CROSSFIT 101 by TracFit

I usually wouldn’t ever bother with responding to a post like this, but I’ll do it this once.  I am a CrossFit coach, I own a CrossFit gym, and by all means, I am biased towards CrossFit.  But, I wouldn’t make any claim unless I had some evidence to back it up.   The original post is in black text below and here’s a link to the original site. My comments are in blue.

With the increase in popularity the past few years, Crossfit gyms are opening everywhere. People watch the “Crossfit Games” on ESPN and are intrigued by the great looking, physically gifted athletes that are competing. I have received numerous emails, texts and questions on my views on Crossfit and their workout protocols. Here’s my answer:

Physically gifted? Sure.  Hard workers just as much, if not more?  I’d say so.

First before I get into it, I am in this business to create smart and efficient training programs for people. My job is to give sound information about fitness and nutrition to the athletes, general fitness enthusiasts and children I train. It is my duty to study, research, and gain deep education on a very broad spectrum of information. My program is far from perfect and can always get better. But it’s a solid and functional program. My program is designed to improve the trainee’s movement, athleticism, stamina and way of life.

And thus brings us to the first problem.  This gentlemen is in the business of creating training programs for people.  If a program clinically proves itself to be superior, whether it be CrossFit or some other, there’s already a bias to denounce any other program.

The fitness industry is loaded with material, opinions and information that can influence the minds of the mainstream market. Before I give opinions on specific programs or studies I do my research first. I have studied Crossfit, listened to CF podcasts, watched many videos, talked to many former and current CF members and have been able to form my educated opinion.

Would you want a heart surgeon who has studied, watched, listened, and talked to every expert in the world but has never done an operation himself or herself work on you?  Or would you trust yourself with someone who has had a few successful operations under the belt?  Is this person too busy to do a five minute workout or what?  Study all you want, why not just try it?

A quote from a former CF member when he used to do Crossfit:

I love Crossfit, the workouts are intense, I get my ass kicked and I feel great afterwards. I will continue to hit these workouts up.

A quote from the same individual 6 months later:

Crossfit sucks. I ripped my rotator cuff and have not been able to do anything the past few weeks. The workouts are out of control. I am ready to regain my health with smarter options.

Unfortunately this is what happens to many CF members. They jump into Crossfit style workouts without a long-term plan. They enjoy the intensity, the competitive nature and the tough workouts. This is very common. But months down the road, when their body is trashed, overworked and injured, they begin thinking, “is this for me?”

So how do we differentiate the program from the individual?  What lead up to the rotator cuff rip?  A quick look on the CrossFit.com website in the “Start Here” section shows us:

   “In any case it must be understood that the CrossFit workouts are extremely demanding and will tax the capacities of even the world’s best athletes. You would be well advised to take on the WOD carefully, cautiously, and work first towards completing the workouts comfortably and consistently before “throwing” yourself at them 100%. The best results have come for those who’ve “gone through the motions” of the WOD by reducing recommended loads, reps, and sets while not endeavoring towards impressive times for a month before turning up the heat. We counsel you to establish consistency with the WOD before maximizing intensity. “

Doesn’t sound like the person who ripped their rotator cuff headed these instructions.

Crossfit should not be an exercise program (Wow! I’m no lawyer and I haven’t participated in a formal debate since high school, but where the heck is the data to back up this claim?) .Crossfit is definitely not for a serious athlete (Haha, that’s just funny.), someone with a current injury, and anyone over 35 years old (Again, why? If you’ve seen the Masters division at the CrossFit Games, I think this post would end right here.). There are far too many limiters in this random exercise routine (Constant variation is not the same thing as randomness.  We rotate through a set a movements to allow athletes to work different aspects in their fitness and variation allows time to be spent on weaknesses.  The rotation of movements also mitigates the overuse of certain joints and muscle groups.) that will exacerbate an injury or cause a new injury down the road. It might not happen today or next week but eventually the body will breakdown. (Rest days are a staple component of CrossFit programming.  On the main site, you’ll see a rest day after every three workout days. We schedule for a 5 day program at 101.  There’s no such thing as over-training, but there is such as thing as under-recovery.) There is no progressive plan of action. Today’s workout of the day (WOD) will not progress you to next week’s workout. There is no deep concentration on initial assessments, warm-up strategies, corrective exercise, and functional training. (Aghghhhh, I’m just losing my patience now.) Very few CF coaches have a broad understanding of biomechanics and human movement to assist their clients. Their weekend certification process gave them the bare essentials to training humans. So they get “certified”, open up their gym, charge inexpensive rates and start running their clients through the workouts of the day (WOD). I did say “very few coaches” just in case you missed that part. There are some knowledgeable CF coaches that actually care about tissue quality, flexibility, technical proficiency, proper progression with their workouts and functional movement in the gym.

