Why CrossFit Sucks

[IronBoxer]

Seriously this is why there are so many injuries with this program, among other reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=BDDyxXyf6UU#!

[dan_cov]

[josh-hill]

im not entirely sure what cross fit is as i never bothered to look into it. but it should be common sense that tells you a program for the mass market isnt one an athlete should follow. anyway, those people are just stuidly silly.

[eMtz]

yea i see these guys and i dont see what their ultimate goal is to be.

[IronBoxer]

Thanks for embedding the video. Props.

im not entirely sure what cross fit is as i never bothered to look into it. but it should be common sense that tells you a program for the mass market isnt one an athlete should follow. anyway, those people are just stuidly silly.

CrossFit is just like Zumba, Ab Rocket and all those other fitness gimmicks used to entice stupid people in to paying large amounts of money for nothing..snake oil anyone? However I will give them the benefit of the doubt in their use of basic equipment and basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, Oly lifts,etc and while it is somewhat better than the garbage routines one would find in the bodybuilding magazines and on the Internet they use several training protocols that either don't make sense or are simply an injury waiting to happen

Olympic Lifts for high reps: Oly lifts are not suitable for doing at high reps or build muscular endurance. Due to their ballistic and taxing effect on the CNS(Central Nervous System) they are only suitable for building power. It is very difficult to do a snatch or clean&jerk at high reps and maintain strict form. If muscular endurance is your goal, then fine but there are better ways to go about it.

Illogical or Random sequence of exercises: CrossFit is particularly famous for their WODs(Workout of The Day) in which the practitioner does a particular set of exercise(s) using either their own body-weight, gymnastic rings, barbells, kettlebells,etc. A particular program might look something like this

Bench Press-5 reps
Handstand Push ups-12 reps
Pull ups-20 reps
Sprint-400 meters

As you can see, the exercises and the order they are in do not make any sense whatsoever and there is no proposed training goal(i.e. power, max strength, hypertrophy). Like I said earlier, if your goal is endurance or strength there are better and more efficient ways to go about it.

No Periodization, Inexperienced Staff, or Concern for Well-Being: CrossFit does not their workouts, this is evident since roughly an overwhelming majority of their workouts are done in circuit fashion and do not change things up form time to time. This is the easiest way to hit a plateau, overtrain, and increase your chances of injury or in more serious cases rhabdomyolysis where muscle fibers break down and poison the kidneys. In fact there has been several documented cases where CrossFit patrons have suffered from this condition and some have successfully sued for medical costs and damages. The majority, not all, of CrossFit trainers do not have the sufficient knowledge or exprience to guide patrons through a workout or show proper technique on certain complex exercises(hence why kipping pull ups are considered an equal substitute to strict, dead hang pull ups in their circle).

I could go on and on about the many flaws CrossFit has but these are the major ones. As you can see, its not the best training system there is.

[jaded]

It's hard to tell with those bumper plates sometimes if they're 10 kg or 20 kg...There is no way in the world those plates are 45 lb plates...I've worked on movie set where they use fake plates and bars. There is no way in the world that girl is cleaning and pressing over 400 lbs...especially the way she is doing it. And later on another girl is using 5 plates...

At one point when she is switching grips and is literally holding it with one hand...it looks fake...and at one point when she is struggling...I think if it was real she would have lost it bad.

Watch how Julie Malenfant (Female MMA fighter) power cleans 220 lb...this looks a little more realistic...and this is a heavy power clean...most men can't do this.

Notice the difference when the bar drops here how it bounces and that's only 1/2 the supposed weight or less...that video is probably done with 50 lb barbell loaded.



Here's world class Russian monster woman Tatiana Kashirina with 3 plates...



That video reminds me of this one...

[murmagic]

lol at those vids, crossfit is dangerous for so many reasons.

[IronBoxer]

lol at those vids, crossfit is dangerous for so many reasons.

It is, considering the number of cases where people have gotten seriously injured doing that crap. Hell, even their CEO had a lower back injury from one of his own programs.

[sammiza567]

crossfit will fall off completley in about 10 years. not enough long term research to prove it, but you cant do high rep olympic lifts for many years im calling it now, these people bodies will not be happy.

[*Boss*]

oh man.... accident waiting to happen....