Crossfit Doesn’t Suck

David De La Morenas is a personal trainer who wrote an article titled “Why Crossfit Sucks: 5 Indisputable reasons.” David brings up solid points in why Crossfit might not be best for everyone and how certain training is more beneficial. The points he brings up are by no means indisputable and I will address why that is. 

First off I would like to say that writing an article titled “Why Crossfit Sucks: 5 Indisputable reasons,” and then saying that you don’t hate crossfit seems a bit dumb. 5 indisputable reasons makes it feel that you would have a pretty heavy stand against it. 

The first “Indisputable reason” David gives is probably the closet I come with agreeing to him throughout the whole article. He states that “it’s important to realize that if you do have a specific goal – you’re trying to build optimal muscle, there’s a sport you’re training for, you have a particular strength goal, you’re training for a marathon, etc. – then you’re better off doing training geared towards your goal.” This is true. If someone wants to only get stronger then they should look for strength training only and if they want to run a marathon then long distance endurance would be better fit. With that being said, David, a few paragraphs later says that crossfit is not for the majority population. This is simply false. A majority of the population does not workout to be crazy elite athletes or world record distance runners. A majority of the population just wants to live a healthy lifestyle. Crossfit gives people a full body workout and they can be in and out in an hour and healthier then they were before they walked in there. 

A huge benefit in crossfit is the increase in your mobility. According to Wickham, the founder of Movement Vault, which is an online mobility program, said that “CrossFit is actually one of the best exercise programs for enhancing mobility.” In crossfit you are constantly moving through a full range of motions in movements, which in favor increases your strength and your overall range of motion. I bring up mobility because a point that was made by David was that “If you have issues with hip mobility, shoulder tightness, or other muscle imbalances that need to be corrected then you definitely should not participate in crossfit until you’ve addressed these issues.” This is not only true because of Wickhams point. This is also not true due to the fact that crossfit gyms or coaches have a full class dedicated to testing your mobility and seeing what you can and can not do. They don’t send people into movements that can not be performed safely by the client. Any solid crossfit coach or gym will have the client slowly work into those movements by developing the proper range of motion to help avoid injury and other problems. 

Towards the end of the article David talks about the people who “SHOULD” do crossfit. Two points he brings up is that only people who are in decent shape should do it and people that aren’t trying to build optimal muscle should do it. Being in shape before starting an exercise like crossfit would definitely help but it shouldn’t be a reason why people shy away from it. Anyone that is getting into exercise for the first time will most likely not be in good shape, everyone has to start from somewhere. His other point is that you shouldn’t join if you’re looking to put on muscle. Personally from my own experience I can say this is not true. I have put on a lot of muscle ever since I started doing crossfit. There are obviously specific training programs that get you more muscle, but that’s not to take away the muscle building ability that comes with doing crossfit. 

In all David makes some good points with bringing up specific weight training and sport specific training in general. David has failed to realize that Crossfit is a great tool for people who have poor mobility, people who wanna live a healthier lifestyle, and even people who want to build muscle. I would say that for the general population if you want to look into a new type of training then definitely give crossfit some thought.

Give It A Try

A common question that lingered throughout my last blog post was, “how did you get into Crossfit in the first place.” The answer to that leads me back to my junior year of high school. In late fall during football season, a family friend of ours was going to the Crossfit gym and recommended it to me. Of course, at the time I was playing football so I didn’t have much thought about doing it… Long story short I ended up hurting my knee in the last game of the season and I completely forgot about Crossfit. About a year later I got stuck in a late night YouTube binge when I stumbled upon a Crossfit video. It immediately intrigued me. I had never really seen such high intensity cardio movements with also a strength aspect using the barbells. Then just like that the next week I was off to first class to get started. 

Since I was a beginner I was extremely anxious and nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily with the past experiences in weightlifting I picked up on a lot of things faster than I expected. It also helped that the coaches there are extremely friendly and want to help people get better. That kindness and will to help others leads to both beginners and advanced weightlifters success in Crossfit. Don’t worry if you’re a beginner the coaches teach you everything that you need to have a safe effective workout. At the gym I go to, there is usually a class that teaches all of the barbell movements that will be performed. As for all of the non barbell movements (Kettlebell swings, butterfly pullups, etc), those will be taught whenever they show up for a Workout of the Day.

A Workout of the day, also known as WOD for short is the programming that Crossfit coaches use to give everyone a baseline of what to do for the day. There is usually a recommended weight option to use for that workout, however most people, including myself who are newer to Crossfit use whatever weight they/I am comfortable with for the exercises. This is extremely important because it allows people to be safe and maintain solid form, while also pushing themselves a little bit further each day. Plus the coaches are always there to give that little bit extra motivation to get you through a workout. 

I am very thankful for my family friend who told me to give Crossfit a try. It has gotten me so much stronger than just normal weightlifting. Don’t get me wrong though weightlifting isn’t bad by any means. Weightlifting can get you strong just like any type of physical exercise. I just never had the form, coaching, or motivation that Crossfit has given me. So I would say that If you’re looking to get stronger, whether advanced or a beginner definitely give Crossfit some consideration. 

