Why I'm Staying Out of the Crossfit Box

I've been wanting to try Crossfit for a while. I like intense workouts. I like group workouts. I like lifting heavier weights. I was interested in trying box jumps and Olympic style lifting. Bob Harper is a big fan of Crossfit and I'm a big fan of his. I figured Crossfit and I would fit like a hand in glove. I read about the criticisms but I wanted to experience it myself and come to my own conclusions. So when I saw a great Groupon deal for 20 classes and had a friend who wanted to try it with me, I figured I had the perfect opportunity.

I will preface my judgement by saying that just like most fitness experiences, every Crossfit "box" is going to be a little different. I only have experience with the one I tried and the four instructors I took classes from there. My experience is by no means universal and should not be taken as an evaluation of Crossfit on the whole; however, my experience did reinforce some of the main criticisms I've been hearing about Crossfit for years.

Here's my take-away:

1. Crossfit Instructors can be bullies. There is a fine line between encouraging participants and bullying them. As a fitness professional, my approach to working with new clients is to assess them and figure out what they are already capable of BEFORE I tell them they can do more, faster. It seemed that because I look relatively fit, the instructors assumed I could do heavy weights (I exercise a lot but haven't been doing any strength training for months). When I listened to them the first few classes, I ended up so sore I could barely move for days. In the last two classes I took (#7 & #8), I explained to the instructor that I would not do the weight he was suggesting because I had to be able to teach my own classes and couldn't be THAT sore. He pushed until I got irritated and then finally he backed off. It's one thing to encourage people to push their limits, it's another to make them feel like lazy-losers if they are not performing to your expectations.

2. Crossfit is all about doing it fast, heavy, and A LOT. I strongly believe that form HAS to come before reps or speed. While the instructors gave that idea lip service, they certainly seemed to care more about speed and completion than safety. As much as I know about proper form and tried to be careful, even I ended up overdoing it and having sore muscles which should not have been active during certain exercises (my low back after doing dead lifts). I cringe to think how many people are injuring themselves because they are finishing with poor form due to fatigue.

3. The instructors contradicted each other about form. I had a really hard time figuring out the Olympic power lifting exercises, moves like the "wall ball", and even a basic squat because all 4 of the instructors demonstrated and taught the moves differently. I didn't feel confident that I was performing the exercises correctly and while the instructors tried to give corrections, I didn't feel like they could, or did, spend enough time teaching the moves thoroughly or consistently.

4. Crossfit puts you on stage at your most vulnerable. This is totally personal to me and is obviously not a feeling shared by everyone, but I only like being watched when I am good at something. At the end of one of the workouts, one participant was finishing his WOD, a descending ladder of wall balls and dead lifts. He had 3 rounds to go when participants started gathering around him to cheer him on. I realize that everyone had the best intentions, but all I could think about was that if I were him ~ exhausted, shaky, overwhelmed ~ and I had a crowd of people telling me to "finish strong", "keep pushing", "do it again, faster", I would want to punch each of them in the throat. I am ready to look foolish and take risks in life, but if I'm being singled out in a workout, I don't want it to be because I'm the last one to finish.

5. The workouts are not Functional Fitness. I get the idea behind keeping the WODs simple, however, basic fitness principles tell us that we need to work ALL of the muscles in our body. Every workout doesn't need to hit every muscle, but you have to hit them all at some point. I don't recall a single upper body "pull" exercise in the 8 classes I took. We had one workout which was essentially an hour of squats. Even with complex or hybrid movements, you will miss major muscle groups if you only do 2 or 3 of them in a workout.

The individual workouts were unbalanced and the WODs throughout the week didn't correct for it. The last class I took was a lot of deadlifts. My friend continued to take classes that week and out of the 5 days she looked at the WODs, 4 were primarily dead lifts! Where is the recovery period for those muscles? What about all of the other muscles you aren't working when you're doing 150 deadlifts every day? Maybe other Crossfit boxes are better at balancing the workouts, but based on most of the WODs I've viewed online, I doubt it. And for most of the classes, we barely warmed up. A couple of times, we were instructed to go straight into a 400 meter run in the freezing cold as our "warm-up". There was also typically no cool-down or stretching at the end of class. Again, the workouts seemed to lack the balance we are taught is necessary for a body that functions well in real life, rather than a body that just performs well in a specific workout.

For me, Crossfit was a learning experience.  I learned that as a participant, I don't like the military, bootcampy feel. I learned that while I like to strive for a high level of performance, if the expectations are unrealistic, I just feel like a loser. I learned that I get bored with a workout that consists of just a few movements. I learned that I don't like Olympic power lifting. I learned that I do like box jumps and wall balls. I learned that as an instructor, I always want to balance motivating my clients and pushing them to improve, with taking care of them and putting their safety first. I learned that any workout that leaves my muscles so sore and bruised feeling that I can't sit on the toilet without pain days after the workout is not okay for me. Finally, I learned not to wear a lace thong to Crossfit because when you do a gazillion Crossfit style sit-ups, you will wear away three layers of skin at the top of your butt-crack and will be in agony for weeks.

What's your opinion on Crossfit?