Here are the last five Crossfit WOD’s:

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters with a 45 pound barbell
15 foot Rope climb, 3 ascents
135 pound Thruster, 12 reps

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 Pull-ups
75 pound dumbbell Deadlift, 5 reps
135 pound Push-press, 8 reps

For time:
Run 2 miles
Rest 2 minutes
135 pound Squat clean, 20 reps
20 Box jump, 24″ box
20 Walking lunge steps with 45lb plate held overhead
20 Box jump, 24″ box
135 pound Squat clean, 20 reps
Rest 2 minutes
Run 2 miles

Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Deadlift, 9 reps
135 pound Hang power snatch, 6 reps
135 pound Overhead squat, 3 reps

Looking at these workouts in the eyes of a non-educated fitness enthusiast and I think, this looks pretty cool. I like the variation and the intensity. It would be fun to do these workouts. Looking at these workouts as an educated fitness professional and I think, this is terrible program design, poor workout structure and not enough detail to the functional elements that needs to be implemented into a program. For a “non-educated” fitness enthusiast it is not their job to research, study and stay well informed of the cutting edge and new training methods. That is why they decide to jump in Crossfit because it’s the new thing on the block. It’s fun. It’s competitive. It’s on TV. Why not? (Olympic lifting has been an official olympic sport since 1920.  Powerlifting has been sanctioned since 1964.  Running, jumping, and squatting to sit down have been around for a while as well I think.  CrossFit just combines these, and thus cross trains across different methods.)

1. Olympic lifts should be kept under 6 repetitions. I like Olympic lifts when done correctly. (So, do I) I hate Olympic lifts when performed incorrectly (There’s more efficient ways to lift than others, I wouldn’t say one is correct and the other is not). I spend weeks with athletes on technique work before we even start an Olympic lift. I sometimes drop the Olympic lift if I feel there is better options, which there can be with some populations like adults over 35 years old, poor moving athletes and young children.  (You tool, I can’t stand this anymore….every proud mom or dad has picked up their child and lifted them overhead.  I tell you, that’s pretty close to the same physical movement of cleaning and jerking a bar overhead, just to a lesser degree.  So if you’re over 35, have a child, and are reading this, don’t ever play with your children again if you agree with this person.)

2. In an exercise program, one of the main goals should be to enhance movement capabilities. When you become a better mover, whether you are an athlete or an “average Joe or Jane”, you become more functional in your sport or your every day life. You reduce your chance of injury, increase your range of motion, increase your functional strength and you become more athletic. Crossfit does not promote these traits. Crossfit promotes ass-kicking workouts that yes, will get you sore and burning calories and it might even get you to look better in your bathing suite but what’s the point if you have a dysfunctional shoulder and hip and you limit your way of life. There are smarter options to get you to your goal.

(Every person I have ever had do an overhead squat (with either just a light PVC pipe or empty barbell), has experienced what happens when a person has limited range of motion.  If they never did an overhead squat, I bet they would go on for the rest of their lives with only half the range in their shoulder. meh.)

3. There are some staple exercises in Crossfit that I cringe when I watch being performed. “Kipping” pull-ups is a forceful pull-up variation that you will kick your legs up before pulling up to the bar. This is a sure fire way to cause havoc and friction on your gleno-humeral joint (Just call it what it is, the freakin shoulder joint you tool) when done with high repetitions, which are definites in Crossfit. Unfortunately the video explains why “kipping” pull-ups are great for explosiveness and power, which is false. Any pull-up variation will be at a much higher demand and give you more benefit when done perfectly without momentum.  (This statement has nothing to do with the previous claim that kipping pull ups are not great for explosiveness and power.  I hope you get stuck on a ledge one day and can’t save yourself because you refuse or don’t know how to kip you idiot.)  The purpose of this exercise is to build upper body posterior strength and stability.

Push-press is a great lift. I actually have it in my program for a softball team I am training. (Good for you!) But it’s another abused exercise in the Crossfit world. There is no attention to the details of the lift. The goal for Crossfitters is to just lift the weight up over the head. Again, a recipe for injury. As you can see in the video below, if you understand Olympic Lifts and what they should look like, every exercise being performed is sloppy and performed poorly. There is no attention to clean movement. It’s about “hammerin out, hamerin out”, as you can hear the coach in the backround saying.  (At the CF Level 1 Seminar, we are presented with the idea that accuracy in form should be maintained around a 85% level to balance an adequate safety margin with pushing intensity to gain better results from a workout.  It’s a simple way to manage and mitigate risk of just freaking moving.  If you only workout at a perfect 100% accuracy level all the time, you would be perfectly weak.)

4. Crossfit Endurance is a very poor selection of strength work for endurance athletes. Multi-sport athletes are some of the most driven and hardest working athletes. (Yeah, a little bias here don’t you think?  “Cross” Fit, Across, Cross over, Running, Rowing, Swimming, Biking, Lifting, Climbing, Throwing, Jumping…does that not sound like CrossFit is a multi-sport program?) They will do almost anything to improve their performance. Well, Crossfit should not be on that list. As an endurance athlete, strength work should be spent on clean and functional movements that will enhance balance, symmetry, stability and bio-mechanical movement in their specific sports. With the high amounts of volume for any endurance athlete, overtraining becomes very prevalent. We should not exacerbate that training load anymore with high repetition and erratic CF workouts. Time in the gym should be spent building the body back to take on the demands of the sport or sports. (It’s 1AM right now, I feel like I’ve lost brain cells reading this.)