Why Crossfit?

Everyday people around the world go to gyms and do all sorts of physical activities that ultimately lead to a healthier lifestyle. Goals are made to lose weight, gain muscle, get stronger, etc.

This inevitably translates into all kinds of exercise, but in particular I am focusing on weightlifting, which is not a bad way to go about the goals up above. However, recently a couple months ago I discovered a type of lifting that combines not only lifting weights, but tons of cardio and endurance as well. Crossfit is what I found. Crossfit is a type of lifting that involves full body functional movements that push your body to new feats of exercise that will overall make you healthier, while also making you feel better throughout your normal daily life. Anyone can do it, there’s no one size fits all. Whether you’re a beginner in the gym or someone who has had many many years of experience. It’s for everyone! Crossfit takes all types of exercises and puts them in high intensity workouts to best maximize strength and endurance.

The best thing in my opinion is the social and family like feel that you get from going to a gym like this. Everyone is there to help and encourage you to do the best you possibly can, while also being safe in the exercises and having fun while doing it.

There is a workout of the day that the whole class gets to do at the same time to help keep everyone on the same page. These workouts can be anywhere from 12 minutes to 30 minutes long so people that are busy can be in and out in an hour if needed. Originally I was sort of skeptical about joining a Crossfit gym because I didn’t think I would be good at it and I would be embarrassed if I couldn’t do some of the exercises. After 4 months of it though I am so grateful that I did. It has helped me not only get stronger physically but helped me mentally and put me in a more sanguine way of thinking. There are cons to it in which injuries could occur but that’s with anything in life so you can’t let that hold you back. I would definitely, no doubt, encourage Crossfit to anyone that wants to live a healthier and more fit lifestyle while also enjoying the social aspect and not taking it too seriously. It’s about having a good time and becoming a better person in the process. 

Reflection

Beginning my talk was very exciting, but also terrifying. I was very nervous leading up to the start of my presentation. I had butterflies as I did before every football game. It defiantly didn’t help that my Chromebook wasn’t connecting to the smart board so I had to start my presentation even later than I wanted too. I had no time to get fully prepared because of the technical difficulties and I fixed them by using Ms. Quinn’s laptop. Once I started the presentation I knew I needed to hook the audience and I think I did a good job doing that.

The butterfly I had to deal with before my presentation started.

The audience felt engaged as almost all of them were really watching me and paying attention. I think that the way I organized my speech helped a lot. I hit all the points I wanted to while keeping the presentation engaging and not boring. Transitions were a big help with keeping the presentation engaging, almost all of my transitions were strong. I don’t think I had one that was better than the rest they all were strong and flowed together like PB and J.

How people payed attention during the presentation.

Now, when it comes to how I felt standing there I was very uncomfortable at first. I swayed a bit too much during the presentation but I got more comfortable throughout the presentation. Thankfully I was rehearse very well and only looked at my paper 4 or 5 times to check if I was on track. My body language defiantly helped me spread my message because I wasn’t choked up and staring at my paper the whole time.

The visuals I used went very well and were relevant to everything I talked about. My visuals were all personal which makes people see that I have a strong connection to what I am talking about. I felt that my visuals were strong compared to other visuals. What I mean by strong is that my visuals caught peoples attention and kept them engaged through the presentation.

One of the pictures used in the presentation.

My conclusion at the end went very well and I ended strong. The reason I think it went so well is because the audience was engaged and I meant everything in it so it was easy to memorize what I needed to say. Right after my conclusion, I had my Q and A which went well I had 2 questions asked and I answered both of them confidently.

I think my presentation and speech went very well and if I had to do it over again I would only change two things. The first thing I would change is rehearsing more I defiantly did not rehearse as much as I should’ve. The second thing I would change is not procrastinating as much as I should have. Overall I learned a lot about myself during this project most of which was good and some bad, but it helped me grow as a human and went better than I expected.

Workout Passion Project

My project so far has been interesting, to say the least. One of the reasons being because I have not followed my schedule completely. I feel that the reason I haven’t followed it is that the schedule I made was an extended timeline of how long my project would actually take. With that in my mind, I have made good progress on my project so far. I have found 32 different exercises that I feel will be beneficial. Some of which are being used by professional athletes like Patrick Willis, Reggie Bush, Aj Hawk, and Trent Richardson. Luckily with the help of football, I already had some of my workouts chosen. The workouts I already had picked out include deadlift, squat, power clean, and bench press. The other workouts are listed below in this picture.

So far throughout this project, I have realized that time goes by really fast when you procrastinate and wait to start the project. After the slow and unplanned start, I really dove deep into my project learning everything from what’s the best workouts to how many days a week should I train. Moving forward on my project I am nervous about learning about nutrition because I don’t feel that I have much knowledge on food at all. Learning about nutrition will be a huge step for me though, I have always wanted to learn about I just never took the time to do that. That being said I am very excited about what my finished product is going to look like and how it will help me. Overall I am excited to continue working on my project and learning about working out and dieting. The next step I will take is picking out a 3 day or 4-day workout.

I am on February 15th on the schedule.

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton