(Mature Answers only plz) Why is Crossfit no good

[PrettyPinkDonut]

Not necessarily for MMA but in general.
Please no sarcasm, I'm trying to educate myself.

I was forced to do Crossfit for about 8months because my PMS was all into it. I saw very little improvement but I attributed this to having to do the workouts every weekday morning, on top of weight training I actually wanted to do, and MMA.
I felt like the workouts would have been great with the exception of a few (mainly those involving heavier barbell movements), if I ever had had time to recover.
I see a lot of hate on it though...and do you think I would have seen the **** results I did even if I had recovery time??

[PositronLaser]

It would have been a great thing if they didn't promote competition for time, which makes people throw form out of the window and do ridiculous quick jerky reps with ****ty form.

[PrettyPinkDonut]

^^i felt like this was a big issue as well...i hated the smugness around in
****ers I could ragdoll were like herp derp look at my time, while I concentrated on correct movements and form...i finished middle of the pack most of the time

[LAWLER89]

Basically what Positron said, with a few things to add. Take my input with a grain of salt, as it's based on observation, not participation.

I've noticed that a lot of crossfit establishments want to take movements that are intended to be low-volume, high-demand strength movements (IE deadlifts, clean and jerks), and then change the scheme to high-volume work. So participants are being counter-productive with the movements they use, then pairing C.N.S decimating lifts with anaerobic circuits that burn out the muscles beyond a reasonable workload.

You end up having great respiratory endurance, but never let the muscle tissue recover properly, thus hindering strength gains for experienced lifters/athletes. I would rather do a WSBB Dynamic kind of split, or segment traditional lifts with tire flips and box jumps, etc. than try to deadlift, clean, squat, and do pullups four/five times a week. The body needs to rest and recover after demanding activity.

[Omnis Potens]

crossfit's disregard for specificity is also an issue for me

[JAGERBOY]

This entire interview is good, but Steve Maxwell sums up CrossFit pretty well starting at 2:17.

[mmondo13]

As people have said, there's a huge chance of injury when you're doing such high reps on things like dead lifts. To many *******s worried about doing everything as fast as possible instead of using good technique. Plus the people act like they're in a cult, and wear those stupid ass long socks.

[F3D]

This entire interview is good, but Steve Maxwell sums up CrossFit pretty well starting at 2:17.

Very good explanation/opinion in that video, thanks for posting. I never saw that one before

[S0LID]

I think it could be good if you cropped it down to safe effective exercises, and hit muscles once-twice a week max to avoid over training syndrome.

Kettlebells are great for mma.

[thomasc83]

Crossfit gets a bad rap for loose form, but honestly in my two years of crossfit the only times you could use loose forms are on workouts where you get in as many rounds as possible. These types of Workouts are used with lightweight and if not, then you scale them down and use light weight yourself. Anytime speed is encouraged form will get loose, but they speed rep at training centers where athletes train for the NFL Combine with loose form. No injuries for me in two years of CF, but in the past I have had a few small tweaks from bodybuilding style and powerlifting style workouts. Just my personal experience. Best thing to do is try different forms of training until you find something you like.

[ToolTime2120]

Never done Crossfit, but know people that love it as well as people who hate it. All the negatives I hear about have already been summed up: bad form, unrealistic expectations in regards to completing exercises, potential to be CNS taxing, etc.

The Crossfit games on T.V. are really cool to watch and I respect those athletes a lot

Those are my type of girls that you see on there

[TylerManning]

The way I see it, it is what you make it. If you go into cross fit wanting a great work out, and really put in the effort. I am sure you will get better results, another thing could be your calorie intake and diet. You could be over using your energy and not allowing you body to fully recover. If all else fails i would just stop doing it, the extra rest might be give you more gain than the extra work.

[forcefedfreak]

-Lack of periodization
-Lack of intelligent programming
-Use of complex movements in high rep format
-Use of complex movements in fatigued states
-One dimensional
-Blanket programming
-Lack of specificity
-Lack of intelligent assessment and reassessment
-Not even a real training system, just a brand
-Scaling instead of modifying

I could go on...

[deadlift_405]

I'm not a crossfit goer, but one thing we are all missing is that it's getting people active and interested in their health. From my viewpoint it would appear that there are many participants in crossfit who under different circumstances would not be active. I believe the community of crossfit is a very good thing. I also really like how crossfit is not concerned with appearance rather performance. These are all great things in my opinion. I will have to agree that their training practices are not a) the safest, or B) the most practical, however, there are benefits, and I believe are great for establishing a base of training practices for people unfamiliar with training at all.

