What does r/fitness not understand about CrossFit?

[sojchd]

@rainbowoflight There are certainly some people who are pushing too far and doing dumb things. But I'm not sure it's any more than traditional lifting, given the amount of idiocy I've seen at globogyms (e.g. have you seen what people do at the cable machines?!)

And yes, I'm sure there are gyms/coaches who aren't as good at that. But again, I don't think it makes it worse than DIY lifting.

 

[johnny7oak]

@rainbowoflight

here is direct and indirect peer preasure and a competition and time aspect to CrossFit

if someone feels (and succumbs to) peer pressure, that's kinda on them and it's their own damn fault if they get injured. This is fitness fun, not high school, ferchrissakes

 

[stevenj]

@richard11 The old stereotype that you go to CrossFit if “you hate your joints”

I used to do bodybuilding shows and got my pro card

Then I started going to CrossFit. I may not be as SHREDDED as I once was but I am way stronger in traditional lifts, METCONS and any type of cardio now.

I do CrossFit because I want to always be able
To destroy my kids in sports to maintain my alpha position in the family

I grew up with parents who didn’t workout and smoked and by the time I was 8, they couldn’t play basketball in the driveway with me anymore because of health

CrossFit is making sure that won’t happen to my kids

 

[theoph]

@richard11 I can't comment on r/fitness but from my normal life I'd say that most people have the misperception that everyone who does crossfit is crazy fit like what you might see in a meme or on TV. Generally that Crossfit is intimidating. In my experience the majority of people who do crossfit are 40 year old professionals with desk jobs who can afford a $200/month gym membership and are just doing their best to stay relatively fit.

I don't hear people on this sub talk about r/fitness or other modalities much, so I don't think there is a generalized bias. Most of us probably either do other things or have done them in the past and have gravitated towards crossfit long term either b/c of the community elements or because it's a great way to cross trail (focus on multiple areas of fitness).

 

[guitaroman]

@theoph That is something crossfit, both HQ and the community and affiliates as a whole, could improve on. Yes the games athletes are super fit and ripped, but those people work out as a full time job. That is not what you see in your local box.
It would help if we would see/show more ordinary people doing crossfit.

Now I've got to say, my box has quite a few pretty to very fit people around. But also a whole bunch of parents with a life outside the gym, and pencil pushers like me. I'm an IT person, I write emails for a living, I joke that I started doing crossfit because the heaviest I used to lift was my coffee mug and walking to the coffee machine was my cardio.

 

[christhasrisen2000]

@guitaroman I love this comment and the one you responded to.

I woiuld add that you see this misperception on this sub as well--so many of the posts would have you belive that Crossfit is full of fit 20something blue collar in-your-face fundamentalist Christian MAGA types who use their box as their personal Tinder account and whose goal is to take their 325 lb squat clean to 345.

Whereas, as you note, the reality is that most members are middle-aged upper middle class married parents whose goal is to get their first muscle up or 10 consecutive double unders and who love Crossfit because it's the only place they get to not talk about work or kids.

 

[theoph]

@christhasrisen2000 This is me. if someone happens to ask what gym I go to and I tell them xyz CrossFit they are often like "wow!!!" The only thing wow about it is that I drag my butt out of bed and go, I am in no way impressive to behold in the gym.

I'm just a normal person who isn't that fit - I am good at a few things and laughably bad at a few others. I still feel totally comfortable at my gym because for every totally ripped woman in booty shorts doing bar muscle ups for reps there are 10 moms just trying to eek out 60 minutes for a workout before heading to their desk job.

 

[1corithians13]

@richard11 Kipping.

 

[stillsearchinggod]

@1corithians13 This is 90% of CrossFit hate. And honestly, it’s kind of hard to blame them. Butterfly pull-ups are atrocious.

It’s like watching a power lifter snap their back in half so they can reduce their bench press ROM, or pulling wide sumo and getting the plates a few inches off the ground.

It’s a sport, and you do what you have to do to win while riding the edge of the rulebook. But damn does it look dumb.

 

[oddrob]

@stillsearchinggod I disagree.

