The Sport Of Fitness Has Arrived

**WW7** · February 8th, 2012, 01:05 AM

Originally Posted by Kimbo

I hope this is what happens. I like to think that their hearts are in the right place at least.

With big corporations coming in, I wonder if maybe it will get watered down, to appeal to the masses (I think GFK alluded to this). I'm hoping instead that it gets fixed.

You have to consider too that different CF gyms do things differently. There are some CF trainers that actually know what their doing (e.g. Rippetoe), and many others that don't. Maybe it isn't CF that's the problem, maybe they just need smarter trainers who understand basic exercise principles like SAID, GAS, etc.

I agree that all CF trainers/coaches should have a standardized cert that is recognized by the wider fitness community. That would solve a lot it seems....

**Niflheim** · February 8th, 2012, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by WW7

Have you seen some of these top level crossfit competitors; male or female? I would love to see any of you do what they do. Candidly, they are the fittest people on earth.

I'd argue that one of the problems with crossfit is that, IMHO, most people can't do that much volume with that level of intensity (with good form, without hurting themselves and without burning out).

I also believe that top level crossfitters are outliers and would perform good in most sports - maybe they are that good not because of crossfit, but despite doing crossfit.

**Kimbo** · February 9th, 2012, 01:15 AM

http://health.yahoo.net/articles/fit...-cult-crossfit

**GaWd** · February 9th, 2012, 01:28 AM

That dude cribbed our Crossfit posts

**Jakeshorts** · February 9th, 2012, 01:35 AM

I liked the article.

**Kimbo** · February 9th, 2012, 01:51 AM

Originally Posted by GaWd

That dude cribbed our Crossfit posts

LOL

Originally Posted by Jakeshorts

I liked the article.

I did as well. He voiced many of my concerns about it better than I could have.

**Azx** · February 9th, 2012, 02:11 AM

g

**Kimbo** · February 9th, 2012, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by Azx

g

That's nuts. I can't even believe I'm seeing people do this.

**Supnut** · February 9th, 2012, 10:57 PM

I'd love to show this to the health and safety team and work and watch them cringe. Then again, virtually all sports go against corporate safety rules. Life it seems, is dangerous to your health.
I suspect to some extent we can handle more than we think we can in terms of 'dangerous' movements IF we practice them.... but I doubt we're built to handle THIS or much of crossfit with any degree of reasonable safety.

**Josh** · February 10th, 2012, 01:21 AM

Whilst I do like the conditioning aspect of this stuff ( although rosstraining is more my thing than the commercialised cult of crossfit ), I do think that some of the exercises are a bit off base.

One can get away with training with looser form and more risky moves in the short term, but for fitness for life, one needs to develop one's fitness ("fitness for what" as self defined ) in a safer manner as possible IMO, as given enough training, injuries are just a matter of time, so by reducing unnecessary risk reduces downtime from injury in the long run.

Burpees/chins and burpee/hillsprint supersets with a weighted vest should give one's CVP system a serious challenge, muscle ups/ukemi/precision jumps in urban environments will give one seriously competitive functional movement, and weights/feed/pharma to looks stacked thus increasing ones mating fitness.

Heavy squats on swiss balls, or throwing barbells to and from each other makes me cringe. Not only is it exposing the subject to unnecessary risk of injury, it seems to be unstructured wrt what sort of fitness the participant is striving for.

J

**Josh** · February 10th, 2012, 01:26 AM

Originally Posted by Kimbo

That's nuts. I can't even believe I'm seeing people do this.

The principle behind an explosive squat is sound IMO. We had a piece of hammer strength style kit in one of my old gyms for exploding out of a squat and letting go of the bar at the top of the movement. but it was designed for this purpose, and one was not at risk of getting squished when it came back down.

I think the kit was actually intended for linemen to use in american football, and although I never used it as part of football training, I did use it extensively in the gym to develop my whoompiness. 'Twas good.

J

**Kimbo** · February 10th, 2012, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Josh

The principle behind an explosive squat is sound IMO. We had a piece of hammer strength style kit in one of my old gyms for exploding out of a squat and letting go of the bar at the top of the movement. but it was designed for this purpose, and one was not at risk of getting squished when it came back down.

I think the kit was actually intended for linemen to use in american football, and although I never used it as part of football training, I did use it extensively in the gym to develop my whoompiness. 'Twas good.

J

Yes, ballistic training like that is absolutely legitimate. What these guys are doing though, ugh... And the balls under them for them to bounce off of when they hit the bottom is the icing on the cake.

Actually, explosively pressing a barbell up and allowing it to go airborne is ok, assuming you have bumper plates on it and you're careful. The load should be lighter (like 30% of your overhead press, or 30% of your front squat, depending on what you're doing). Just have to be careful and ready to get out of the way in case of a mishap.

**GregW** · February 11th, 2012, 12:23 AM

My problem with crossfit boils down mainly to their "I'm better than you" attitude compared to noncrossfit exercise, and they're too collegial and buddy-buddy. I've never liked team stuff too much.

**Kimbo** · February 11th, 2012, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by GregW

My problem with crossfit boils down mainly to their "I'm better than you" attitude compared to noncrossfit exercise, and they're too collegial and buddy-buddy. I've never liked team stuff too much.

I've seen that with lots of lifting-related sports, actually. Oly lifters seem to be pretty bad offenders too (not all, just pretty common). I can definitely see this with Crossfit though, especially with the fanatics.

**GaWd** · February 11th, 2012, 02:17 AM

THat's the thing about fanatics/zealots. It's the best thing in the world, so why shouldn't we do the best, better, betterer than each other. Why doesn't everybody in Target want to know about the revolutionary new fitness program I'm undertaking? HERETICS!

**azntomahawk** · March 21st, 2012, 05:39 AM

I just want to say I completely agree. Plenty of things about Crossfit make me go WTF? The randomness of it all and doing technical lifts to failure. Also my first exposure to it was at a military base fitness center. I was doing squats with 400 or so pounds on the bar. Then this group of 4 "crossfitters" decide to start throwing medicine balls RIGHT behind me. Literally if one of these uncoordinated idiots were to drop the ball it could have hit me. Didnt make a good first impression on this guy. Oh and most of the guys on the Crossfit games look like they might workout. The girls on the other hand

With all that said I am going to be working in a Crossfit gym that is opening up in a month or so. Not something I expected, but life is truly mysterious some times. I dont plan on becoming part of the cult though. That stuff freaks me out and pisses me off. People are not special merely because they do Crossfit.

**WW7** · March 21st, 2012, 05:43 AM

CrossFit is evolving rapidly with HUGE names behind it and supporting it like Westside Barbell. It's only going to get better and the results speak for themselves IMO