Exercise

May 16, 2014


Building a Better CrossFit

CrossFit is perhaps the biggest (relatively) new thing in fitness. With over 7,000 gyms worldwide and more than 10 million participants, it’s an understatement to say that CrossFit is big business.

When it comes to CrossFit training methods, everyone seems to have an opinion. Thing is, opinions are rarely neutral; people invariably either hail it as the ultimate fitness experience or trash it as cultist pseudo-science.

As with most things in life, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Without question, CrossFit has positive attributes. If nothing else, it fosters a sense of camaraderie amongst participants. CrossFitters feel like they’re part of a fitness community. The focus on competition pushes them to be their best. Exercise becomes fun. Not surprisingly, adherence in CrossFit gyms tends to be much better than in traditional resistance training programs. Remember: The best workout routine is the one that you’re able to stick with.

And despite what some claim, there is nothing inherently wrong with the CrossFit training model. Is it going to maximize your muscular strength or hypertrophy? No. But it is a viable strategy for improving overall fitness. Depending on your current fitness level, you’ll generally get stronger and bigger from CrossFitting, and you’ll almost certainly improve your muscular endurance. Moreover, when combined with proper nutritional programming, it can help to expedite the loss of body fat. In other words, for a large segment of the population, the CrossFit model has applicability.

The real “issue” is not with the concept of CrossFit per se, but rather in the way that many facilities carry out its training practices. So let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Here are three ways to take the basic principles of CrossFit and enhance its effectiveness and safety.

Planes of movement
Vary Planes of Movement: The human body is designed to move in three-dimensional space. To facilitate such movement, the musculoskeletal system is able to call upon different muscles based on the directional requirements of a given task. The problem with most CrossFit gyms is that almost all exercises are carried out in the sagittal plane. This ultimately results in strength imbalances between agonist and antagonist muscles that not only has a negative impact on your appearance, but can also hasten the onset of injury. Case in point: I recently conducted a study that investigated muscle activation in the rear delt fly – a transverse plane exercise. Guess which subject was the weakest in this movement? Yep, a CrossFitter. When questioned about his training practices, the subject stated that he never performed any horizontal abduction exercises. The result: poor posterior deltoid development. Here’s the easy fix: adopt a multi-planar approach to training by including exercises for all three cardinal planes (sagittal, frontal and transverse) in your routines. This will help ensure you achieve balance and symmetry between muscle groups, and reduce the possibility of incurring any structural discrepancies.

Periodize Volume and Intensity of Effort: CrossFit training is generally an all-out endeavor; you go balls-to-the-wall each and every session, pushing yourself until you can’t push any more. Bad idea. Sure, high workout volumes and failure training can help to enhance muscular adaptations. But perpetually testing your physical limits over and over again is destined to lead to an overtrained state. The body simply isn’t made to endure such extreme repetitive efforts. Preliminary work from my lab shows that CrossFitters display a much greater incidence of symptoms related to overtraining compared to those who use traditional lifting practices. They report higher levels of fatigue, reductions in performance, issues with sleeping, and incidences of illness. The upshot is a training plateau and even regression of results. The solution: employ periodization principles so that volume and effort are systematically varied over time. This can include gradually increasing volume throughout the course of a training cycle, incorporating a step-loading approach so that weights get progressively heavier on a week-to-week basis, and/or interspersing “deload” weeks where both the volume and intensity of training are reduced. These types of practices will allow for the necessary restoration and recuperation of the body’s resources, facilitating continued progress.

Focus on Form : Perhaps the biggest issue with CrossFit training practices is the focus is on doing as much work as possible as quickly as possible any way possible. There’s certainly nothing wrong with trying to pack more exercise into less time; this is a viable strategy for enhancing metabolic adaptations. It’s the “any way possible” aspect that causes problems. Potentially big problems. The lifting technique employed at many CrossFit gyms is nothing short of atrocious. Just check out the above video for proof. It’s therefore no wonder that the incidence of injuries is reported to be high amongst CrossFitters. The solution here should be obvious; don’t sacrifice proper form at the expense of exercise quantity. Make sure you have the technique to each exercise down pat so that it is ingrained in your subconscious. If necessary, regress in your exercises before you progress. This is particularly true with complex movements such as the Olympic lifts, where the potential for injury is high. Remember that safety is paramount to any routine; an injury is bound to derail your efforts.


7 Comments

  1. I’ll say I’m both a lover and hater of CrossFit. It has its pros and cons (I REALLY dislike the CULTure). I dont “do CrossFit,” but I implement it here or there. With that being said, the video you posted as “proof” has been making its rounds for a while now and just a bit of research will show you what you’re watching.

    1) For the uninitiated, those are continental cleans. Dont know what they are? Strike one.
    2) They are beginners being taught the movements at a seminar. Are some of them using too much weight? Sure, but who, in ANY gym ANYWHERE, doesn’t wanna push their limits a little the first time they try something? They’re clearly not proficient and time under the bar helps that.
    3) CF is VERY emphatic about form. Anyone who has been to a GOOD CF gym knows that. They also emphasize it highly at their Level 1 certifications. With their ‘affiliate model,’ they leave the implementation to the owner. Do we (or should we) say “all Personal Trainers suck” because some or most are merely holding a clipboard and collecting a paycheck?
    If I walked into [insert large gym name here] and watched some of these morons bench 5 days a week with incredibly shoddy form and used that as my ruler, then I might consider hitting the stairmasters all the time too. Due diligence.

    Comment by T — May 16, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

  2. Can you please give Us some examples of excersises that focus on other planes than the Sagittal one that we can incorporate on a crossfit workout?

    Thank you.

    Comment by Axel Rivas — May 17, 2014 @ 4:23 pm

  3. Axel, here is an article by Dave Draper describing frontal and transverse plane exercises.

    http://davedraper.com/blog/2008/05/21/sagittal-frontal-and-transverse-planes-planes-of-human-motion/

    Comment by mayya — May 28, 2014 @ 6:49 am

  4. Naudi Aguilar has some awesome videos with transverse plane movements on Youtube. I used to crossfit. I burned out on it. And I stopped losing body fat. Now I write my own metcons. I do longer (15-20 min) ones twice a week, & I’m having a lot more fun.

    Comment by Carolyn — November 3, 2014 @ 6:13 pm

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  7. I think you are correct regarding lack of multi-planar movement in crossfit. That is something I always take into account when I do the programming for my affiliate. That being said I think most of your other points have been covered in the crossfit community. Most gyms periodize their programming and take regular deloads. Likewise I would say our trainers stop someone from using inappropriate weight, or bad technique much more often then they encourage our members to just get it done anyway. At the end of the day you are correct Crossfit works because it creates a community at each gym which promotes adherence to the program.

    Comment by jake — August 27, 2016 @ 10:28 pm

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