Crossfit

[Jacob]

Interesting read. I haven't seen Pukey the Clown or Uncle Rhabdo yet at my gym. I agree with a lot of what the writer's points. As I said above, I don't push myself as hard on some of the heavier lifts because I worry about aggrivating a previous injury.

I do think the concern for injury doing olympic lifts when fatigued is a bit overblown though. Aside from Rhabdomyolysis (which I had never heard of before this article), I don't think there is a huge risk for injury on the lifts done during the WOD circuits because you are doing the circuit with a fraction of your max weight. So maybe the form breaks down a bit when you fatigue toward the end of the workout, but it doesn't seem like the weight is enough to cause serious injury unless you let yourself totally fall apart (which does happen, admittedly). Am I off base here? What do the other longer-tenured crossfitters think?

Don't overdo it is always a good rule. I go as hard as possible every day. I collapse at the end of almost every WOD. I've never puked, but I ve felt like it a few times.
AS for the olympic lifts, I never worry about getting hurt. I'd be more concerned about deadlifts. I hate high reps of fast deadlifts. I trend to use too much back and so you are just asking for pain and possible tweaking of the back. If you have a weak knee, don't squat too much, but squat a lot so it's not so weak in the future.
I do oly lifting seasons to improve technique, but yesterday we did a WOd with lots of cleans. The weight was light for me so I didn't use my legs enough and smoked my back but I feel fine today, even after playing bball last night.
I'm much more likely to get injured bench pressing than doing olympic lifts.
I better get to bed so I can get in two workouts tomorrow.

[mUUser]

Coming up on 50 pretty fast and find I can't work out like I did 10 years ago without risking injury. I'm thinking crossfit isn't a good fit for me at my age.

Other than a short flirtation with insanity, I've had the same routine for several years with good results. Lift 2-3X/week and mix in a reasonable amount of aerobic exercise. Eat clean 80 percent of the time....low carb most days.

I'm in better than average shape.

[thesaint258]

Interesting read. I haven't seen Pukey the Clown or Uncle Rhabdo yet at my gym. I agree with a lot of what the writer's points. As I said above, I don't push myself as hard on some of the heavier lifts because I worry about aggrivating a previous injury.

I do think the concern for injury doing olympic lifts when fatigued is a bit overblown though. Aside from Rhabdomyolysis (which I had never heard of before this article), I don't think there is a huge risk for injury on the lifts done during the WOD circuits because you are doing the circuit with a fraction of your max weight. So maybe the form breaks down a bit when you fatigue toward the end of the workout, but it doesn't seem like the weight is enough to cause serious injury unless you let yourself totally fall apart (which does happen, admittedly). Am I off base here? What do the other longer-tenured crossfitters think?

My gym isn't like the one the author described with the exception of the encouragement. I do the olympic lifts, but I adjust the weight depending on the lift and the number of reps we're doing. I hurt myself once before, and I'm not going to let that happen again. I also take rests when I need them. If I can't properly do a lift, I'll take 30-45 seconds to get myself together and then do the lift.

[jay santos]

Coming up on 50 pretty fast and find I can't work out like I did 10 years ago without risking injury. I'm thinking crossfit isn't a good fit for me at my age.

Other than a short flirtation with insanity, I've had the same routine for several years with good results. Lift 2-3X/week and mix in a reasonable amount of aerobic exercise. Eat clean 80 percent of the time....low carb most days.

I'm in better than average shape.

Lift weights. Cardio for fitness. Diet to optimize for fat loss or muscle gain.

[Jacob]

Coming up on 50 pretty fast and find I can't work out like I did 10 years ago without risking injury. I'm thinking crossfit isn't a good fit for me at my age.

Other than a short flirtation with insanity, I've had the same routine for several years with good results. Lift 2-3X/week and mix in a reasonable amount of aerobic exercise. Eat clean 80 percent of the time....low carb most days.

I'm in better than average shape.

