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Given he calls Crossfit sadistic it's ironic he's basically describing it. Free weights, core strength, a focus on overall fitness and all aspects thereof over

by msy 16y ago

Given he calls Crossfit sadistic it's ironic he's basically describing it. Free weights, core strength, a focus on overall fitness and all aspects thereof over abstract weight numbers. It's not complicated and plenty of people know it. Hyperbolic headlines are intensely irritating.

zzygan 16y ago
So true. I've only fairly recently gotten into crossfit, and although it is very hard, and very intense, everything he talks about the article is focused on, comes up in various crossfit workouts, as well as a hell of a lot more stuff that makes you so much more versitile than just strength. The thing i hate about crossfit is the "coach" thing, but that must be something I just dont get.
freshfey 16y ago
Not exactly. In Crossfit times and reps matter more than form. Just take a look at some gyms. The exercises and the philosophy behind is awesome, but the practical appliance is far from great.
- jokull 16y ago
  There's an emphasis on improving scores and people get carried away for sure. But in the two boxes I've trained at there's a culture for good form and working on technique. "Honesty in motion, honesty in counting". I believe it's a CrossFit thing.
  - freshfey 16y ago
    There are definitely boxes who focus on good form, which is great (and should be the norm), but I think due to the fact that the Level 1 cert is so easy to get, the quality suffers in some gyms.
  - jacques_chester 16y ago
    > I believe it's a CrossFit thing. Based on this claim I assume also that Crossfit invented the barbell, the bumper plate and gravity. The sudden outburst of anecdotes about how your Crossfit gym rooly trooly emphasises form seems to have come after years of sustained criticism by strength coaches and Olympic weightlifting coaches. It's as simple as this: nobody -- not me, not you, not your coach, not the pros -- nobody can pump out high rep Oly movements without steady and ultimately dangerous degradation in form. The force plate studies, the EEG studies, the eyeballing of experienced coaches demonstrate over and over and over that it is a flat out stupid idea to do snatches or cleans for reps. And yet in Crossfit gyms everywhere, this idea of smashing out 20 clean & jerks still keeps getting circulated. You cannot do this and learn to do the movements precisely enough. You will only train yourselves to do it messily. Under heavy weights you will fuck up and injure yourself. Given that I love Oly lifting, I don't want people getting injured and then blaming the lifts, when they should be blaming a faulty training technique.
    - yummyfajitas 16y ago
      I haven't done crossfit, but I am curious - what prevents you from doing 20 proper form clean & jerks if you lower the weight?
      - enjo 16y ago
        It's the timing aspect, and it's particularly an issue with squats. Even at lower weight, it's far to easy to get your knees pushed forward or your back arched when trying to pump through them as fast as possible. I don't think anyone is saying that it's not possible, it's just much more likely that your average lifter is going to run into injury.
      - jacques_chester 16y ago
        Nervous system fatigue. The Olympic lifts require: 1. Precision. 2. Power. In that order. The problem is that the motions happen so fast that even at light weights you quickly deplete the central nervous system's ability to provide sharp signals. Ideally the signal conveyed to muscles looks like a square wave. However as repetitions mount, it becomes more and more to resemble noise, leading to sloppy form. Repetition is the basis of learning, especially for complex movement. If you are doing 20 reps, and 15 of them have degraded form, what will you wind up learning? And it doesn't help that the emphasis is doing the 20 reps in the minimum time possible, which discourages lifters from taking the time to set themselves in the correct position off the floor. The weight is almost, but not quite, irrelevant to my main point. My main point is that the body learns what you make it do. If you continue to work through degraded form you will only learn to make the lifts sloppily. As you increase the weight (Crossfit calls this "scaling the workout" as if they were the first to think of changing the weight on the bar), you will only increase your risk of injury.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- msy 16y ago
  Every crossfit trainer I've met, trained with or by or read has emphasised form over how many reps, there might be sloppy gyms but that certainly hasn't been my experience.
noodle 16y ago
having done crossfit and workouts similar to the ones planned in the article, i disagree. crossfit does make use of some of the principles outlined in the article, yes. but you could say that about almost any workout scheme, including 20lb weights balancing on a bosu ball. there are bound to be some similarities. crossfit is frenetic, with exercises that vary daily. this routine is advocating a more static set of consistent core exercises. crossfit mixes up the styles of exercises pretty frequently -- some are strength, some are endurance, some are timed, etc.. again, this routine is more about slow, steady, consistent improvements on a single set of exercises. crossfit is a single workout track that gets everyone "fit", while this routine is pointing out that you need to approach the exercises differently based on your personal goals. etc etc.
kareemm 16y ago
Agreed. Over the years Crossfit has embraced the teachings and methods of coaches the author praises, including Mark Ripptoe and the Westside Barbell guys. > Hyperbolic headlines are intensely irritating. Jason Fried said yesterday: "Something I didn't know when I started writing for Inc: The authors don't write the headlines. The editors write the headlines and subheads." (from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2271625 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2271625) Perhaps it's the same at Mens Journal.

