Crossfit?

[Andrew DiMIcelli]

Saw the crossfit games today and saw some huge/strong guys. What do you guys think of crossfit?

[Alvaro Antolinez]

Not again!!

[RatioFitness]

Crossfit is an extreme sport, not an exercise regime.

[Blairbob]

To sum up, most of the "elite" crossfitters were athletes, some professional athletes prior to crossfit or have been training roughly their whole lives. One interesting home-grown crossfitter may be Jeff Martin's kid who is around 19 (JeffMartin runs a gym down near SD, CA and heads CFKids). A lot of them are pretty built besides having exceptional work capacity. They are damn machines.

Rudimentary level gymnastics. HSPU, MU, Lsit and HS walking. One WOD included a MU HSPU besides the other with work bent arm kips.

Horrible injury record. There is a thread on performancemenu that documents it.

I won't even get into CFHQ. Let's not bring up that mess. However, many affiliates are decent gyms to workout in. I should know, I love working out of my friends gyms when I'm in Marin or Sacramento and I have a lot of other people I would call friends or acquaintances in CF. My friend gives me a lot of guff at one (he's the owner) but it's all in good sport. He's never had a case of rhabdo in his clients besides running one of the biggest gyms in Sacto.

Still, CF is like a mainstream gateway fitness drug. People get into it, then find themselves going into olympic lifting, powerlifting, or bodyweight fitness. You'll find a lot of ex athletes from various sports in it, including gymnasts and occasionally a few bodybuilders.

I suspect that the OP might be a troll but I did find a username on a bodybuilding website that might be a young college student besides fielding other collegiate inquiries about college in general.

[Andrew DiMIcelli]

edit: I am not a troll, Blairblob, that was a serious question. What do you guys think of Crossfit (I'm trying to plan my new exercise routine, i'll post info below), I tried searching it but didn't find much.

I'm in high school, used to wrestle, got into bodybuilding, out from various injuries right now, trying to figure out rehab and what I'm going to do once I'm back. One problem is that I was just diagnosed with Spondylittis (a joint disease).

Don't know much about CrossFit but it seems like a combination of cardio, powerlifting, gymnastics, am I right?

As I said before, I am into bodybuilding/lifting, so size and strength is probably my priority but I still care about speed, endurance, flexibility, etc. since I want to get into parkour and rock climbing (used to climb a lot). The Crossfit guys were pretty big, so are gymnasts, and bodybuilders.. I'm thinking about combining gymnastics (stuff from BtGB) with powerlifting and some sprinting/HIIT.

Any advice?

[Philip Chubb]

I suspect that the OP might be a troll

That was pretty direct .

I think Crossfit is a good gateway into exercising. If you are looking to be big, and strong but still have mobility and speed ect, then gymnastics for the upperbody plus some upperbody weighted work such as weighted pull ups will help plus lower body with weights will get you there.

[Andrew DiMIcelli]

I suspect that the OP might be a troll

That was pretty direct .

I think Crossfit is a good gateway into exercising. If you are looking to be big, and strong but still have mobility and speed ect, then gymnastics for the upperbody plus some upperbody weighted work such as weighted pull ups will help plus lower body with weights will get you there.

I read through a long thread on another forum in which people were arguing about Crossfit being a base. Some were saying it's a good base and then to add more specialized training, others were saying that you should have a fitness base before starting Crossfit and all of the best athletes in Crossfit were already great athletes before starting.

Do you think it would be better to start stuff from GB book or do crossfit first, or do both? Also, what do you think would be easiest on the joints (shoulder a/c joint and rotators, and hip flexors)?

[Philip Chubb]

It really depends on what part of crossfit you're doing. I know different crossfits do different things. If you are doing a lot of olifting, then you should probably have a decent squat and some technical practice on it. If all around is your goal then I would do both. Gymnastics for the upper body and crossfit in the form of squats and olifts for the lower body. This is what I and a good amount of people on this board do. Basically, THAT is the base.

The injuries will have to be worked around and rehabbed either way. A snatch and a planche can both be a bit scary for a weak shoulder.

[Blairbob]

Well after the google I figured you weren't. We haven't really had many trolls here.

Some of us on here have played with 531 and gymnastics. A 2 day 531 split was quite doable for me for the bulk of this training year from Feb-Aug.

CrossFit is a sort of a blend of all of those. I was intrigued by it when I got into since my training during the senior year of HighSchool was based mostly around the OlympicLifts and squat and press (no deadlifting). From 97-2002, it was mostly that besides dips, pullups, Lsits and HS. There was some curling involved but we never got into the fancy bodybuilding drills like facepulls and the like.

While CF uses a bit of powerlifting as Louie has been doing strength certs for them for awhile, only a small handful of people use the conjugate system. 531 has become pretty popular as it's easy to incorprate into affiliate programming because it's fairly quick and easy to use (as long as you are doing a simple 531 with no assistance). Anthony Bainbridge is sort of the poster boy for CF and Powerlifting since he is the only one that does both to any degree.

I couldn't really get many google hits on spondylitis and weightlifting other than an anecdotal note that one guy had a weightlifting coach who was a female master champion.

If you can weightlift without pain, sure. I'd lift on the safe side, never really invoking a crapton of volume with intensity (which is unfortunately, what CF sometimes becomes or is). If not, just use gymnastics lower body exercises and sprint and jump.

[Blairbob]

Also, what do you think would be easiest on the joints (shoulder a/c joint and rotators, and hip flexors)?

In this case, not a barbell most likely. Dumbbells or Kettlebells mo bettah but a barbell still might be useful if it doesn't hurt you in the short or long term.

Deadlifting might be the one lift I'd keep for you, perhaps ditching squats and instead doing barbell lunges or bulgarian split squats. Squats are good but they can mess some people up with bad form (though they can do a lot of good with correct form). They can also be a bit tricky with shoulder problems be it front or back squats.

[Blairbob]

I read through a long thread on another forum in which people were arguing about Crossfit being a base. Some were saying it's a good base and then to add more specialized training, others were saying that you should have a fitness base before starting Crossfit and all of the best athletes in Crossfit were already great athletes before starting.

For mainpage CF this is true. However, there are many affiliates that do not program like main page. There is CF for football (which actually should probably be called CF for Sports Athletes), CF for endurance (which unfortunately is probably only suitable for the recreational endurance enthusiast), CF for Gymnastics (which is mainly gymnastics as accessory work for CF).

If your shoulders are a mess, I wouldn't use a barbell for them. DB yes though. Basic gymnastic staples like pullups and pushups, shoulder band work and DB work focusing on mobility and strength (look at DieselCrew DB work).

[Andrew DiMIcelli]

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll do some more research and still have to talk to some doctors.

edit: I've seen you in a lot of threads blairbob so I assume you can direct me. I've haven't spent too much time on this site but I have read a bunch of stickys and done some searches. I may have missed it but I can't seem to find any threads that details a GB routine/beginner info (I find the book pretty confusing)?

[Blairbob]

For beginners, the GB WOD, Killroy70 template, or a SSC of FSPs+FBEs is advised. Killroy70 is short of a linear version of FSPs and FBEs as I think they are allowed to scale up every 3-4 weeks.