CrossFit – Is it for real?
By Team EtchRock in All,Challenges,EtchRock,Training
Crossfit has become one of the biggest fitness crazes over the past couple of years, although views dramatically vary on its benefits. I have met many people that absolutely swear by it; say it has changed their lives and workout routines forever. Then on the other end of the spectrum, detractors say it is potentially dangerous and should avoid it. So what’s the answer? In this blog piece we take a closer look at crossfit and try to understand why opinions vary so considerably. Now I am no PT or S&C coach, but have built an extensive knowledge of gym training over the years and also occasionally use crossfit facilities, these are my observations.
The Good
The tractor tire can be a crossfitters best friend!
Let’s start with the pros. The biggest benefit of all is that the exercises build functional strength. You are using everyday movements; pushing, pulling, gripping and grasping. These exercises build strength that can support you in everyday life and make you stronger overall. You are using all the supporting muscles that are rarely targeted whilst using resistance machines at your local gym. In addition to this, crossfit emphasises multi joint/muscle exercises, such as pull-ups, squats, deadlifts and dips. These are some of the best exercises that you can perform if you want to pack on muscle. Like in the point above, they excel at building functional strength. My absolute favourite thing about crossfit is the mentality of everyone training. Never once have I seen people gathering around the squat rack chatting about “the hot girl over there” or blabbing on their mobiles. Crossfiters are there to work, and work hard they do! Lastly, crossfit is extremely fun! If you normally work out in a gym and have never tried crossfit before, you will find it is a completely different way of exercising and will most likely feel the sorest you have in a long time!
The Bad
The rings are no laughing matter!
So what could be bad about crossfit? All of the above seems to point towards it being a winner right? Not so fast, there are a couple of points that are worth considering when deciding to take up crossfit. First point worth noting is the complexity of some of the exercises people do. Now again, I can’t speak for all crossfit facilities out there as many are professionally run but I have seen on multiple occasions people trying to complete lifts that they are in no way prepared for. Exercises like the snatch, power cleans and clean and jerk are highly complicated, Olympic lifts. It takes an extremely long time to perfect technique and build supporting muscle for these lifts and all it takes is one slip up and suddenly you have a muscle tear. One factor that also puts me off is that as an athlete, crossfit only really makes you better at crossfit. Unless you have a personal trainer, doing specialised exercises on targeted muscles, then you aren’t really going to improve in your chosen sport. Finally, crossfit can be an injury waiting to happen. As I mentioned earlier, you engage in some very complex lifts and doing these all back to back without much rest can be torture on your body. Doing so many compound exercises in one session will cause fatigue, and when we are fatigued it affects our form, and when form suffers, that’s when injuries happen.
So to conclude, we can see that crossfit has many pros and cons. In my personal opinion I would say that the pros outweigh the cons, IF and only IF you have a highly professional personal trainer to guide you and make sure you stay injury free. If so, crossfit is one of the most exciting and tough workouts out there so you should definitely give it a try!
Why not let us know about your Crossfit experience? What do you like and dislike? We’d love to hear from you!
Team EtchRock