My take on CrossFit and the current health and fitness industry: Just to clarify I am a Personal Trainer and Strength and Conditioning coach based in Christchurch NZ. I have a Diploma in Applied Sport, Bachelor of Recreation Management (sport) Majoring in Exercise and Heath and Biochemistry of food. Various coaching qualifications including advanced exercises techniques and Olympic Lifting. Not to mention 10 years industry experience and 1000s of hours of research, lab and theory based. Here we go: There’s a disturbing, almost cult-like mentality amongst crossfitters that ‘you’re either with us, or you’re against us’. I’m not a crossfit hater. I have the ultimate respect for the athletic prowess of a Rich Froning, the strength of a Lindsay Valenzuela, the endurance of a Sam Briggs or the guts and determination of a Chris Speiler. But then again, I also appreciate the fact that Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich can run 42km in slightly over 2 hours, but I certainly don’t think it’s safe or advisable for the average person to wake up next week and decide to run 100+km a week like Kiprotich does. The FACT of the matter is that I see people on a weekly basis come into the gym where I work and attempt incredibly complex lifts with atrocious, dangerous form. These are people who have watched a bit of crossfit online or attended an introductory course or three, and then headed straight off to the snatch bar and tried to bang out a dozen reps. The technical moves involved in Crossfit take considerable time to master and execute safely. Few people have the time to dedicate specific sessions to Olympic lifting etc, whilst also carrying on the general conditioning they need to remain healthy and active. As a consequence they end up doing everything ‘half-assed’. That not only seriously hinders their progress, but can lead to serious injuries. Personally, I think you’d need to be training upwards of ten times a week to become even reasonable at Crossfit. That would allow you the luxury of continuing to build your baseline strength, dedicate sessions to learning the technical aspects of key lifts, and spend time building your general fitness, explosive speed and endurance. If you’ve got that much time on your hands, great. But the fact of the matter is, most people don’t. As a result, they try to cram everything into 3-4 workouts a week. The result? They waste time attempting technical lifts they can’t perform, neglect basic lifts which could be building their core strength, and run out of time for cardiovascular exercise. You’ll note that I prefaced my original comments with the fact that they relate to ‘the challenges [Crossfit] presents to the health and fitness industry’. I admire the community that Crossfit has developed, and respect the fact that it’s helped many people get off the couch and into better shape. But I’m deeply concerned about the lack of education around the techniques and core skills needed to execute Crossfit’s key exercises safely. Despite what you may believe about the qualifications of the various Crossfit coaches around the traps, the fact of the matter is, people all over the world are trying to emulate freakishly gifted athletes like Froning and Thorisdottir with no recognition of the short term dangers and long-term damage they are potentially exposing themselves too. For some athletes (athletes with natural ability combined with a solid grounding in technical lifting) the constantly varied workouts of Crossfit seem to work, keeping them mentally stimulated and motivated. But personally I believe the bulk of the people I work with will see greater benefits, and be consierdably safer, by following challenging yet structured programs. These programs should be designed to gradually enhance both strength and skill, becoming heavier and more complex gradually as the subject progresses. Technique is paramount; it can be explosive, but should never be sacrificed for speed. There are plenty of other ways to get a great workout other than doing 30 snatches with 60kg on the bar as quickly as you can, and in the interests of keeping my clients safe, and helping them achieve genuine, sustainable results, I prefer to explore those other options. Reece #noexcuses
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 05:36:05 +0000
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