Geschatte leestijd: 15 minutenCrossFit has exploded in popularity and number of practitioners in recent years. In this article, we delve deeper into the history and philosophy of CrossFit, explain what CrossFit is exactly, who CrossFit is suitable for, and what the possible risks, dangers, and chances of injury are.
What is CrossFit
Bob has worked overseas for two years. Bob has always been keen on strength training and, once back in the Netherlands, quickly seeks out his old gym. Once inside, Bob can’t believe his eyes:
Men and women climbing ropes like commandos, jumping on crates, bouncing large balls against the wall, doing push-ups from a handstand position, and performing all sorts of tricks on the pull-up bars like circus performers.
While Bob thinks, “What the f…”, his thought is interrupted by a voice behind him shouting:
“Get out of the way, old man!”
Bob manages to jump out of the way just in time for a tractor tire that almost falls on him. The man from whom the warning came looks at Bob irritatedly and continues on his way by lifting and tipping over the tractor tire.
Bob walks out the door to look at the sign with the name of the gym, convinced he’s walked into the wrong place. The name on the sign is still the same.
However, there’s a word written underneath that Bob is unfamiliar with:
“CrossFit”
By Greg Glassman
The history of CrossFit
CrossFit was “invented” in 2000 by Greg Glassman, originally a gymnast, weightlifter, and personal trainer. As a personal trainer, he employed rather unorthodox training methods. For example, he had his clients climb a 9-meter pole in the middle of the gym.
When the owner found that dangerous and attached a plate halfway up so they couldn’t climb higher, Glassman interpreted that as “an added challenge halfway up.”
He was subsequently kicked out of gyms multiple times.
When he was unwelcome in many gyms in Los Angeles in 1995, he was invited to provide training to police officers of the sheriff’s department in Santa Cruz.
In the Spa Fitness gym, he began teaching police officers, but also others, in the system he called “CrossFit.” After delving into everything he could find on fitness on the internet (which would keep him busy for a few years nowadays), he began refining the system.
The basis of his system consisted of movements he knew from weightlifting and gymnastics. In addition, calisthenics had an important place (exercises using one’s own body weight as resistance, which I will write about in the next part about fitness fads).
However, the most distinguishing aspect of CrossFit is mainly the way in which these and other fitness techniques alternately, almost randomly, form part of the various workouts.
Variation of training elements is therefore the Unique Selling Point of CrossFit as we would say in sales. In addition, he added a competitive element by working with times within which as much as possible had to be achieved. Think, for example, of the number of repetitions of a particular exercise.
Eventually, Glassman and his clientele were also expelled from Spa Fitness. He then rented part of a jiujitsu school, but they quickly outgrew that space, after which he rented a larger space in Soquel, California. At the request of his clients, he posted the daily workouts, or workouts of the day (in CrossFit language, “WODs”) online, thus CrossFit.com was born.
For a fairly simple site, it quickly grew due to the WODs. People posted comments with their performances, and more and more people came to Soquel to experience “the real deal.”
In 2002, a friend asked if he could set up a gym under the name CrossFit. Glassman organized the organization as a kind of franchise, and within two years, there were already 50 schools (or “boxes” in CrossFit terms) where one could experience the CrossFit experience.
When the New York Times wrote an article about CrossFit in 2005, things really took off.
Anyone who successfully completed a two-day seminar could set up a CrossFit box. Glassman sees the freedom of these entrepreneurs to compose their own training sessions as positive, whereas others see it as a danger of underqualified trainers. Not surprising given the number of CrossFitters who had to be taken to a hospital after the WODs.
With statements like: “We have a therapy for injuries at CrossFit called STFU” (Shut The Fuck Up), you can imagine that CrossFit acquired a fairly hardcore image.
Glassman has been the sole owner of CrossFit since he bought out his ex-wife (and former client) for $16 million. He also makes a lot of money from CrossFit.
CrossFit, the affiliate system
Anyone over 17 can set up a CrossFit box. For this, you need to attend a two-day course for the level I certificate, be active on the CrossFit.com site, attend seminars, and pay $3,000 per year for the license to bear the CrossFit name.
