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.