5. Crossfit is definitely not an athlete specific training program. (Finally, truth!  CrossFit by it’s definition is “broad, general, and inclusive.”  It’s goal is to not be specific but to build the most effective and efficient base of strength and conditioning so that athletes can spend more time and resources towards skills specific for their sport.)  There are too many risks of injury with CF style training. If you are an athlete, it is mandatory to choose better, more efficient training protocols. Do not get caught into the trap of “just because it’s hard, it’s good” thought process. Hard training doesn’t mean smart training. Anyone can throw together a series of exercises and make someone sweat. Not everyone can progressively take an athlete to achieve their ultimate goal.

We will see where this Crossfit craze goes in the next five years. I wouldn’t be surprised if it faded out and people came back to smarter, more functional training methods, I guess time will only see. I do advise any CF current members, or anyone interested in CF that you need to take a step back and think about the long haul of training. Performing a Crossfit workout once a week to hit that metabolism or to implement some variety into your routine will not hurt you. (Hope someone sues you for this one, because any workout, CrossFit or otherwise has risk of injury.) Doing Crossfit everyday as your exercise “program” will eventually hurt you. (So will eating poop, which I imagine feels a lot like reading this “article”) Again, maybe not tomorrow or next month, but your chances of injury go through the roof with erratic exercise selection. If you are a CF coach, and want to stay under the CF affiliate, at least attend Perform Better Workshops throughout the year so you can become more educated and offer your clients better training. Just remember, it’s important to look ahead in your life. You don’t want chronic pain that affects who you are as a person. A workout should leave you feeling better, opened up and your functional movement has been increased. If you are sore after every workout, and almost every training session is the hardest, most grueling thing ever, I would choose another program.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading my blog. If you are a CF fan, and having fun, keep doing what you do, just understand that there could be harmful repercussions later in life from what you are doing right now. Hard, aggressive exercise selection is not the remedy. Smart, consistent and functional training will improve your life and your performance.

Okay, still alive.  Dang, I thought I was going to be really insightful and elegant in my post tonight, but nope, it’s not happening, so here it goes.  CrossFit is a methodology.  It’s up to each individual who participates in CrossFit to understand that methodology and implement it.  Crossing the street has its inherent risks.  The workouts posted on CrossFit.com and on our site are designed for top level athletes because it’s just logistically more practical to start there and ….drum roll please…..SCALE/MODIFY/SUBSTITUTE/MAKE APPROPRIATE for each individual who is participating in the workout.  I wouldn’t trust this guy with a spork.

This next excerpt comes from Carol who has been CrossFitting with us for over a year, too good to pass up on this read!

Carol Chow Sakamoto
We can only speak from our own experience. We are in our early 60′s and have been in CF over a year. For myself I have hip dysplasia so it was a problem with having some mobility in my hip joints I can honestly say after being in CF I can actually squat to pick up heavy items, weeding in our organic garden in a squat position for more than 15 mins or longer. Prior to CF it was painful at times to weed when I didn’t have the range of motion other than bending over or stooping.
My husband after 6 mos of CF the doctor reduced cholesterol to 50% of dosage. After another 6 mos his cholesterol improved so much again the doctor took him off completely which not normal practice for him but he couldn’t see the benefit of keeping him on the drug. We all know any type of Rx does impact our liver in a negative way.
We belong to Crossfit 101 and I reviewed and visited 4 Crossfit Facilities prior to settling on this one. The reason being Coach Trac focuses all new athletes to learn proper form and technique which is a 4 week On Ramp program. I cannot speak for other facilities who actually take the time to do the same but I don’t recall that being an emphasis other than Crossfit 101.

We also scale and do our Wods safely, the emphasis is on yourself on what are you able to lift safely with good form and technique. If you are struggling and shaking to lift then that is not ggod form and can lead o injury. One of the emphasis at Crossfit 101 is to “Leave your Ego at the door”. I have tendinitis in my right wrist from too much keyboarding, Coach Trac takes this into consideration and scales and modifies my Wod.

To answer your question is Crossfit safe? Is swimming safe? With everything even driving we all have to take precautionary measures to be safe. Crossfit is safe if you have a a caring, compassionate coach who cares about you and your own capabilities. Our Crossfit Community is built on “No judgment just Love”. This stems from the Crossfit owners Trac and Helen.
We are old enough to be parents to most of the athletes and we are always treated with respect and that is woven through how we all treat one another. Again, it’s a business but you build into it what you feel is important to you the love, encouragement, support we see and receive throughout is a very healthy and safe environment. Crossfit is safe but you have to do everything safely and scale if needed and cheek your ego at the door and enjoy your Wod.

Thanks Coach Trac and Helen for all that you do for us.

In closing Jason, interview some Crossfit gyms and athletes or do a few Wods yourself safely of course that’s the golden key. I just had a recent hip X-ray no signs of arthritis totally a blessing and Praise to God. Our results speak for themselves.
One thing Crossfit is not for everyone and not everyone is for Crossfit. But to try and stay healthy keep moving and find what works for you.