Thanks for your thoughtful comment. You bring up an important point, and I want to be very clear with my readers. My experience with CrossFit is somewhat limited. I followed the WOD as-is for 3 months several years ago. After that, I deliberately stopped all CrossFit-style training, and I’ve never gone back. Some may argue that this is not long enough to truly understand the system. I think it was plenty of time to experience what I needed. Apart from that, I worked with a few CrossFit trainers back in 2006, but never with someone who was ONLY CrossFit certified and who ONLY uses CrossFit training protocol. In my experience, the best CrossFit coaches are the ones who blend their own knowledge and experience with some of the CrossFit system strengths – not coaches whom are only only CrossFit certified.

you wrote:
“You are providing a balanced opinion on the matter, but not an expert opinion coming from direct experience within Crossfit itself.”

This is exactly why I published these posts on CrossFit, because I can offer an unbiased review for my readers.

you wrote:
Crossfit has some extremely beneficial effects.

I partially agree. CrossFit does have some benefits as I’ve noted above, but also some drawbacks. One of them is that any performance-first fitness system, puts performance before health. Therefore, some aspects of health will deteriorate because of the priority that performance holds in the training programs.

you wrote:
“@John sorry to say, but your assessment isn’t correct. Muscles don’t just arbitrarily break down as you describe.”

I never said that in either of my CrossFit reviews, nor would I ever say that muscles just arbitrarily break down. May I ask what you are referring to?

you wrote:
“Please feel free to review the video from this years Crossfit games featuring the Masters competitors to see how Crossfit affects age.”

I’ve reviewed enough CrossFit videos :)

But seriously, appearance is only one indicator of health, and you can only understand a fraction of what makes up our health from looking at a person, and especially from watching a video. Our culture has created an artificial image of what good health should look like anyways.

you wrote:
“The fundamental problem is the phrase “I’ve tried Crossfit” is bantered around as condemnation against the programming. If you aren’t training at a good to excellent affiliate then you are not really doing Crossfit. If you are not continually committed to excellence and seeking to expand your knowledge and understanding in Crossfit (including nutrition, recovery/stretch, mastery of 10 fitness domains, O-lifting – commonly ignored, etc), then you aren’t really doing Crossfit.”

I agree, and like I said in one comment above, it’s an issue of quality control.

Thanks again for your comment, Joseph.

I merely want to point this out because although your opinion is valued and your credentials valued it isn’t coming from a place of direct experience. It was pointed out your posts are bit general and I would agree. You are providing a balanced opinion on the matter, but not an expert opinion coming from direct experience within Crossfit itself.

Having been avidly involved with Crossfit for three years, certified CF level 1 and licensed as a chiropractor for 13 years I can say Crossfit has some extremely beneficial effects.

@John sorry to say, but your assessment isn’t correct. Muscles don’t just arbitrarily break down as you describe. Please feel free to review the video from this years Crossfit games featuring the Masters competitors to see how Crossfit affects age.

I only wish I had the opportunity to do Crossfit the last 20 years instead of three.

The fundamental problem is the phrase “I’ve tried Crossfit” is bantered around as condemnation against the programming. If you aren’t training at a good to excellent affiliate then you are not really doing Crossfit. If you are not continually committed to excellence and seeking to expand your knowledge and understanding in Crossfit (including nutrition, recovery/stretch, mastery of 10 fitness domains, O-lifting – commonly ignored, etc), then you aren’t really doing Crossfit.

@JamesMarine0341 I’m sorry you had that experience. But there are apparently a-holes everywhere. I could share stories of my experiences at CF affiliates as well as Globo gyms where ego’s reign high. I hope you stick with it because of the merits of the concepts and not let others fragile ego’s hold you back.

Detractors point to the flaws within Crossfit either in training protocol or personality conflict. The athletes that competed this year at the Crossfit games all expanded on their training protocol to include recovery, stretching and many other modalities common in the fitness arena today. The real test to any other GPP training protocol is to match up against Crossfit. Pick some stuff your program is great at, pick some stuff that is neutral (ie. a random sport), then pick some stuff Crossfit is great at. Establish a scoring criteria and see what happens. This is one way to measure one program against another. Crossfit welcomes others to prove their protocol superior.

Some people miss the point that Crossfit is the “sport” of fitness. And in sport their is ego. C’mon have you seen how pro ball players act. And they get paid big bucks to play and they still act like idiots sometimes. If you don’t like Crossfit, fine, remove the name. But, be sure to check out Olympic lifting, basic gymnastics, plyometrics, powerlifting and the slew of other training modalities that comprise Crossfit. They will help round out your fitness experience and help you grow.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the posts, I’ll keep reading.

Good job John!