Crossfit: To do or not to do

Each individual Crossfit facility should be evaluated on its own merits.

That being said.....

The first problem I have with Crossfit is the incredible sense of "we know best and we know better than you." 

On the Crossfit website it states:

"Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the

specialist."

Really? Combat, survival and sports require a base of fitness and then the specialization necessary to master the skills of the activity. Take a look at the mytpi.com website and their philosophy. Just replace golf for the activity you prefer and you will see what I mean.

"We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs."

Ouch! The same routines for the elderly and cage fighters?

How determining the goals of a client and performing the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) or some type of body assessment before the client starts training at a Crossfit. Only then can a proper and safe training program be designed!

The second problem is technique.  There is no way to maintain proper technique on the final reps of a MetCon. 

Take a look at these two videos. 

This one – http://vimeo.com/1677805 – is the owner of a Crossfit showing fairly good unweighted squat technique.

Now look at this video – http://vimeo.com/1372056 – in which she is doing Clean and Jerks with weight for reps. OUCH! Look at her right knee! And she is the owner of the Crossfit!

The third problem is overtraining. In addition to the problem of technique when fatigued, overtraining seems to be ubiquitous in Crossfit. Every crossfitter I have treated was way overtrained. There even seems to be a badge of honor when a crossfitter is "destroyed" by their training. Yikes! Any athlete who has trained this way realizes that recovery is king!

And lastly, the culture. While inclusiveness is all well and good, mocking those who suffer an injury or cannot "cut it" is not. An article written by Will Wright, MD, says,

"Uncle Rhabdo is well known to the CrossFit community, but he is around to remind and warn us that what we do has the potential to be dangerous."

You are kidding right? An MD who is a crossfitter actually wrote this?

And a workout was named for a client of a Crossfit who suffered rhabdomyolysis. See this...

PLEASE determine your goals and be properly evaluated before starting any exercise program. You can be careful, be smart, get fit, and have fun!