Great variation in exercises
CrossFit is thus a system that distinguishes itself by a wide variety of exercises based on weightlifting, gymnastics, and calisthenics. With this, it would be extremely suitable for athletes and others who, for example, want to train functionally due to their profession. Training in a way that allows them to perform better within their sport or profession. It is therefore often done by professional athletes and people who perform physically demanding and varied tasks such as military units and police officers. Although I do see an added value for the latter two, I also see dangers for the professional athlete (see further).
Glassman himself mentions the improvement of fitness and health as a goal, defining these as (1):
Health can now be concisely and precisely defined as increased work capacity across broad time, modal, and age domains. Work capacity is the ability to perform real physical work as measured by force x distance / time (which is average power). Fitness is this ability in as many domains as possible.
These definitions of health and fitness are incorrect. Take, for example, the definition of health from the World Health Organization in 1984, which reads (3):
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or other physical defects.”
Many, if not most, would consider fitness as the degree of endurance and strength combined with health as stated in the definition of the World Health Organization. I have never heard before that fitness entails being able to perform a lot of physical work in as many different situations as possible.
Therefore, I see this definition as clever marketing. I assume that Glassman means that CrossFit is aimed at being able to perform as much physical work as possible within a certain time frame in as many different situations as possible. This can vary from, for example, squatting with a certain weight as many times as possible within a minute or climbing a rope as many times as possible in 5 minutes, as many pull-ups, muscle-ups, “etc“. I am willing to believe that CrossFit offers this result. However, that this is also the definition of health and fitness is, in my opinion, unfounded.
I end the above sentence about the various exercises with “etc.” in quotation marks because in fact, the uniqueness of CrossFit is that there is no “etcetera” or “and so on”. These terms imply a continuation of similar wordings or expressions whereas CrossFit distinguishes itself by an enormous diversity and seemingly arbitrary selection of exercises. Although the exercises almost all have a basis in the mentioned gymnastics, weightlifting, and calisthenics, this leaves you with an almost infinite number of possible exercises and variations.
Wild growth of exercises
I mentioned in the history of CrossFit that Glassman set up his organization as a kind of franchise. However, with a franchise, you take over both the name and the products from the “parent company.” The correct term for CrossFit is an affiliate program, which can be described/translated in multiple ways in Dutch. An affiliate is similar to a branch. An affiliate program can be seen as the system under which the branches are housed. A branch normally offers the products of the parent company under the name of the parent company.
As a CrossFit affiliate, a CrossFit box, the branch is indeed named CrossFit, but the products (the workouts) can be created and offered on the spot. The affiliates are free to devise their own training programs and offer them under the name CrossFit. Although most will undoubtedly follow the spirit of CrossFit as intended by Glassman and in many cases will directly adopt the workouts from the CrossFit.com site, they are free to create their own workouts.
Both the philosophy of CrossFit and the way “the organization” is set up contribute to a potential proliferation of exercises and training methods. However, this is also the success of CrossFit. As a bodybuilder, I often get asked, “Do you know a good exercise for…”. Somewhat disappointed, they often end up hearing the same exercises they already knew because bodybuilding often starts from the basics.
The reason they didn’t succeed with those exercises is usually because they don’t perform them correctly, don’t perform them intensively enough, have a wrong diet, etc.
But of course, they don’t want to hear that.
They hoped to hear about a new exercise that supposedly offers results they never achieved before. CrossFit more than meets that need by constantly introducing new exercises.
CrossFit exercises
The above explanation is necessary because it helps you understand that I can’t list all CrossFit exercises here. After all, this depends on the imagination of the various trainers. However, there are many exercises that regularly reappear and that you could somewhat see as the basics:
- Squats (multiple variations)
- Deadlifts
- Clean and jerk
- Pull-ups (I demonstrate multiple variations myself)
- Push-ups (I demonstrate multiple variations myself)
- Dips (I demonstrate multiple variations myself)
- Tire flip
- Box jump
- Muscle ups
- Jump rope (multiple variations like double unders, sprints, and criss-cross)
- Lunges
- Knees to elbows
- L-sit
- Rope climbing
- Wallball
- Kettlebell swing
- Sit-ups
- Rowing (with rowing machine)
- Toes to bar
- Running (sprints and longer distances, shuttle run as often done in high school from line to line within the increasingly shorter time between beeps)
- Shoulder press variations (including standing barbell, push and press)
- Snatch “etc.” 😉
Workout of the day: WOD
A characteristic of CrossFit are the “workouts of the day” or the WODs. New WODs are posted daily on the CrossFit.com site.
