My final thoughts on crossfit

Overall I had some pretty good results with my crossfit program.  For someone who works out regularly to see a 5lb loss in fat and 1lb gain in muscle in 8 weeks, the results are not too bad.  In terms of my strength gains they were mediocre for me.  Mainly because I was just not feeling it that day.  I was pretty run down from the program, which really isn't a big surprise.  The was pedal to the metal for the last 8 weeks on this program and I am pretty excited it is over. 

Initially I was really digging the workouts and thought I was going to miss it once it was over.  I think I really just enjoyed having someone else write a workout for me so I didn't have to think about it.  The workouts just beat me down and eventually it just wasn't fun anymore. 

Some of my complaints about crossfit are still the same as when I started the program.  It is just too random and not enough balance to the program.  I remember one week I think I did some version of a squat press exercise just about every workout.  I just had no time to recover from it.  Whether it was a push press, thruster, wall ball, or some other variation it was just too much of the same movements with high intensity. 

I can't remember doing one horizontal pulling exercise through the whole program.  Pretty much the only pulling exercise is pull ups or high pulls.  And all movements were in the saggital plane.  I like the simplicity of the program that it is made up of just a few exercises, but it would have been nice to repeat workouts more often so I could see more improvement.  It was really just all over the place. 

My recommendation for this program would mainly just be in the programming.  It would be nice to see some model of periodization attached to it.  It just isn't a good idea to train all out intensity all the time.  I think in the future I would like to do more crossfit programs but only for a portion of my own program mixed in.  I just don't want to hurt myself trying to keep up with some of these workouts. 

One great thing about the program though is that it exposed my weaknesses.  I have a long way to go improving my mobility.  I saw some great progress over 8 weeks but need much more work.  I wish I took a video of my first workout with an overhead squat vs my last one.  It was night and day.  I definitely learned what I need to work on.  I am just a terrible squatter and need to keep working on it. 

The best and the worse:

My top two favorite workouts were:

3 rounds for time:
400m run
21 KB Swings
12 Pull Ups

This was probably the only workout I made it through unbroken.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Deadlift 1.5xbodyweight
Bench Press bodyweight
Cleans .75xbodyweight

This workout killed me but actually really liked it.  So sore afterwords. 

My least favorite workouts:

100 Thrusters with 95lbs

Really!?  I was just mad when I saw this workout.  So ridiculous

30 Snatches 135lbs for time

I hated it while doing it but I impressed myself I could even get through it.  I haven't snatched this heavy in a long time. 

Well those are my final thoughts.  I don't mean to be bashing crossfit if I sounded like that.  I loved the tough challenges and how they considered different energy systems with heavy lifting and endurance training.  It is not for the average person but it a fun way to challenge yourself.  I would only recommend it to someone with great mobility and strength going in.  I'm sure every crossfit gym is different and you will get completely different experiences from it. 

Please feel free to comment with your own experiences. 

Mike.

The Results Are In

Ok so I have been just terrible posting all my workouts, but I did complete my 8 weeks of crossfit training.  I have recording all of my after measurements and assessments and ready to report them.  This post will just have the numbers.  My next post will focus more on my final thoughts.

Before:
Weight-185lbs
Body Fat- 12.7%
Neck-15.5
Chest- 41.75
Waist- 34.5
Hips- 37
Bicep- 14
Thigh- 22.25
Calf- 14.25

1RM:
Hang Clean- 185lbs
Bench Press- 245lbs
Squat- 315lbs

Pull up Max- 16 reps
Push up test (set a metronome to 50bpm, down on first beep, up on second beep, and kept pace as long as I could)- 27 reps

Mile Run on Treadmill- 7:04

After
Weight-181lbs
Body Fat- 10%
Neck-15.25
Chest- 41
Waist- 33.25
Hips- 37
Bicep- 14
Thigh- 21.75
Calf- 14

1RM:
Hang Clean- 190lbs
Bench Press- 245lbs
Squat- 320lbs

Pull up Max- 20 reps
Push up test (set a metronome to 50bpm, down on first beep, up on second beep, and kept pace as long as I could)- 27 reps

Mile Run on Treadmill- 6:47

So decent numbers.  In terms of body comp I lost 5.4lbs of fat and gained 1.6lbs of muscle.  I definitely felt more lean.  Felt a little smaller than I like to but not too bad.  I was a little disappointed with some  of the strength and endurance measurements.  I just felt run down during the testing.  Normally I get really pumped to do 1RM testing.  This day I just wanted it to be over.  I think I was borderline overtraining with how hard I had been going with this program.  It was pretty much never a down time. 

I am currently taking 2 weeks to recover and work on mobility.  I will be posting some of those routines as well.  I was originally going to do P90X next but I honestly just don't think it is a good program and can't motivate myself to do it.  Instead I think I might put one of the biggest fitness myths to the test.  I will do basically the same program twice.  Once with lighter loads and higher reps and the other higher loads and less reps.  It should be fun to see what happens.