by msy 16y ago

zzygan 16y ago

So true. I've only fairly recently gotten into crossfit, and although it is very hard, and very intense, everything he talks about the article is focused on, comes up in various crossfit workouts, as well as a hell of a lot more stuff that makes you so much more versitile than just strength. The thing i hate about crossfit is the "coach" thing, but that must be something I just dont get.

freshfey 16y ago

Not exactly. In Crossfit times and reps matter more than form. Just take a look at some gyms. The exercises and the philosophy behind is awesome, but the practical appliance is far from great.

jokull 16y ago
There's an emphasis on improving scores and people get carried away for sure. But in the two boxes I've trained at there's a culture for good form and working on technique. "Honesty in motion, honesty in counting". I believe it's a CrossFit thing.
- freshfey 16y ago
  There are definitely boxes who focus on good form, which is great (and should be the norm), but I think due to the fact that the Level 1 cert is so easy to get, the quality suffers in some gyms.
- jacques_chester 16y ago
  > I believe it's a CrossFit thing. Based on this claim I assume also that Crossfit invented the barbell, the bumper plate and gravity. The sudden outburst of anecdotes about how your Crossfit gym rooly trooly emphasises form seems to have come after years of sustained criticism by strength coaches and Olympic weightlifting coaches. It's as simple as this: nobody -- not me, not you, not your coach, not the pros -- nobody can pump out high rep Oly movements without steady and ultimately dangerous degradation in form. The force plate studies, the EEG studies, the eyeballing of experienced coaches demonstrate over and over and over that it is a flat out stupid idea to do snatches or cleans for reps. And yet in Crossfit gyms everywhere, this idea of smashing out 20 clean & jerks still keeps getting circulated. You cannot do this and learn to do the movements precisely enough. You will only train yourselves to do it messily. Under heavy weights you will fuck up and injure yourself. Given that I love Oly lifting, I don't want people getting injured and then blaming the lifts, when they should be blaming a faulty training technique.
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    I haven't done crossfit, but I am curious - what prevents you from doing 20 proper form clean & jerks if you lower the weight?
    - enjo 16y ago
      It's the timing aspect, and it's particularly an issue with squats. Even at lower weight, it's far to easy to get your knees pushed forward or your back arched when trying to pump through them as fast as possible. I don't think anyone is saying that it's not possible, it's just much more likely that your average lifter is going to run into injury.
    - jacques_chester 16y ago
      Nervous system fatigue. The Olympic lifts require: 1. Precision. 2. Power. In that order. The problem is that the motions happen so fast that even at light weights you quickly deplete the central nervous system's ability to provide sharp signals. Ideally the signal conveyed to muscles looks like a square wave. However as repetitions mount, it becomes more and more to resemble noise, leading to sloppy form. Repetition is the basis of learning, especially for complex movement. If you are doing 20 reps, and 15 of them have degraded form, what will you wind up learning? And it doesn't help that the emphasis is doing the 20 reps in the minimum time possible, which discourages lifters from taking the time to set themselves in the correct position off the floor. The weight is almost, but not quite, irrelevant to my main point. My main point is that the body learns what you make it do. If you continue to work through degraded form you will only learn to make the lifts sloppily. As you increase the weight (Crossfit calls this "scaling the workout" as if they were the first to think of changing the weight on the bar), you will only increase your risk of injury.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
msy 16y ago
Every crossfit trainer I've met, trained with or by or read has emphasised form over how many reps, there might be sloppy gyms but that certainly hasn't been my experience.

noodle 16y ago

having done crossfit and workouts similar to the ones planned in the article, i disagree. crossfit does make use of some of the principles outlined in the article, yes. but you could say that about almost any workout scheme, including 20lb weights balancing on a bosu ball. there are bound to be some similarities. crossfit is frenetic, with exercises that vary daily. this routine is advocating a more static set of consistent core exercises. crossfit mixes up the styles of exercises pretty frequently -- some are strength, some are endurance, some are timed, etc.. again, this routine is more about slow, steady, consistent improvements on a single set of exercises. crossfit is a single workout track that gets everyone "fit", while this routine is pointing out that you need to approach the exercises differently based on your personal goals. etc etc.

kareemm 16y ago

Agreed. Over the years Crossfit has embraced the teachings and methods of coaches the author praises, including Mark Ripptoe and the Westside Barbell guys. > Hyperbolic headlines are intensely irritating. Jason Fried said yesterday: "Something I didn't know when I started writing for Inc: The authors don't write the headlines. The editors write the headlines and subheads." (from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2271625 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2271625) Perhaps it's the same at Mens Journal.