It just seems like a bunch of exercises thrown together like a crazy workout obstacle course or something.
go.

in before the gifs

brace yourself. Im sure they are on the way...

It's a trendy way for inactive people to get in shape.

Because it's trendy people want to talk about it all of the time.

It may be annoying but it gets a lot of people into fitness which isn't a bad thing.

How?

 
What I'd do, instead of doing a 5 second google search that actually explains it, is ask GD where Crossfit is a cultural punching bag...because then the answers will conform to my predetermined viewpoint.


<not a Crossfit person, btw>

It makes you throw up.

Atleast the one time I tried it I did.

I had people pulling over on the side of the highway to make sure I was okay.

Never again

I'm into fitness....
Fitness whole pizza in my mouth....

Is that where some asshat tries to lay claim to a half dozen machines at the gym at the same time?

Effective social media campaigns, enthusiastic training that shares goal achievements with the local team, team identity and confidence building.

We have a local one here called "Iron Tribe" which is founded in Birmingham and is currently sweeping the nation as one of the largest Crossfit franchises.

I think it mostly revolves around people that can't do real pull ups.

What's the sound track to this video

I did it for several years and was in incredible shape.  

On the other hand I was injured/hurt more from crossfit than from any other sport I ever did in my life, including kickboxing, boxing and Karate.

I learned a lot by doing it, and I took from it what I thought was useful and left the rest where I found it.  

It is the latest craze.

Note the word craze, it was used for a reason.

It's exercise for the whole body. You can't cross fit and put in ear buds.

It was a concept that total, functional fitness is a base for performance.

Gymnasts have the best flexibility and body weight use strength.
You should do some gymnast skills like muscle ups, mini parallels, etc.

Olympic lifters have the most explosive strength.
Do some Olympic lifts.

Power lifters are the strongest.  Do dead lift, squat, and bench.

Sprinters and longer distance runners have niches in  capacity,
Do some of each.

Old school stuff like rope climbs, medicine balls, etc. we're great functional fitness things even though old fashioned.  Shiny nautilus machines and stuff were  not.

It made for a good well rounded base of fitness you could add your specialty stuff on top off.

SOF guys found that in general,
Doing a combination of body building exercises and running as they had been doing for decades did not optimize performance.

Functional programs such as cross fit could.

Then everyone thought cross fit was cool and it became a fucktarded mix of competitions, edgy, cool to do, stupid stuff getting added into, who could come up with the coolest, edgiest, most outlandish exercise to add to it, etc.

Instead of being scaled to individuals some did not scale and got hurt, etc.

Every five for tall 100 pound check can now think she works out like a seal, etc.

I just squat/deadlift/benchpress.  I'm probably really missing out not looking like a faggot hopping around.

My daughter and her BF do it .... it's all I hear about.

Those guys were pretty funny lol.

 

Crossfit is a fake exercise program designed to injure you as quickly and severely as possible.  It also melts your renal system as your body poisons itself trying to repair the damage.

It'll get you in shape and strong.

My friend at the shop has been doing it for a while and it's made him a beast.

A lot of it has to do with the instructor you're with.

I still think a lot of the exercises he describes are retarded. Holding a barbell with 135 pounds over your head and doing lunges. Now, that being said, there's certainly a science behind doing that (of course you work up to that). You're firing all your micro/stabilization muscles, honing your balance and control of each muscle, developing coordination, etc.

Still tarded.

It's got its supporters and detractors like everything else. The workouts do seem kind of random to me.



Da Troof About Crossfit:



https://www.t-nation.com/training/truth-about-crossfit

It started out as a pretty good workout routine designed by a guy who was a former gymnastics guru, that also incorporated a bunch of Oly lifts and other high intensity workouts, that later became franchised, very expensive, its own language (gyms=box), and the basis of what most outsiders would consider a cult like status.

Its very big on quantifiable improvement, which makes it about getting good at doing the movements, mastering technique to achieve more repetitions/more weight, over the basis of doing the exercise in the first place.

The most egregious is the kipping pullup, an exercise designed to strengthen the back and arms by repeatedly pulling the body weight up to a bar. In Crossfit, they introduce methods of cheating, called kipping, where a very taught technique utilizing momentum is used to achieve more repetitions, which = winning in Crossfit, regardless if it violates the tenets of doing the exercise in the first place. Oly lifts are also notorious, as they perfect the momentum aspect, it allows more weight, instead of just focusing on getting over the strength aspect (what a progression of the different Oly lift movements over years on youtube).

They are also notorious with having barely qualified instructors having novices doing very dangerous movements using bad form. Meaning Crossfit ensures orthopedic surgeons always make their boat payments.

This is what I'm doing , stronglifts 5x5.

It seems to involve a lot of flailing about.

Yeah I've noticed the kipping pull up thing. It's almost like a circular movement instead of just and up and down movement.

