I first tried CrossFit in 2012. That first workout was painful but also hooked me. I was motivated by the philosophy of CrossFit (high-intensity, continuously varying functional movements), and the sense of community and friends. The new challenges the workouts threw at me, the feeling of satisfaction mixed with fatigue after every session, the muscles I burned, the confidence and pleasant surprise I got when I completed a tough workout, the loss of body fat and muscle. The increase in volume was similar. And the strength, I loved everything about it. I was a fan. And like other converts, I always talked about CrossFit.
The main reason I started CrossFit was the fact that I had reached a plateau in my combination of running and strength training in the gym. I wasn’t making any more progress and couldn’t lift heavy things or run fast. After just three months of CrossFit, I was already getting stronger, faster, and overcoming plateaus.just didn’t do that feel There was empirical data to show that. His running time has decreased, the weight on the bar has increased, and the number of push-ups and pull-ups he can do has tripled.
similar story
A dozen years later, I still like CrossFit, but I’m not as big of a fan as I used to be. Yes, this is one of the easiest workout routines that will help you get fitter, increase your heart rate, lose fat and gain muscle. However, this is flawed on multiple levels and is quite dangerous. I’ve only thrown my hips once, but I’ve seen many of my friends suffer serious injuries while throwing, especially shoulder and back injuries.
CrossFit is a combination of gymnastics, calisthenics, Olympic lifting, HIIT, and cardio. The problem is, ask any gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, calisthenics, or endurance athlete, these different disciplines don’t really work together.
Gymnasts and calisthenics spend their lives perfecting their bodies to use as machines. Often, they gain rippling muscles by honing their skills with only bodyweight movements, without much use of weights or machines. Also, the pull-ups and muscle-ups they do are strictly by the book and don’t involve “kipping” like CrossFit athletes do. Kipping is a hack that uses the momentum created by shaking your body to pull you up for pull-ups or muscle-ups.
Pull-ups, muscle-ups, and handstand push-ups performed using a kip do not fly in gymnastics competitions and do not place any strain on the eyes or body, which leads to points deduction in gymnastics. Kipping pull-ups is one of the most common causes of shoulder injuries in CrossFit.
When it comes to Olympic lifting, the focus is on complete lifting and weight control. I have watched a lot of CrossFit Games competition videos. Many of the snatches, cleans, and jerks that are considered valid in CrossFit would never be approved by weightlifting purists. Olympic lifting requires you to keep your elbows locked, and you need to have full control of the weight while lifting it overhead for a short period of time. CrossFit often allows athletes to avoid locking their elbows or holding weights above their heads, as required by Olympic competition rules.
Next, there is the high brightness component. One of the ways CrossFit achieves results is by focusing on speed and form while performing prescribed repetitions of various exercises. However, as the session progresses, most people can focus solely on speed or form. And that leaves room for mistakes and, in turn, the potential for injury. Easily accessible HIIT and bootcamp-style workouts are offered across India that are safer and have a much lower risk of injury than CrossFit.
Another issue with CrossFit, though much smaller, is that some benchmark workouts have abnormally high repetitions. For example, a 1.6km run followed by 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then a 1.6km run is a standard CrossFit “hero” workout. That should mess with your mind. Yes, I’ve done it many times. I almost died at the end each time, but I was surprised that I even made it. It forces a person to push themselves and find out what their body is capable of, but this can also easily end in an overuse injury, or at least a few days of extreme pain. There is a gender.
CrossFit is great as long as you recognize your shortcomings, stay calm, listen to your body, and strive to improve. You get carried away and get injured. There’s no doubt that CrossFit will make you stronger, fitter, and fitter, but at the end of the day, it makes you a jack of all trades and a master of none. In the fitness world, that’s not great.
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor. How to do Shivfit, A book about functional fitness.