A typical CrossFit training consists of a warm-up, skill practice, the WOD, and finally cooling down/stretching.
A WOD can consist of one or multiple exercises where as many repetitions as possible must be done within a certain time (e.g., as many squats as possible), a certain number of repetitions must be completed as quickly as possible (e.g., 100 pull-ups), or achieving a maximal result within an exercise (e.g., deadlifting as heavy as possible).
Examples of WODs
How a “CrossFit week” might look like (source: CrossFit.com):
THURSDAY 131114
“Helen”
- Three rounds for time:
- Run 400 meters
- 1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
- 12 Pull-ups
WEDNESDAY 131113
“CrossFit Total”
- Back squat, 1 rep
- Shoulder Press, 1 rep
- Deadlift, 1 rep
TUESDAY 131112
“Fran”
- Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
- 95 pound Thruster
- Pull-ups
MONDAY 131111
Rest Day
SUNDAY 131110
- 21-15-9 reps of:
- 225 pound Deadlift
- 135 pound Overhead squat
SATURDAY 131109
With a continuously running clock do one muscle-up the first minute, two muscle-ups the second minute, three muscle-ups the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed.
FRIDAY 131108
- Three rounds for time of:
- 135 pound Overhead squat, 10 reps
- 50 Double-unders
Willekeur in opbouw trainingsprogramma en rust
Fitness schedules are designed considering the necessary rest after a workout. So-called training splits are aimed at having sufficient rest after a workout so that the muscles can recover and become stronger and larger during this recovery. By dividing muscle groups, you can train certain muscle groups while allowing others to rest.
MONDAY 131111
Rest Day
SUNDAY 131110
- 21-15-9 reps of:
- 225 pound Deadlift
- 135 pound Overhead squat
SATURDAY 131109
With a continuously running clock do one muscle-up the first minute, two muscle-ups the second minute, three muscle-ups the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed.
FRIDAY 131108
- Three rounds for time of:
- 135 pound Overhead squat, 10 reps
- 50 Double-unders
Randomness in Training Program Structure and Rest
Fitness schedules are designed considering the necessary rest after a workout. So-called training splits aim to have sufficient rest after a workout so that the muscles can recover and become stronger and larger during this recovery. By dividing muscle groups, you can train certain muscle groups while allowing others to rest.
In CrossFit, however, this does not seem to be taken into account. There are rest days, but there seems to be less consideration for the different muscle groups trained on consecutive days. For example, heavy squats may be done one day and deadlifts the next, while the quadriceps (thigh muscles) are still recovering. Or deadlifts followed by back extensions the next day, both stressing the lower back with insufficient rest in between.
Admittedly, I don’t often encounter these examples on the CrossFit.com website. But as mentioned, each “box” can create its own workouts, so it depends on where you train whether this consideration is given enough attention. Additionally, due to the larger number of compound exercises involving multiple muscle groups simultaneously, it is more difficult to rest certain muscles for several days.
You determine how often you train. Ultimately, you are responsible for ensuring adequate rest tailored to your level and training intensity. However, if you don’t have knowledge of the training-rest ratio, it’s helpful if the person conducting the training takes this into account or at least can advise on it. As a trainer, you need to know much more than just the execution of a few exercises. At this point, it’s unfortunate that the training program for opening a box is not more comprehensive and does not address rest, nutrition, injuries, differentiation (assessing different levels for different people).
CrossFit Supporting Other Sports
As mentioned, according to founder Glassman, the goal is to be physically capable of performing as much as possible within a certain time under different conditions. Regarding athletes, he refers to the “theoretical hierarchy of athlete development” (2) as depicted below. This is naturally based on Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” with, however, a big difference.
What Glassman tries to convey with this pyramid is that you can only work on your endurance when nutrition is good, you need to meet both requirements before considering turn-like activities, then need these when you start weightlifting, and only then have you reached the level where you can practice your sport.
The flaw in the comparison with Maslow’s pyramid is that with the latter, the first need MUST be met before the next need can arise.
I completely agree that nutrition forms the basis for physical activity. In fact, I think most athletes drop the ball there.