[cgc]

I came in here to say - in b4 FFF....but I'm too late

My biggest issue is there are a LOT of Xfit people who think it is THE way to get into shape....not A way. Similar to a lot of P90X folks.
The both can get you certain results...but neither owns the market in getting people to achieve goals.

Just get tired of the "cult" like following.

[bradstearns]

forcefedfreak provides a nice list, which I agree with. At the same time and in defense of Cross-Fit, it does a great job to leaning out those who are already in good enough shape to get through their workouts. And for some, the competitive nature of the environment is just what they need to take it to the next level.

Also, for more sport specific individuals, it provides a nice break from specific sport traiining for a few weeks or months over the course of a year or multi-year plan.

As I tell my clients who query, it depends on your goals, both long and short-term.

[LAWLER89]

I came in here to say - in b4 FFF....but I'm too late

My biggest issue is there are a LOT of Xfit people who think it is THE way to get into shape....not A way. Similar to a lot of P90X folks.
The both can get you certain results...but neither owns the market in getting people to achieve goals.

Just get tired of the "cult" like following.

I was going to leave that out, as it's not a physiological con, but since you've touched on it...

It enrages me when people who never did any sort of training or weightlifting prior to Crossfit parade about like experts six months into it. Without any frame of reference, they'll hound you for not doing crossfit, and suggest that they are the pinnacle of fitness. As far as they're concerned, they are the fittest, strongest, and most "functional" people on earth. Their way is the one and only way, and if you don't agree, you're out of shape and misinformed.

[dirtydean12]

It would have been a great thing if they didn't promote competition for time, which makes people throw form out of the window and do ridiculous quick jerky reps with ****ty form.

Umm not really...maybe the people at the gyms and stuff, but if you're competing you have your own "judge" assigned that follows you and will not count incomplete reps...

IMO they're obviously doing something right...just because it's different than your typical 5 day split doesn't mean they're wrong or stupid...they have pretty killer physiques and endurance for days. Doesn't seem like overtraining.

[nohomejerome]

I was going to leave that out, as it's not a physiological con, but since you've touched on it...

It enrages me when people who never did any sort of training or weightlifting prior to Crossfit parade about like experts six months into it. Without any frame of reference, they'll hound you for not doing crossfit, and suggest that they are the pinnacle of fitness. As far as they're concerned, they are the fittest, strongest, and most "functional" people on earth. Their way is the one and only way, and if you don't agree, you're out of shape and misinformed.

just ask them to name 1 person who got to the olympics using crossfit

[forcefedfreak]

Umm not really...maybe the people at the gyms and stuff, but if you're competing you have your own "judge" assigned that follows you and will not count incomplete reps...

IMO they're obviously doing something right...just because it's different than your typical 5 day split doesn't mean they're wrong or stupid...they have pretty killer physiques and endurance for days. Doesn't seem like overtraining.

These statements are based on nothing but your personal opinion from looking at pictures on the internet. There are much safer and taxing ways to have killer physiques, and no they do not have endurance for days, that's why they've failed multiple times to produce notable endurance athletes, and trust me the CF community has tried.

What's laughable is that USAW now has a CrossFit division so when CrossFitters go to WL competitions they don't have to compete against real weightlifters.

[LAWLER89]

Umm not really...maybe the people at the gyms and stuff, but if you're competing you have your own "judge" assigned that follows you and will not count incomplete reps...

IMO they're obviously doing something right...just because it's different than your typical 5 day split doesn't mean they're wrong or stupid...they have pretty killer physiques and endurance for days. Doesn't seem like overtraining.

If you're doing a 5 day split for MMA, you're doing it wrong.

[PrettyPinkDonut]

-Lack of periodization
-Lack of intelligent programming
-Use of complex movements in high rep format
-Use of complex movements in fatigued states
-One dimensional
-Blanket programming
-Lack of specificity
-Lack of intelligent assessment and reassessment
-Not even a real training system, just a brand
-Scaling instead of modifying

I could go on...

Alright excellent, I hope you don't mind explaining a few.
-One dimensional; when I had to do crossfit the exercises would range from the (part i most hated) oly lifts in high volume, sprints, and up to 7kilometer runs.
-What do ou mean by assessment and reassessment?
-Scaling?

I'm trying to become more knowledgeable because I really want to take my training to the next level and compete in the army combatives contest 2013, I've got by on 5x5 routines, road work, and HIIT, but want something more

[ftwrestler]

-Lack of periodization
-Lack of intelligent programming
-Use of complex movements in high rep format
-Use of complex movements in fatigued states
-One dimensional
-Blanket programming
-Lack of specificity
-Lack of intelligent assessment and reassessment
-Not even a real training system, just a brand
-Scaling instead of modifying

I could go on...

came it to post this plus the vid of hitler

[jb4476]

Not necessarily for MMA but in general.
Please no sarcasm, I'm trying to educate myself.

