My take on Crossfit

I cant see how this can be good for the spine

It's time to take some shots at what the Business News Network describes as  "one of the fastest growing fitness movements on the planet": Crossfit. For the record, I have never been to a Crossfit gym. To those who may ask, how can you critique something if you've never done it? I answer them by saying, do I need to take LSD to understand the effects it has on the body? Plus, my entire life I've made it a habit to learn what not to do from watching others and Crossfit is a perfect example.

Case One: Specialization, or lack thereof
Founder Greg Glassman describes his creation as "not a specialized fitness program, but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of the 10 fitness domains". Those ten fitness domains are endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy. When I read that quote, I immediately thought of something that Frederick the Great once said: "He who defends everything defends nothing". If you try to do everything in your workout, you get nothing. I don't think it is very effective. No  one has ever gotten good at something training like that. My final point about their claim of being "not a specialized program", is that Crossfitters become good at Crossfit (whatever that may be). So in a sense, they are specializing in their "sport" (albeit, a very difficult one to define).

Case Two: The Programming
When I look at CrossFit's programming — or lack thereof — I see things that are senseless and random. Their workout of the day looks like something my old wrestling coach would create. "Alright, boys, today we are going to run 400 meters, then do 21 situps, 21 pushups and 21 squats, and then repeat that until someone pukes". It is random and illogical. I think part of the reason is the requirements to be certified. If you have $1,000 and a weekend free of obligations, you can go out and become a Level 1 Certified Crossfit instructor. An additional $500 will get you to Level 2 and any subsequent certification will cost you $250. As one Crossfit coach said, "Let's just say the quality control is down". I came across one workout that called for 30 muscle-ups. And if you can't do muscle-ups, do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips. It's just random; it makes no sense. I guess doing 120 pullups and dips will help you with muscle-ups? That is not even bringing up the point of why you are doing muscle-ups in the first place but I digress.

One Crossfit coach believes that the workouts can bring you to about an 8 out of 10 in a few of the fitness domains. But when there is a lack of organization in the programming, it will be difficult to get you beyond that point. And that will get you to the dreaded plateau on some of the key lifts. It will take specialization to get you better. I did a quick search on Crossfit champ Rich Froning's training routine. On Monday and Friday he squats, Tuesday and Thursday he presses, and Wednesday he deadlifts. He will also clean and snatch twice per week. This is all on top of performing the workout of the day. He understood that it will take specialization to reach your goals.

The programming also fits into the one-size-fits-all training methodology. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of group fitness and run multiple group fitness classes every week. I have even used some of the rep schemes that are popular in the Crossfit world. But, in reality, do you think it makes sense to have the 50 year old grandmother, the college football player, and the 19 year old girl who never weight trained before doing the same program?  This point leads me to my next case...

Case Three: The potential for injury.
With the random programming and the one-size-fits-all mentality, you are assuming (this is a HUGE assumption) that every person that walks into the gym is physically able to perform each lift with good technique. And lets say there is 20 individuals in the class but only 1 or 2 instructors on hand? You are looking at a 1 to 10, or 1 to 20, instructor to student ratio and because of that, an individual may not be performing the lift as technically sound as they should be. I work as a trainer and strength coach and it is hard to monitor every individual at every moment in time. For that reason, performing lifts like the deadlift, power clean and snatch can be quite dangerous without the proper teaching and supervision.

Alwyn Cosgrove is a reputable strength coach, here is his take on the "all over the place" programming: "A recent CrossFit workout was 30 reps of snatches with 135 pounds. A snatch is an explosive exercise designed to train power development. Thirty reps is endurance. You don't use an explosive exercise to train endurance; there are more effective and safer choices". It is also an extremely technical lift. Once you reach 5 or 6 reps of the exercise, it is understood that the potential for error in technique increases. The larger margin of error will increase your chance of potentially injuring yourself. To put it simply, be careful with CrossFit.

Have a nice weekend!
Chris Fluck