However, I disagree that you should have capabilities from gymnastics or weightlifting to be successful in certain sports. Even endurance (metabolic conditioning) is not a requirement for some sports. Consider baseball where, except for the pitcher, you stand still most of the time. The control you learn with weightlifting to move heavy weights coordinated with the entire body may be useful for many sports, but certainly not necessary.
In fact: In the article on “strength training for combat sports” and “the functioning of muscles” and “muscle fibers“, I made it clear that non-sport-specific training principles can detract from your athletic performance because you may develop the wrong muscle fiber types instead of the ones you need for your sport.
There are many explosive movements in CrossFit that develop the fastest muscle fibers (type “fast twitch” IIB). This can transform the slower, but more endurance-capable type IIA into IIB. However, for some sports, the IIA muscle fibers are more important. Conversely, the same applies, and for this reason, boxers often train conditioning in three-minute rounds because this is the time within which they must distribute their energy during matches.
If they run a marathon three times a week, they train the muscle fibers that are less important for their sport at the expense of the muscle fibers that are more important.
In the best case, with CrossFit supporting other sports, you waste time training the type of muscle fibers you don’t need, at least for your sport.
Rest
Here too, rest is a point to consider. I wasn’t happy when I had to do push-ups during Karate practice the day after a heavy chest workout. Not because the push-ups were difficult, but because it affected the recovery of the chest muscles. However, I could take this into account with my training schedules by not training my chest the day before karate practice.
With CrossFit, however, you have no idea what the next training session will look like. If you’re a skater, squatting isn’t always convenient. Let alone if you did it the day before as strength training for skating.
By combining CrossFit with another sport, the risk of overtraining increases, and it’s even more important for you to manage your schedule well to prevent this.
Injuries in CrossFit
Another point is the hardcore “do-or-die-injuries-are-for-pussies attitude” or the aforementioned “STFU therapy”.
The high “look-ma-no-hands level” would make many coaches hold their breath when their athletes submit to this. Just explain to your coach that it’s good for your sport that you can’t participate in the most important soccer match of the season because you broke your ankle from falling out of a rope the day before.
Coach: “Fell out of a rope? Why were you climbing a rope the day before the most important match?”
Soccer player: “Because Greg Glassman says it will make me a better soccer player.”
So, I see that pyramid more as a marketing gimmick to sell CrossFit to (professional) athletes. If it had said “physically well-rounded person” at the top of the pyramid, I would have completely agreed, but that probably didn’t fit in the box.
Don’t get me wrong. CrossFit seems like a very nice system to me. However, I would be too chicken to skip my usual strength training focused on muscle mass for a few weeks due to injuries sustained during CrossFit. In that respect, bodybuilding is my sport and should not suffer from CrossFit.
For the same reason, I stopped Karate about six years ago. Not because of those push-ups after a chest workout, but because I often got injured during uncontrolled moments while sparring, which meant I couldn’t train for weeks and my whole bodybuilding schedule was messed up. If you want to seriously pursue a sport, you sometimes have to make those choices.
CrossFit for General Health and All-Round Fitness
However, for some, CrossFit is the sport they have chosen. And there is a lot to be said for that too. I think there are few sports where you are trained so well in all areas. From short intense efforts to endurance, performed over almost all muscle groups that need to work together in different ways. A bit like the idea of: “I don’t know what will be physically expected of me in the future, but I’m ready for it!”.
I read a statement on the Reebok CrossFit website that aptly summarizes this advantage and the aforementioned disadvantage in one sentence:
“Our specialty is not specializing.”
CrossFit creates all-round strong and fit individuals. CrossFitters may not be the fastest sprinters, have the most muscular bodies, or be able to bench press the most, but they can all do these things much better than the average person.
CrossFit for Injury Prevention
It may seem strange that I mention CrossFit here for injury prevention after mentioning it earlier as a cause of injuries, but in fact, it makes sense.
Let me explain this with an example:
Bodybuilders, for example, are very strong in controlled movements. They master the techniques to train certain muscle groups to perfection, often ensuring that the respective muscle group is isolated as well as possible. The goal is to stress the muscles as much as possible, not to achieve a certain performance like lifting a certain weight. Compound exercises borrowed from weightlifting, therefore, often limit themselves to squats and deadlifts in various variations. Bodybuilders do this because their focus is mainly on the stress of specific muscles. However, this can have the disadvantage that certain smaller, stabilizing muscles receive less attention. This can lead to imbalances between different muscles and possible injuries when a less controlled, less or untrained action is performed.
