CrossFit?

Is this a trap? It looks like you are doing crossfit in your profile pic....

I love it. But you have to be smart. I'm 44 so I don't expect to do the things that the 20 somethings are doing, and I'm super careful about knowing my limits. Make sure the coach is good and giving common sense advice. Make sure the coach goes over form, EVERY TIME even if you know what you are doing. Don't add weight until you know your form is good.

It challenges me and I've never been this strong, so I'm a cross fit believer.

mjudd1990 wrote: »

As a budding orthopaedic surgeon, I love it. Crossfit is gonna help put my kids through college.

Actually, runners will. New runners have a 20-26% injury rate, depending on which study you look at. And there are way more runners than Crossfitters. You'll be rich.

I am endurance athlete turned body builder turned power lifter turned crossfitter. I've never been more happy with my training and my body as I have been since switching to crossfit. I've been at it for six months now and (so far) no one at my box has had any injuries. The coaches are amazing and have a basis in power and oly lifting, so form is always paramount.

mjudd1990 wrote: »

As a budding orthopaedic surgeon, I love it. Crossfit is gonna help put my kids through college.

I so hate it when doctors say things like this.
There is a guy I meet at the pull-up bars at the park. He says: "My friend is an orthopedist. He says nobody over 50 years should run because he sees former runners whose hips are shot!"
I have another friend -- a physician -- with whom I play tennis, who says his orthopedist tells him that he sees all kinds of Crossfit people, including one who tore his Achilles tendon doing box jumps. This orthopedist, my friend says, contends that Crossfit is INCREDIBLY dangerous!
Now, you would think that doctors, of all people, would understand that they see only those people who are injured. They have no idea how many people actually do a thing, and they have no idea what the rate of injury is if they are only judging from what comes in their door.
Plus, my guess is that being out of shape is a much bigger threat to your health and happiness than any form of popular exercise is.
I'll take my chances.
AND, it so happens that the best study of rates of injury in Crossfit suggests that the rate is comparable to the injury rate of weight lifting generally, which is much lower than the rates for jogging and/or for cutting-and-running sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, etc.
Maybe we should all avoid those sports too, doc?

Obviously all sports/physical activities carry with them an inherent risk of injury. And of course inactivity and sedentary lifestyles are much more at fault for most of the health problems we see than some weekend warrior trying to do hang snatches for time. As a health care professional, I'll try to refrain from sarcasm or having a sense of humor from now on.

tufel wrote: »

mjudd1990 wrote: »

As a budding orthopaedic surgeon, I love it. Crossfit is gonna help put my kids through college.

I so hate it when doctors say things like this.
There is a guy I meet at the pull-up bars at the park. He says: "My friend is an orthopedist. He says nobody over 50 years should run because he sees former runners whose hips are shot!"
I have another friend -- a physician -- with whom I play tennis, who says his orthopedist tells him that he sees all kinds of Crossfit people, including one who tore his Achilles tendon doing box jumps. This orthopedist, my friend says, contends that Crossfit is INCREDIBLY dangerous!
Now, you would think that doctors, of all people, would understand that they see only those people who are injured. They have no idea how many people actually do a thing, and they have no idea what the rate of injury is if they are only judging from what comes in their door.
Plus, my guess is that being out of shape is a much bigger threat to your health and happiness than any form of popular exercise is.
I'll take my chances.
AND, it so happens that the best study of rates of injury in Crossfit suggests that the rate is comparable to the injury rate of weight lifting generally, which is much lower than the rates for jogging and/or for cutting-and-running sports like basketball, soccer, tennis, etc.
Maybe we should all avoid those sports too, doc?

I'm with you. Many doctors act like they had not practice or livelihood whatsoever before CrossFit came around. Not.

I think all they can really say is close to 100% of the injured CrossFitters they see got injured doing CrossFit. At the same time, the same can be said for Tennis, Gold, Bowling, Soccer, Football, or any other sport that can lead to injury.

I've injured myself 2 times while doing CrossFit in the past year.

1st - I strained a muscle in my quad doing a basic lunge with a plate overhead. Funny thing, I did the same thing about the year before in the gym on my own (before starting CrossFit) doing Bulgarian Split Squat.

2nd - I strained ligaments in my shoulder warming up for a bench press progression. It wasn't heavy weight, or a timed WOD, and bench press isn't unique to CrossFit. It was just one of those stupid things.

Overall, I actually find my self being injured less (that's not the same as being less sore, trust me) doing CrossFit than when I was lifting in the gym on my own. Chalk that up to having a coach that watches my form closely, and if he isn't happy with something I'm doing, he's not going to stay quiet.

I say try CrossFit out and make up your own mind. My wife started earlier this year after watching me for quite a while and she loves it. It's the first real exercise that has hooked her since she was in college 20+ years ago. It's honestly changing her life, already changed mine, and might be just what the doctor (a different one) ordered.

Cherimoose wrote: »

mjudd1990 wrote: »

As a budding orthopaedic surgeon, I love it. Crossfit is gonna help put my kids through college.

Actually, runners will. New runners have a 20-26% injury rate, depending on which study you look at. And there are way more runners than Crossfitters. You'll be rich.

Let's not get carried away. How many running injuries are of the "OMG I need an orthopedic surgeon" variety? Not many. Not many people getting surgery for shin splints and other new runner injuries.

I wouldn't have touched Crossfit 5 years ago and many of the negatives you hear about Crossfit is from how it was run 5 years ago.

1. When Crossfit started becoming popular, Greg Glassman (founder) said that someone who did Crossfit could both win marathons and powerlifting meets without changing their training. This was quickly proven false, but now Crossfit markets itself for what it is...Crossfit.

2. To become a Crossfit coach, you used to have to pay $2,000 and go to a weekend class where there was no pass/fail test...essentially, if you paid your money, you could be a "certified" coach and open your own gym. A good write-up of the Crossfit certification course was done on T-Nation and it was downright scary. However, they've remedied that since then and they're stricter on who becomes certified. Incidents of Rhabdo and other stupid injuries have actually gone down.

3. Programming was:

However, most gyms have legit programming, especially after it came out that the several winners of the Crossfit games didn't even do Crossfit style programming.

4. Form is stressed over speed, where the previously it didn't matter how bad your form was as long as the movement was completed. Other than the competitions, most coaches are stressing form (even if it sacrifices time). I credit Crossfit with bringing in strength coaches (like Mark Rippetoe, Dave Tate, and other high end coaches) to instruct their trainers and athletes.

5. My one knock about Crossfit is that most gyms are well over $100 a month (upwards of $150-$175 a month in my area). My buddy explained its like getting a personal training session whenever you go, but at some point you no longer need a trainer (unless you're planning on competing).

I'll probably never try Crossfit, mainly because of the price. I also don't like group classes and working out is my escape where I don't have to deal with people. However, I'm not going to knock anyone who does it, but I do caution that you do your homework on the gym. Quality control has gotten better, but its not where it should be quite yet and you have some unknowledgable people opening gyms.