crossfit

I'm not a fan of 'monkeybars' either. When I was 3 years old I fell off some and cracked my head open.

Personally, I think that regular cross training (elliptical, cycling, treadmill) + weights + flexibility training is generally good enough for me!

You will find people who love it and are fanatical about crossfit, then others who want nothing to do with it, and even others that think it is a good workout, but not the be all and end all.

I think it depends on your needs for working out. Crossfit can be great if you are motivated by others, like having some accountability, etc.

Most Crossfit places have a beginners or essentials class. So if you are not in that good of shape, you can ramp up before joining the general class.

I would say try it! They usually give you a week for free.

I have not done an official crossfit at the gym type workout, but the workouts I do are very similar in form.

The pluses for crossfit is that it works your muscles in a quite different way than steady state cardio. That means it also works your cardiovascular system in a different way as well. It is quite metabolically demanding, and has more of an effect on your metabolism for the hours (some say up to 36 or more) after you workout.

With this you can get a workout done in 30 minutes or so that will kick the behind of anything you do on an elliptical or even running. I don't run, but doing crossfit type workouts made me much more capable in running with much better speed and endurance.

The potential problems are that part of crossfit is doing as many of a certain exercise as you can in a certain time. That can lead to people being more focused on numbers of repetitions rather than correct form. The focus in a good gym will be on doing the maximum number you can do in the time allowed with good form. Some gyms just push speed, avoid them if them count things done in bad form as completing a repetition.

The other thing crossfit does not do very well is build up lots of strength. This is not to say it does not build strength, especially mentally, but for sheer strength building, there are faster, and likely better ways to do it.

The bad: the teaching of bad form on lifts that could seriously hurt you, doing high-rep olympic lifts, no logical system of progressive overload, little/no screening, no programs tailored to specific needs of individuals

True. All affiliates are not created equal. I've been to one that was overly competitive and only pushed for time and coaches never corrected form. This is not only ridiculous, but it is dangerous. The one I went to like this was dreadful. I went once and never went back. It can vary a lot gym to gym.

CrossFit will challenge you.
It will be a mental workout.
It will be a physical workout.
It has brought me to tears, of pain, fear and joy!
But it will give you strength, internal and external.

Give it a try. It is just like any other gym or workout, it is about the trainers and the people. Many CrossFits are like a family, close to the point of clique-ish. I go to a Box (CrossFit gym) where I put in an awesome hour of sweat and strength, and then I go home. Some WODs make me feel like a rock star. Some make me want to quit. And some make me want to come back every day, every hour until I can do what I couldn't before. But I somehow manage to get through the hard ones and improve. Just make sure you focus on your workout, not what the CF All Stars are doing next to you, that can be totally intimidating!

I would be happy to give you more details, message me.


Give it a try. You have nothing to lose.

Give it a try! I've just started recently, and ı must say I enjoy it. It's varied, challenging, gives a great workout, and it's efficient. Not sure if I want to give up straight heavy lifting yet though.

While Crossfit does have some good basic exercise routines, they also have WOD that are filled with lifts and other exercises that most people never heard or and don't know how to do safely. I do understand the benefit of having a lot of variety in our workouts, but the extreme nature of the Crossfit program has made me not want to even consider participating in it.

I am sure some Crossfit programs are fun and the coaches make sure that people are not doing more than is safe, but from all I've heard, those gyms are in the minority. The majority of Crossfit gyms seem to focus more on military style extremism, with Cossfit participants, proudly showing off photos of bloody and blistered hands after a weight lifting routine, and making others that didn't do quite as much damage to their body to get through a workout feel inadequate.

I feel the Glassman guy that started Crossfit is the inspiration for much of this extremism, especially when he makes statements such as

"It can kill you," he said. "I've always been completely honest about that."

See "Getting Fit, Even If It Kills You" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/fashion/thursdaystyles/22Fitness.html?pagewanted=all

It's sad that something that could have done as much good as a exercise franchise that offers a lot of variety has become so much less effective at helping people with their fitness goals than it would have been without the extreme workouts and tough guy attitudes.