CrossFit focuses more on the cooperation between various muscles by doing exercises involving multiple muscle groups at once. The nerve control becomes more effective over a wider range of movements. The smaller stabilizing muscles are trained more often, and the chance of imbalance between certain major muscle groups and smaller muscle groups is therefore smaller.
For example, in the article about Pepto Pro, I wrote very proudly that I could dip again (more easily) with 80 kilos between my legs. What I didn’t mention was that after this, when I put down two of the 20-kilo plates, I hurt my back. This had happened before when I was sitting on a bed and just wanted to turn to my wife, and another time when I bent down to tie my shoelaces (this was in the gym locker room before training, so that promised to be a fantastic workout).
Of course, there could be multiple reasons for this. A local injury that never fully recovered, for example. The point, however, is that I can squat and deadlift heavy weights without any problems because these are controlled movements. As soon as the movement becomes less controlled, includes more rotational movements and/or involves multiple muscle groups, much less stress is needed to cause an injury in my case. This is something you often see with bodybuilders, but also with strongmen.
I heard some time ago about a participant in Strongest Man competitions who hurt his back when picking up a fallen pack of tobacco (yes, heavy tobacco). However, with weightlifters and strongmen, this kind of thing normally happens less often because they do more compound exercises where coordination of different muscle groups is trained more often.
With CrossFit, the variety in (type of) exercises is even greater, preparing you for a much wider range of movements and different types of stress.
The question then is whether you prevent more potential injuries than you may incur during CrossFit.
CrossFit Games
One of the signs of the popularity of CrossFit is the CrossFit Games held since 2007.
What is special about this event is that participants only find out a few hours in advance which parts they have to do. There may also be surprise elements, parts they have never practiced because they are outside the usual CrossFit repertoire. This is also in the spirit of CrossFit, where you have to be prepared for anything and trained broadly.
The popularity of the Games is also evident in the sponsorship of the event and the prize money that can be made available to the winner. For comparison: The winners of the past two years received $250,000 each (4). That’s as much as Phil Heath won at the last Mr. Olympia, the largest bodybuilding event worldwide. The difference is that the Mr. Olympia organization took 48 years to be able to spend these amounts since the first Mr. Olympia in 1965. CrossFit only needed five years for this!
CrossFit Open
Since 2011, CrossFitters can post their results online for the CrossFit Open. A new workout is posted weekly for this purpose. Participants have a few days to perform these and record their results on video or have them confirmed by the CrossFit box. The best in each region can then participate in regional competitions, with Europe being considered one region. The top 3 per region can participate in the CrossFit Games. America is somewhat overrepresented with 12 regions, but CrossFit is simply more popular there.
There are classes for men and women and for different older ages (Master class): 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, and 60+. There are no regional competitions for these master classes. Participants in the master classes may participate based on performance in the CrossFit Open. In addition, there is a team competition where teams consist of 3 men and 3 women.
In addition to the CrossFit Games, other regional, national, and international competitions are also held (5).
Conclusion
I understand why CrossFit is so popular. The different exercises are just fun. I did many of these exercises as a young boy, long before CrossFit existed. If I hadn’t chosen bodybuilding and been afraid of injuries and overtraining, I would definitely have tried CrossFit.
CrossFit makes you stronger in many different ways. Maximum strength, explosive strength, and endurance are all trained.
CrossFit is gaining popularity very quickly. It is therefore questionable whether this will further detract from the popularity of more traditional fitness, weightlifting, strongman, and bodybuilding or whether it will die out as quickly as it came up as a hype. Personally, I have a vague suspicion that the former statement applies and it won’t be long before the first voices are heard calling for Olympic recognition of CrossFit.
References
- journal.CrossFit.com/2009/02/CrossFits-new-definition-of-fitness-volume-under-the-curve-1.tpl
- library.CrossFit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Trial_04_2012.pdf
- wikipedia.org/wiki/Gezondheid
- “Finding the Fittest on Earth”. CrossFit.com. February 11, 2011.
- fitworkshop.com/what-is-CrossFit/
