ShareYou know CrossFit is filled with controversy. It’s a major talking point in the fitness industry, with everyone taking sides…
Love it or hate it, CF is here to stay and it’s been proven effective for getting results.
The combination of high intensity, Olympic style lifting and unwavering dedication to the Paleo diet is paying off physique wise. Hello lean, athletic sexiness.
I often get folks asking my opinion on CrossFit. For some reason, this comes up at the dinner table…
“What do you think about CrossFit?”
– Ah, not much.
Surprised? That used to be my answer. Up until now, I didn’t have an opinion of CrossFit because I had never been to a box to try it out myself. You can’t just make a judgment based on other people’s opinion.
During the Summer, I decided the only way to find out was to go and check it out. As the weather turned humid and ugly, little ol’ KV headed over CrossFit NYC to see what all the fuss was about.
What I found was interesting… to say the least.
I love functional training and this is the foundation of CrossFit. So forget the hype. On paper, before my first date I would have assumed:
KV + CrossFit competitions = love at first sight
Not so much.
First, I was disappointed I didn’t see anyone drinking Kool Aid or throwing up… 
Ah maybe it’s a good thing I missed that part.
But here’s the million dollar question:
Is CrossFit Safe?
The jury is out. What is the physical toll this style of training takes on your body?
When weighing up if an exercise is safe, I look at the benefits vs the risk. The benefit of doing the exercise or the program must outweigh the associated risk, otherwise it’s a no-go for me and my coaching clients.
#1 Problem with CrossFit
Here is my greatest concern with CrossFit: the use of Olympic Lifting for conditioning.
Olympic lifts (the snatch and clean and jerk) test your explosive strength, which requires greater range of motion and mobility compared to other strength lifts (squats, bench, deadlifts).
These Olympic lifting moves are HIGHLY technical.
Your form needs to be excellent, and it takes a lot of time (like years) to progress and master the movement to maximize results.
Like I said, the idea of Olympic lifts is to develop your explosive strength. Low reps (1-5 reps) with a heavy load is ideal. Now CrossFit takes highly technical Olympic lifts and prescribes high reps, for the general population.
Think about this: do pro Olympic lifters do high reps of snatches with heavy weight for conditioning purposes?
NO – because there is no benefit to this. Otherwise they would be doing it, right?
Safety is always an issue with high intensity training. As an amateur, if you don’t have the Olympic lifting techniques down, you can easily run into trouble.
Here’s the problem:
(A) Doing an exercise that is too advanced for you means you won’t get the desired conditioning effect
-OR-
(B) You can say “screw technique” and do it anyway… with bad form.
Sure, you use a ton of different muscle groups doing Olympic lifts, so you burn more calories. But as you get fatigued, your form breaks down and your risk of getting injured skyrockets.
High rep Olympic Lifting + fatigue = poor form ===> injury.
4 Interesting CF Observations
Based on my adventure to CrossFit, I also discovered a couple of interesting points on safety and programming:
1. Initial assessment
You know assessments are great, and essential for effective programming. It’s the best way to track progress.
The initial assessment is designed to do just that – assess. At the NYC Box I attended, it was more an initial “I’m going to try and kill you” workout than an assessment. That’s not safe (or cool).
Yes, I could do the workout with a little soreness the next day. But the out-of-shape folks around me must have been in pain for a week.
The thing is, the exercises were NOT appropriate. Walking lunges are an advanced exercise and not for the first date.
2. Random Workout vs Program
This separates the good trainers from the great. Programming. You can find any kind of random workouts on the Internet these days and do just it.
But is that workout right for you? Does it consider your current physical state? Is it progressive? Probably not.
That’s why the skill comes down to the program. Planning, progression and even regression, ultimately lead to results.
Again, some CrossFit boxes have excellent programming, while at others it’s non-existent. As an expert, I can tell the difference. But for the general population, unless it’s completely off-the-wall ridiculous – it’s just another tough workout.
3. Lack of isolation exercises
You know I rant about isolation exercises being the devil in a fat loss program, however they definitely have a place.
