Blog

I feel it is important to say right away that I am not here to bash Crossfit, nor say there is anything wrong with the program.  So there Mr. and Mrs. Crossfit cult member, do not get all defensive and please relax.  I am merely going to discuss some aspects of Crossfit I have some issues with when it comes to my audience.

You don’t know the difference between the various Functional Fitness programs out there? Then click here for a post on the differences between pilates, P90X, Crossfit, and Kemme Fitness.

When I talk about my audience, I am saying that my program is really now designed to be for the masses. I have plenty for the elite fitness freaks on the site. Oh yeah, I have some workouts that will knock you down and wipe you out. Try this one.  Or this one.  Or maybe this one. However, I also have a great 12 week program, K-Basic, for couch potatos and the overweight.  Runners tend to like Kemme Fitness as a crosstraining program, especially because of the At Home workout page with tons to do without joining a gym.

In contrast, Crossfit gyms are exciting places where folks congregate and in a way compete against each other. The workouts are timed and fastest times are typically placed up on the board. The atmosphere is phenomenal. The participants engage in Functional Fitness to a level of being totally ripped. They are the elite!

I’ve talked about my concerns about using heavy weights on barbells when you don’t have a trainer at your side to monitor your form. Click here for recent post.

Now onto my latest issue with Crossfit. A coworker brought in a Crossfit workout, which I thought had great exercises in it, including 100 Pull-ups (not all at once).  I was up for it and went at it. I do like doing tons of Pull-ups because of the benefits of doing both Strict and Kipping Pull-ups. However, I ended up quite sore in the torso area for some time and it reminded me of something I had noticed a long time ago with Crossfit workouts.

Insert disclaimer here: Remember, though, Crossfit has a wide variety of workouts and also has scaled down versions for folks too, so I’m not talking about all of their workouts. There are, however, a pretty good number of workouts that ask you to do an large number of repetitions of the same exercise, albeit they use great Functional Fitness exercises. These are most likely no problem for the elite fitness folks who do Crossfit on a regular basis. In fact, I’m sure they would tell me to do more Crossfit and quit whining. Yes, yes, I could do that.

However, I’m running a Functional Fitness program for the masses and the masses are not Crossfit elite. Remember our audience of newbies, runners, and others not totally dedicated to be elite fitness freaks. What about them?  What if they do these types of Crossfit workouts and are too sore to workout for 4 days?  How does that help them get in shape? Yes, if they stick too it and ramp things up, they’ll improve and, as their muscles develop and get used to working together, they’ll be less sore.  But how many average folks are going to do that?  How many are just going to quit?

If you want Functional Fitness, but maybe aren’t ready to become elite, you could run into problems. Maybe you can get by with the scaled down versions. I’m just saying Crossfit seems to me to be more of a sport instead of a program.  Maybe Crossfit folks would be happy with that definition. They do have their own Crossfit Games, which are awesome to watch on TV. Crossfitters you rock!  But you just might be a whole new sport of your own and not necessarily for everyone. I’m just saying.

Any thoughts???  How about some Crossfitters weighing in?  Christian??  Any Ex-Crossfitters? Am I just way off?  Or maybe I’m not superhero-ninja-Navy Seal enough for you?