I have several issues with Crossfit, butterfly pull-ups aren’t one of them.

In my opinion they’re just like squat snatches or hip contact in weightlifting. A more efficient way to perform a task with a considerably higher athletic floor to perform.

Only one kind of people who say butterfly pullups are easy to perform:

• those who never did it.

Yeah, butterfly pullups aren’t as strength demanding as strict pullups, just like squat snatches aren’t as strength demanding as no contact split snatches.

It’s not because the technique has other demands than just strength that it’s necessarily easier. It requires more coordination, better mobility and overall body awareness.

 

[stillsearchinggod]

@oddrob I don't think my issue is that I think that they are easy, I just don't see any use for them outside of competitive crossfit. Most movements in crossfit are used outside of crossfit in all sorts of athletic programs, but the butterfly seems pretty exclusive to the gamification of the sport.

 

[oddrob]

@stillsearchinggod If Crossfit becomes a sport it’s evident that there’ll be sport specific techniques. And that’s another current issue with Crossfit. Is it a methodology, a brand or a sport?

Every technique specific to a sport is a “gamification” of it.

The Fosbury Flop is a “gamification” of the high jump.

The hurdle jump technique is a gamification of the hurdle dash.

The squat clean/snatch, the jerk, the hip contact are all gamifications of the classic lifts.

And the list goes on, you get the gist of it.

The athletic elements necessary to perform a butterfly pullup are foundational to gymnastics. The truth is they’re singled out is because they look “bad” compared to a movement that’s a staple in physical activity while all the examples I mentioned are niche enough that they’re not nitpicked by any random dude who never did the sport.

 

[stillsearchinggod]

@oddrob

The truth is they’re singled out is because they look “bad” compared to a movement that’s a staple in physical activity while all the examples I mentioned are niche enough that they’re not nitpicked by any random dude who never did the sport.

Yes, you are right, that's exactly it.

I can't put my finger on it, but it really does also have to do with it looking kind of "ugly". A push jerk is a 'cheater' version of an overhead press, but I find it beautiful to witness which I can't say for the butterfly, and I don't really know why.

 

[hbkfan32]

@stillsearchinggod I'd say read CFs definitions of CrossFit, Fitness, Intensity and Power. It's all Open Source and available to be picked apart.

Doing more work over a shorter period of time increases intensity. Intensity drives adaptation.

Going from elbows locked out to chin above bar is the work. Kipping/butterfly allows for doing it the same work faster and more efficient.

Of course CrossFit does not only do kipping/butterfly pullups. It depends on the stimulus of the workout

 

[the_seraphim]

@hbkfan32 I think you got it. What better way to train your back for power and intensity than butterfly pullups?

 

[hbkfan32]

@the_seraphim I think you missed it. The point of a CrossFit workout with kipping/butterfly pullups isn't to "train" your back. It's to get work done at a fairly high intensity level.

If the purpose is to train the back and other adaptations driven by strict pullups it will be written as Strict Pull Ups Rx.

My CrossFit workout today was
AMRAP 6m
1 rope climb
20 push ups

-Rest 2m-

AMRAP 6m
10 DB bench press
5 STRICT Pullups.

The scale for rope climbs was actually more strict pulling.

If it was written as non-strict pull ups the stimulus would be very different.

 

[the_seraphim]

@hbkfan32 I didn't say train your back for strength, I said train it for power and intensity

 

[hbkfan32]

@the_seraphim Ah I might have misinterpreted

 

[richard11]

@1corithians13 Tbh, as a CrossFit noob, I also don’t understand kipping

 

[theoph]

@richard11 I think the key thing to understanding kipping is to realize that it's just a different movement than the strict version with a different benefit.

A push jerk is a different movement than a strict press, right? We don't say that push jerks suck because you can lift more weight than a strict press. There is an understanding that they focus more on explosive power than on pure strength, and that both power and strength are valauble.

The trouble as a noob (or as someone like me who is not new but who is heavy and really weak at pull ups) is that kipping pullups are not nearly as scalable as a barbell movement b/c they depend on your whole body weight. Therefore, there are a lot of people who cannot perform them safely (like me).