistent?

In my experience, the only people I've known to stick with crossfit were the ones that were sticking with working out consistently prior.

Hell, for $140 a month you could buy a couple hours worth of sessions each month with a personal trainer, and make sure that you have a dialed in workout that won't involve someone pushing you to get this prize:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-robertson/crossfit-rhabdomyolysis_b_3977598.html



I can't ding you on the price, because I spend at least that for my personal sessions right now.

I was thinking the same thing. if you are going to spend money, then spend it on personal training sessions.

$140 a month gets really tired really fast. When I was paying 125 for kickboxing, the month would fly by and I was overdrafting. So I quit after 6 months and was at Planet. then I moved and quit Planet and joined Gold's Gym and I found exactly what I needed. I don't do personal training but they have classes I sometimes take.

If money is even a tiny bit of an issue, I would think twice of committing to a monthly payment of $140.00.

Do you even know the injury rate for untrained overweight runners? Hint: it's really high.

I won't disagree with you there. It happens everyday. There will invariably be new people who will try a new program of any sort, not have the basics down, and then get injured. I've had group fitness classes in Kbox where even after instructing new members to turn their supporting foot towards the direction of their roundhouse, some won't and end up twisting their hip or knee. Injury is GOING to happen. Most will happen with lack of focus, lack of form, too much resistance or challenge, fatigue and ego. And it can happen anywhere.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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