The other day one of my crossfit colleagues (a superb athlete named A.L.) shared an article on Facebook, “Inside the Cult of CrossFit“. Posted to the Yahoo Health page, written by a fellow named Grant Stoddard. Mr. Stoddard set out to see what Crossfit is all about. It’s an interesting article. I enjoyed most of it.
The short analysis here is I think it’s a great short piece, and I agree 99% with everything he says. Which comes down to this:
- Crossfit is very different from other fitness programs
- Crossfit is dangerous
- Crossfit is addictive
- Crossfit has a cult-like feel
Yes, crossift is dangerous. It’s dangerous because once you introduce a time boundary to throwing weights around, things get dicey. That time boundary is the definitive difference between crossfit and other programs.
But it’s necessary. As Stoddard points out, Crossfit was designed for people whose lives are bound by emergencies: paramedics, firemen, policemen, the armed service men and women. Crossfit is meant to mimic what happens during disaster; which is to say life-and-death situations where the dynamics are unknown before, and perhaps during, the event. Emergencies don’t happen on cue, or at convenient times.
You want to find out how you will do in emergency? Well it makes sense to seek out the training programs used by firemen, policemen, Marines, SEALs, SWAT teams. I don’t think you can get this at a regular gym, because regular gyms don’t have the kind of chaos you get when you introduce a time stamp in a group setting with a set of exercises meant to exhaust every possible muscle group. Run two hundred meters, climb a rope, do dumbbell thrusters. Do that once every 2 minutes five times to see how many thrusters you can do, and at what weight.
The more chaos you introduce, the better. Like Stoddard, I have found the workouts so grueling that I get confused in the middle. I’m so physically stressed that I have trouble focusing on anything other then getting that next rep. Sometimes I’m so exausted I have to focus on parts of reps: get down for one more burpee, ,extended the legs back, push up, draw the legs up. Stand up. Clap. One more time. “High state of fatigue” is the name of the game. Over and over.
He’s right, it’s tough. Does that encourage sloppy form? It could. The answer: scale down the workouts until you have mastered the form. It’s up to the individual to be responsible; if they don’t know, they need to ask the coach. I knew this from the start. And the coaches at Crossfit East Sac enforced that: don’t go into dangerous territory. Find a good box where the trainers are interested in who you are and what your goals are.
I think it’s addictive because once the adrenaline is flowing, once you catch that primal wave of hormones, you’re hooked. It’s addictive because it’s how we were meant to be.
Regarding “cult-like”, I don’t think that’s really the right word. I think “tribal” is the right word. It doesn’t bother me. Putting my scores on the board doesn’t bother me. And I’m not interested in crushing anybody. I’m interested in optimum fitness.
For me, Stoddard’s discourse breaks down when he talks about “body shapes”, as in why don’t the people with “better” bodies always perform better then those with “gelatinous” bodies? Really, no kidding? For Stoddard, it refutes Greg Glassman’s claim that the best bodies belong to crossfitters. The fact that Stoddard took exception here doesn’t matter to me. I think it’s a straw man argument. Fitness is the determination, not body shape. The numbers on the workouts speak for themselves.
You don’t want a bunch of women clapping and shouting for you to do that one last rep? I agree that for some people, a group setting is not the right one. Well, it doesn’t bother me. I’ll gladly come in last, if it means I did the workout as intended. And by “as intended” I mean this: scale the workout down to the intensity that is the most you can safely do on that day. Leave nothing on the table, as often as you can. In that situation I’ll take all the applause I can get. I do not find my best effort humiliating. Inadequate perhaps. But I’ll deal with that.
The women at CFES regularly outperform me. Good for them. In fact most people outperform me. So be it. Forging elite fitness does not mean I come in first. My main concern is that I don’t what the spread to be too large.
Really hard work, really fast, always different. Well, that’s what I signed up for.
That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