I feel that it’s essential to include some isolation work in your program, especially for your legs. Everyone has a muscle imbalance in the lower body to some degree. It’s just the way it goes.
CrossFit workouts do not incorporate isolated movements, instead focusing on complex total body exercises and executing with speed and power. If this is the only style of training you do, without working isolated muscle groups, you are feeding an imbalance that will eventually lead to disaster i.e. injury.
For instance…
The hamstrings are a great example, especially for the ladies. It is well established that women tend to be more quad dominant than men.
Women tend to have wider hips than men, making them more quad dominant. The big functional moves for your legs include squats, deadlifts and lunges.
If you are only doing these complex functional movements to train the lower body, without balancing isolated work sets with your hamstrings, the movement is feeding the imbalance and overloading your quads.
Plus, huge quads on a lady are not a sexy look. Consider the high knee injury rate for women, this imbalance puts the athlete/trainee at even greater risk for injury.
4. Good Coaches, Bad Coaches
No matter if you go to a box gym or private studio, there will be excellent coaches and some not so great. CrossFit is the same.
But again, if you have a bad coach teaching an amateur how to do highly technical Olympic lifts, then adding a ton of weight, doing high reps and racing the clock and your friends – it’s downright scary.
You trust your coach with your body, and it’s not something to take lightly.
The Final Word
There is no place for high rep, Olympic lifting in a safe fat loss program.
Sure you might burn more calories (and fuel your ego) doing a tougher exercise that uses more muscles, but in my opinion, it’s not worth the risk of injury.
Unless you’re an aspiring athlete or Olympic lifter, it’s just unnecessary.
What do you think about CrossFit? Have you tried it yourself? Let me know in the comments box below….
Have an awesome day,
KV
PS. You don’t have to kill yourself doing CrossFit to get sexy results.
You can get the BEST of cross-training with this systemized and progressive approach here
10 Replies
My wife and I signed up for a “beginners” Crossfit foundations course a couple of months ago. We thought we would give it a try to help us reach our goals. Neither of us enjoyed it. It got to the point where I dread and had anxiety about going to a class, but I didn’t want to waste the money we had spent. In my opinion, the coach was not good. She seemed to be pushing you just to get you to be ok in the regular classes.
I felt my form was ok, but after doing the classes 3 times a week, my muscles had no recovery time and my range of motion was reduced because of that. The trainer was pointing out our mistakes but would end up doing those same mistakes she was telling us not to do during a demonstration.
Further, we had to miss a few classes due to holidays, which we notified them of, and on our return the trainer kept saying you guys are behind everyone one else. Not really an inviting and inclusive environment.
At the end of the foundation course, we said we learned a lot but we will not be continuing. This isn’t for us.
Hey Kevin – geez it doesn’t sound like you had a friendly experience!!
Interesting you bring up recovery between workouts. Even though CrossFit is considered a “short” workout, everyone responds differently to high intensity and often you need more rest time.
Again, it comes down to a good coach and proper programming. I think there’s a fine line between loving and hating a tough workout. Keep doing the stuff you love.
Have a great day!
Hi Kate, To me, Cross fit seems to be about the ” collective” experience. Groups of people jumping around on the matts, running through business parks, slamming stuff on the ground etc..They have a very unified mindset and some even attempt to say that crossfit is the only way you should train. (yikes). I don’t care much for group execise, escpecially when I’m gassed after a high intensity workout.
Trying to do your fat loss accelerators, Mikes finishers, or Craig’s new program is hard enough without 15 more people around me. I like to focus and think about each movement. It seems harder with people hanging around.
I used olympic lifts in college, but even then it was for power for a specific action, not for fat loss or weight reduction. Anyway, just my take on it.
BTW, the fat loss acccelorators are a fantastic conditioning tool. I get the intensity and core strength I need. I combine them with craigs new program and mikes finishers.
Have a great day.
Hey Brian thanks for the feedback – great to hear you’re enjoying the programs!