Not sure if it is fake or not there are some seriously jacked folks who swear by it.

Well explaoned.

It's rare that anyone brings up the military/crossfit connection, guess it wouldn't be that funny trying to shit talk Murph?

Crossfitters like to say their exercises are more practical/functional, but you can't use form to mask strength with powerlifting. You're either strong or you're not, being well trained in technique wont overcome being weak.

The only guy I know who is really into it goes around calling everyone and everything "soft"

I've been doing it for a couple years.  I am not a Kool-Aid drinker, but I will say that I appreciate what I've gotten out of it:

- As has been mentioned, the team-building/tribe mentality helps sometimes.  There is some peer pressure to show up every day, when the people you work out with/compete with ask where you were when you skip a day.  I found it motivating to find someone who was a little better than me and try to beat them.  Not everyone feeds off of that, but if you like a little friendly rivalry, it works.

- Working out 4-5 days per week if you aren't already will definitely increase your fitness.  I cannot speak to other gyms, but the ones I've been to have scaled versions of workouts so that if you cannot safely do the standard version (maybe sets of 10 deadlifts at 225) then you can scale it down to what you can do and that is challenging (maybe you can do 200, or 150, or whatever).  I've seen fairly out of shape people join and really improve their fitness.  They aren't going to be greek gods, but they are healthier.

- One thing I don't like about it, but kind of goes with the program, is that you never train often enough on any particular lift to get really good at it.  For instance, one might do snatches one day, and might not be required to do them again for a week or two.  That does not really promote sound technique.  Once you get to a certain level of fitness, you kind of plateau if you only do the standard workouts.  I've moved on to working more during the open gym times and focusing more on deadlifts, bench, overhead press, and back squats.  I try to work those lifts 2-3 times per week so that I can get better at them.  I wouldn't be as good as I am in those lifts if I only did them when the workouts called for them.  I still do the workouts, but not as often and if it's something bordering on unsafe for me (stepping up on a box with a weighted barbell didn't appeal to me) I just don't do it, or scale it to something I can do safely.  

I had my ACL reconstructed about 15 months ago, and am lifting more than I ever have.  I have mobility and strength back in my knee, and am not concerned about it anymore.  I rehabbed doing crossfit.  Box jumps scaled down to jumping on plates and slowly building up.  lifting lighter weights until I felt I could trust my knee.  Running, lunges, squats, burpees, etc.  All that stuff helped me build confidence in my knee, so that I was no longer afraid of reinjuring it.  Can you do the same stuff elsewhere?  Sure.  Crossfit isn't the be-all end-all of workouts.  But I also don't think it's such a bad thing as some might say it is.

Crossfit is not for the faint of heart. I did it regularly for a year and got in the best shape of my life. I was very careful about form and still fucked up my shoulder to the point where I had to shut it down. I think it was the Kipping pullups.

Kipping pull ups != strict pull ups

They are for two very different purposes and work different muscles.
Look at the gif on the first page of Camille doing a kipping ring muscle up. The amount of total body coordination and explosiveness they take are incredible.

Scaling is something people don't take as seriously as they should. Today's workout at my local crossfit gym - three levels - 21 -15 - 9 of row and thrusters makes me hate life.

MONDAY CROSSFIT CLASSES
RX: 21-15-9 Calorie row and Thrusters (30/40). Rest 3 min. 21-15-9 Toes To Bar and Handstand Push Ups. 13min cap including rest
Gold:  21-15-9 Calorie row and Thrusters (30/40). Rest 5 min. 21-15-9 Toes to Bar and Handstand Push Ups
Silver: 21-15-9 Calorie row and Thrusters (bar). Rest 5 min. 21-15-9 V-Ups or Toes Above Hips and Push Ups

No, they aren't equal. Kipping pullups were developed as a way of doing more pullups, Marines had been doing them since before you were born likely. Its about doing more of them. The point of doing a pullup is to get a stronger back and arms. If you want to get stronger "explosive" core muscles, do a different explosive exercise. If you want to cheat a pull up to tell people "I can do 50 pull ups no problem" then kipping is what you are wanting. Or else you want 20 pullups to get a promotion at work. But if you're actually going for strength, dead hangs is the only way to do it. You're taking a cheating exercise and trying to still find usefulness in it, and you're doing this because you're a cultist.

+1 for the past six weeks...
back pain is almost completely gone...

Why? If I enjoy kipping pullups as an explosive exercise and they work for that purpose, what is wrong with doing them?

My best friend is a physical therapist, according to them a significantly large portion of people who come through the clinic come because of crossfit injuries.
Apparently, it's one of the worst things you can do to your body (work out wise) long term and they suggest no one should do it.

I watched this, googled Camille LeBlanc Bazinet and basically have no liquid left in my body. What next?

 

Oh I have no doubt. Seems like it would push noobs into a territory they aren't ready for and without much focus on form.