Off-Topic

i just know a lot of army guys that do it. that was more of a personal experience thing.

I've thought about getting into it, but the cost and the general culture was a turn-off for me. I just like to do my thing then go on with my day.

I can't help but think of this whenever I hear about the Crossfit Games, though.

To each their own. Not all crossfitters preach about it and plenty of exercise folks go batshit crazy about P90X and Insanity (I think there's a thread dedicated to P90X on this board) or running (there's a running thread too).

It is definitely cultish, but I've tried many different workout programs over the years and have seen the best results, by far, from crossfit. No need to hate!

what are the downsides to crossfit. Ive done it twice. I was sore the next day, and I cant really jumprope. But within a week im sure I would master it.

This blog article pretty much sums up the criticisms of crossfit. There are a lot of crossfit gyms that properly alter their programs to compensate for these negatives, but a lot of them don't and end up being injury factories. So not all crossfit gyms are bad or anything, you just need to be careful.

If the article was tl;dr, the main criticisms are:

The use of high-rep Olympic lifts for time
Making exercise into a competitive event
The use of kipping pull-ups and other joint-harmful gymnastic-type exercises
WOD (Workout of the day) being completely arbitrary
encourages over-training
impractical for training for specific sports
too much emphasis on social vs. individual
it's creator/head guy doesn't use it or even work out

These people are all absolutely out of their minds. I work out 6-7 days a week and in general would put most of these kids to shame in terms of strength/speed, but they love talking down to me when talking about workouts. Hilarious.

Yeah, in terms of their national competitions most of their top performers seem to be either women, low bodyweight males and/or former high-level athletes who were in great condition before they had ever started crossfit. Being 6'3, 225 lb my elbows are pretty sensitive to normal pullup volume, kipping just sounds like a retardedly easy way to get myself permanently injured. I'm also familiar enough with barbell snatches and deadlifts that I would never ever attempt to do either with high reps or while worrying about beating a time.

My head bjj instructor and several of the MMA guys in our gym are all into crossfit, but they all fight 155 lb. or below.

As soon as they made the claim you can use CF to compete in endurance events (Ultramarathons) they lost any credibility with me. Give me somebody that does CF only and I'll crush 'em.

No one is forcing you to kip. I go and do strictly dead hangs pullups.

I don't think there is any denying how beastly the competitors are. The dude that won the games last year is short at 5'8 but weighs 185. He has a 450 lb deadlift, 370 lb squat, 255 lb clean and jerk, 325 lb bench. He also runs a sub 20 minute 5k.

Hate all you want, but that is ridiculously impressive.

Obviously, those are just his max's. Doesn't really take into account the high volume stuff that would crush most of the heavier guys.

Yeah and according to his bio he was also a college athlete and has only been doing crossfit 1-2 years. I think the guy who won the previous year was a former professional soccer player from Europe who had also only done crossfit for a year or two.

I'd be a lot more impressed by crossfit as a S&C methodology if the crossfit games were dominated by people who had actually trained using crossfit for a significant amount of time. Can you imagine any other sport (which is what CF is trying to be) where the national champions had only been involved in the sport for a couple of years? Shouldn't the guys who have been doing crossfit for 8+ years be dominating the events?

so basically, it's competitive exercising? Sounds like something for people that were never coordinated enough to catch or throw a ball.

Just for reference, a safety from my school (190 or so pounds at the time) squatted 600, cleaned 370, ran a 4.48 forty and benched well over 385. I have no idea what he could run a 5k in but im sure he'd be just fine.