Sounds like crossfit would be a great fit for you. But what you are doing sounds great as long as you keep lifting heavy weights.

[ERCougar]

Sounds like crossfit would be a great fit for you. But what you are doing sounds great as long as you keep lifting heavy weights.

Heavy lifting would be the least important part of his fitness program, if you care about health benefits.

As I mentioned earlier, this ignorance/devaluation of aerobic fitness is part of what bothers me about Crossfit. Aerobic conditioning has by far the most evidence supporting its health benefits of any aspect of training, over a wide range of health conditions, and is an essential base to performance. Anaerobic training can provide additional performance benefit, but carries with it increased risk of injury and may even have adverse effects on the coronary system. Really, we don't know either way, as this ADDish short burst high intensity exercise fad that we're seeing all over (not just Crossfit) is new, and like many fads, has virtually no data to back it up. We simply don't know the long-term effects of consistent exposure to lactic acid and other anaerobic metabolites. Our bodies are much more gazelle than cheetah, so physiology with some common sense would suggest that long term health would thrive under aerobic conditions. Woot may have a lot more to say about this.

Really, the ideal fitness program for health would be to move around all the time (which is why I like the 10000 steps/day initiative). Start with this. Add aerobic conditioning next. Then if you care about performance, add anaerobic training. Then strength training. Crossfit and other high-intensity programs are certainly better than sitting around, so if that's your thing, go for it. But its focus is bass-ackwards if you care about health.

[Omaha 680]

Yesterday we did a ton of med/slam ball work and today we found our 3 rep clean max. I'll take tomorrow off and go for a good run. That's the routine I've settled into: 3-4 days of crossfit and a couple of aerobic days a week. I feel great.

My wife's groupon ran out and she re-upped at full price. She'll be going for a long time. I still haven't decided if I'll stick with it when my groupon runs out in month.

[Jacob]

Crossfit games open starts today. Gotta get some rest for the first workout tomorrow.

PS I think ER us way off in his post above.

[Donuthole]

Crossfit games open starts today. Gotta get some rest for the first workout tomorrow.

PS I think ER us way off in his post above.

Which part? Because I have a least a half dozen fb friends who have posted today about the open games (whatever that even means).

[bluegoose]

PS I think ER us way off in his post above.

Which part? Because he just restated what 100 years of scientific evidence has found to be true.

[Jacob]

Which part? Because I have a least a half dozen fb friends who have posted today about the open games (whatever that even means).

Which part is ERCoug wrong about? This part:

But its focus is bass-ackwards if you care about health.

Seriously. Exercising is "bass-ackwards" if you care about health? He proposes the best workout routine for health is to take 1000 steps in a day? Come on now. I'll put you average person who takes 1000 steps a day against your average crossiftter every day.

[ERCougar]

Which part is ERCoug wrong about? This part:

Seriously. Exercising is "bass-ackwards" if you care about health? He proposes the best workout routine for health is to take 1000 steps in a day? Come on now. I'll put you average person who takes 1000 steps a day against your average crossiftter every day.

And again you miss the point (and can't count zeros).

[smokymountainrain]

Which part is ERCoug wrong about? This part:

FWIW, I thought DH was asking which part of the crossfit games started today.

[Donuthole]

FWIW, I thought DH was asking which part of the crossfit games started today.

FTR, you were wrong. But I hadn't seen ER's latest post, and was specifically referencing his previous post where he noted how crossfitters are cultish and constantly bragging about or bemoaning their workout of the day.

FTR, Cross-fitters are slightly less talky-talky than Zumbaers, at least in my limited fb sample size. 21st century Jazzercise, as I call it.

[smokymountainrain]

[COLOR=DarkOrchid]FTR, you were wrong. But I hadn't seen ER's latest post, and was specifically referencing his previous post where he noted how crossfitters are cultish and constantly bragging about or bemoaning their workout of the day.

Ahhh...it was your comment about the fb friends that had me confused. But that makes sense.