I agree with what you say about the collective experience being a huge part of the CrossFit culture, but group exercise is not for everyone. It can be more of a distraction.
Keep on rocking it!
Kate
Thanks for this post, Kate.
I’ve been a certified fitness instructor and marathoner for over 20 years, and after giving it a try like you did, I found CF to be downright dangerous for most people. I am pleased that you gave it an honest review. I would be interested to know how many CF folks actually stay with it over the long term without significant injury.
Additionally, I found the “trainers” to be generally incompetent. And sadly, almost to a person I found participants be arrogant and condescending to the new folks.
In contrast, your workouts are exceptional, interesting, adaptable, enjoyable, and effective. And I don’t have to put myself in a BOX (yuck). Thanks for all that you do, Kate.
Yours in fitness,
Mary
Hey Mary, thanks for the feedback and great to hear you’re enjoying the workouts! Interesting to hear your story. I feel like everyone I speak to had a difference experience with CF – good and bad – and that’s why I wanted to try it for myself before making a judgment.
Keep up the awesome work! Kate
Hi Kate…first off, I enjoy your programs very much. Thank you.
I was doing CF for a couple of years and I learned a lot, not only about exercising but about myself. I must say that the CF group I belonged to was very supportive and helpful. The owner/instructor was a stickler for safety, which I was happy to see. I only did a class once per week, as I was involved in playing basketball and didn’t want to be burned out. I found that in doing the CF Games, it seemed that the older athlete had to do some pretty tough exercises. The cutoff for age was 55 (I’m 67) and the Olympic lifts were difficult. I would have thought that for anyone over 60, the weight should have been a bit less. I was very conscious about getting hurt and putting up a respectable number. I am weaning myself away from CF (they are always asking when I’m coming back) and am concentrating on the programs that you, Craig, Shawna and Mike offer. I find them challenging and fun. I’m also understanding that at my age, doing the bodyweight and kettlebell programs is plenty and I can do them more often and not worry about trying to lift something that might hurt me and wear me out. Thank you again.
Regards,
Garry
Awesome work Garry! It’s great to hear your experience with CrossFit, particularly a positive one. You just have to listen to your body. It sounds like you’re kicking butt so keep on rocking it! Kate
Great post, Kate.
I’ve tried CrossFit at two different gyms with vastly different experiences. The first was at a CrossFit Box (hereforth, “box”) focused on CrossFit. The second was at a gym that has multiple programs, with CrossFit being one of the programs (“gym”).
I will have to say that my experience at the box was a much better program. They took time before any workout that had any kind of lifting to explain it. They also took time to do a comprehensive warm-up. They also took more time to adjust the workout to what is appropriate for each individual. Maybe it was because most of the trainers were fire fighters (there was a nurse in there too), but they took time to make sure there weren’t any safety concerns. Part of what I enjoyed most about CF was working out with familiar people, and the friendly trainers and fellow CF’ers. It was a community based on working out together. It was fun.
With the gym, it’s clear that CF is not their main program. There was no mention of the paleo diet. The trainer was only there to push you harder when you felt like slowing down, but the instructor was not as involved. Fortunately, since most of the exercises are bodyweight based, I didn’t see much safety concerns yet. Maybe it’s because there just aren’t as many members doing CF here, but the group I train with did not seem as friendly or conversational, either. I probably won’t be renewing my membership here. I have the Turbulence Training and Fat Loss Accelerators programs, and without community, there’s nothing this gym can offer me that I don’t have on my own.
Ultimately, as you said, it’s the instructors that make the difference, and community is something that can add a new dimension. I will mention that, although the box didn’t have Kool-Aid, they did have flavored coconut water.
Sam Youn
Thanks for the feedback Sam! Great story. It sounds like you attended a cool CF box with awesome coaches. I like to hear the coaches modified the exercises based on individual abilities. It’s also fun to have that community of people working together to achieve their fitness goals.
Yum, coconut water. I prefer that! I didn’t even know what Kool-Aid was until I came to the States! I still haven’t tried it…
Have a great day, Kate.