I was forced to do Crossfit for about 8months because my PMS was all into it. I saw very little improvement but I attributed this to having to do the workouts every weekday morning, on top of weight training I actually wanted to do, and MMA.
I felt like the workouts would have been great with the exception of a few (mainly those involving heavier barbell movements), if I ever had had time to recover.
I see a lot of hate on it though...and do you think I would have seen the **** results I did even if I had recovery time??

Astounding level of dangerous incompetence in their disregard for proper technique or programming in the Olympic lifts. Anyone who thinks it s a good idea to do a set of 30 awkwardly muscled up push-snatches with too much weight should have their testicles stamped on with a pair of rusty cleats.

[PrettyPinkDonut]

Astounding level of dangerous incompetence in their disregard for proper technique or programming in the Olympic lifts. Anyone who thinks it s a good idea to do a set of 30 awkwardly muscled up push-snatches with too much weight should have their testicles stamped on with a pair of rusty cleats.

Ok then, what if you took the workouts they did excluding any that involved OLY lifts.

[dirtydean12]

These statements are based on nothing but your personal opinion from looking at pictures on the internet. There are much safer and taxing ways to have killer physiques, and no they do not have endurance for days, that's why they've failed multiple times to produce notable endurance athletes, and trust me the CF community has tried.

What's laughable is that USAW now has a CrossFit division so when CrossFitters go to WL competitions they don't have to compete against real weightlifters.

LOL...no actually I base my opinion on the fact that we work with a few notable members of the cf community as well as had presence at every regional event in the country this year(yes, myself included)...you're just sounding like someone who tried cf and found it too hard. No endurance/endurance athletes? You've obviously never been to an event, youtube the mens highlights from the national finals if you must...and yeah there's different ways to do tons of stuff, what's your point? And they have a cf WL division omgz they're lozerz!!! Who gives a sh*t?? They don't train like WL's so why try to compete against them? If you're in cf you'd obviously rather compete against those who do what you do...?

If you're doing a 5 day split for MMA, you're doing it wrong.

Well obviously(I actually mentioned that more for your average gym rat)...I think crossfit could be beneficial component in producing more muscular endurance that a fighter might need, but I wouldn't base it on just that for mma...


here's the men's champ...yeah they look like real slouches out there...

[ftwrestler]

LOL...no actually I base my opinion on the fact that we work with a few notable members of the cf community as well as had presence at every regional event in the country this year(yes, myself included)...you're just sounding like someone who tried cf and found it too hard. No endurance/endurance athletes? You've obviously never been to an event, youtube the mens highlights from the national finals if you must...and yeah there's different ways to do tons of stuff, what's your point? And they have a cf WL division omgz they're lozerz!!! Who gives a sh*t?? They don't train like WL's so why try to compete against them? If you're in cf you'd obviously rather compete against those who do what you do...?


Well obviously(I actually mentioned that more for your average gym rat)...I think crossfit could be beneficial component in producing more muscular endurance that a fighter might need, but I wouldn't base it on just that for mma...

i think you are missing his point. There are much better/safer/more effective ways to accomplish what crossfit does.

[RoccoTanno123]

here's the men's champ...yeah they look like real slouches out there...

It's an open secret that the best Crossfit game competitors don't train "crossfit"

[firstandgoal]

I rather just do circuit routines with rest. I tried crossfit and you do like 3 days on and 1 day off or 4 days on 1 off, and they have a WOD workout of the day.

I became badly overtrained and fatigued also I got tennis elbow and tendinitis and my heels were in pain. My shoulder had a small tear and I only did Cross fit for 4 months.

You will set yourself up for injury and it's not healthy training intense 3-4 days like that with no rest days, my immune system suffered I got colds during the time I was doing it. They tell you to fight the pain and if you are sore just force it, I don't like that philosophy at all.

I think doing crossfit long term will make you get bad joints, and probably need a hip replacement when you get older. I would not recommend it to be honest, I hated doing the pullup kipping that is where I strained my arms during a Fran session, and my left forearm was injured injured and that is when I stopped doing it. Kipping is not safe at all, just stick to doing legit pull ups where you pull your body up with your back and and biceps, not that momentum swinging.

[jb4476]

It's an open secret that the best Crossfit game competitors don't train "crossfit"

This. You don't get a 350+ overhead squat with random WODs, you just don't. It doesn't ****ing happen. You get it by years of consistent, planned, programming toward that goal, which is the opposite of crossfit.