To Crossfit or Not to Crossfit?: A Certified Trainer’s 3 Month Experiment

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You probably have a strong fact based opinion on the subject.

I have noticed a very popular trend in the fitness community- the people who are so passionately against ANYTHING in fitness, have rarely tried the event they are morally opposed to.

It's excruciatingly pathetic.

How the flying fuck can you give a good/honest opinion about something you have never tried or succeeded at? (See – The American Education System.)

All of this to say, after years of dogging on Crossfit, I gave it a shot.

I KNOW I KNOW. I have sinned against our Lord- The Iron, but I had to find out for myself.

So, after a few months of trying it out, here is the good and bad about Crossfit, from an objective fitness brofessional.


The Good

1. People get results

We get so caught up in the right and wrong way to do shit we forget why people are in the gym in the first place- To get results.

Watch this video of Jay Cutler's Back workout: HERE. Roughly 90% of that shit was done with really shitty form. But guess what, he's getting results.

LISTEN CLOSELY, I'm not saying you should lift with improper form, but if you shit on Crossfitters for not doing everything by the book, make sure to spread your hate around appropriately. Those people are getting results. 

2. It can be a community of Bros

Very few gyms or exercise organizations come close to Crossfit's community. In fact, I would say there is not one other fitness organization, I can think of, with a group of people so dedicated to it.

This community provides all sorts of articles and videos of people trying to help you improve. And if you dig deep enough, it is pretty easy to find a community of bros who love sex, beer, and lifting weights. And yeah, Crossfit gets a lot of hate from other people, but when did you start worrying about what other people thought of you? 

A smart Crossfitters response: I started today with 12 fucks and ended the day with a dozen, how many fucks did I give?

3. It's competitive

You're a bro, so I assume you like competition.

You will never lift as hard as you will when you're surrounded by other people competing in the same event.

Our DNA code drives us to best our fellow bros in just about every worldly competition. Crossfit provides this competition on a daily basis and it's the reason I started in the first place.

Not only that, you can even compare yourself to bros ALL OVER THE WORLD by looking at times and lifts. That sort of competition can be frightening, but will encourage you to get off your self decieving ass and realize you should do something about it.

Click below to see The Bad of crossfit.

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The Bad

1. Beginners beware

If you're a newbie to lifting weights and Olympic lifting, be careful. I played college football and was no stranger to Olympic lifting when I started Crossfit. The Crossfit I go to is pretty small and if I was not prepared before hand with things like the clean, dead lift, and jerk, I could have easily injured myself.

Basically, most of Crossfit beginner programs are a joke and should be approach with caution. There is a MASSIVE difference between teaching someone how to clean and then expecting them to be efficient enough to clean a specific weight under a certian time period. 

If you are out of shape or a total weigh lifting novice, you need to join a large Crossfit gym that has a great beginners program or don't join at all.

2. Cult Nature

The danger of any community is obvious – groupthink.

In this years Crossfit regional's, one of the events was a max set of 3 overhead squats. Resulting in 3 dislocated shoulders, in one of the SEVENTEEN Crossfit regional’s (the only one I really watched).

The more shocking part was NOBODY said anything about it. That's the power of groupthink, disregarding clear evidence in favor of the result that best supports the group.

Also, many of the members will wear brightly colored socks and talk about Crossfit like it is some sort of ancient religion impervious to objective questioning. These things annoy me more than Justin Beiber's clearly futile attempt at being the baddest bro of all time. Don't be a brainwashed clown and assume they know what they are talking about. Just because they came up with some crazy workout and claim it works “different functional modalities” is NOT reason to do it. Hey guys, let's do some barefoot mountian climbers on glass! 

3. Leadership

Greg Glassman is fat and Dave Castro(the guy who programs the events), are not people I would take fitness advice from.

I get my money advice from the successful and I'll take my fitness advice from people who actually are able to apply what they “know.” 

Conclusion

I have noticed significant strength and explosion gains from doing Crossfit. Squats, dead lifts, and my overall strength have all improved dramatically. I also noticed a tremendous difference when playing sports or doing any athletic event. My softball skills have gone from audaciously pathetic to startlingly mediocre. 

Plus, the Crossfit I attend has some great people in it who love getting a few beers just as much as they love lifting weights. 

Pretty cool. However, some of the nuisances and bizarre workouts have started to wane on me. 

I now use Crossfit 3 days a week and use the other 3 days to do my own programming. 

Would I reccomend it?

Like I said before, if you are a total beginner to weightlifting, you need to find a really great crossfit gym that caters to that. And even then, you should be somewhat athletic and have decent hand eye coordination before starting. You can't teach a blind – toed sloth how to dead lift properly, I don't care who you are. 

If you are an former/current athlete that loves to compete, absolutely. For me- getting a pump in the gym is nothing compared to ousting people in a semi-athletic event. If you are yelling profanities after “Mossing” on randoms in flag football games, Crossfit is right for you. 

Hope this article helps clear some stuff up. 

See you next week, bros,
Alex Nerney – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Lord of Broscience

Follow me on Twitter, fat face: HERE
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