Online Excercise Communities (Crossfit) Featured in NYTimes

[_CQ]

The superfit walk among us. They saunter or strut, depending on whether they’re showcasing their magnificent agility or their oxlike strength. They ignore the chatter in the health media over treadmill technique and pedometer steps. They scoff even at seemingly rigorous practices like Mysore Ashtanga yoga and marathon training. They are America’s self-styled fitness elite, adherents of a punishing online exercise regime called CrossFit, which orders its followers to cultivate a distinctly martial — not to say paranoid — ideal of “physical preparedness.”

NYTimes.com: God's Workout -- A grueling online exercise regime requires near-devotional commitment

Ooh and JPFitness.com, Malepatternfitness.com, slowtwitch.com, and t-nation.com are mentioned in the article (albeit as a side box) as "fitness sites with deep-think forums."

Here's another quote I like:

The enemies in the eyes of the CrossFit crowd are “Stairmaster chumps” (who log long, drowsy hours on the machines but huff and puff on actual stairs) and myopic “specialists” — athletes or exercisers who neglect versatility in order to refine one or two skills."

Has anyone tried Crossfit? I might think about that when I'm through with NROL4W.

[swat fitness]

Nice article. We like Crossfit. You really have to understand scaleability, though, as many of the workouts include repetitive motion (even though the WODs themselves change) and can result in some shoulder stress for inexperienced CF'ers or people who go full-tilt into the program and over-train, which is not uncommon. Some people really are hard core. Some people really try to be. Some people just shouldn't be. Just my 2.

[Bluefever]

I was thinking of trying it aswell once I am done NROL4W. My husband has done a bit of crossfit and seems to like it.

[Bytsi]

I will have to check out Crossfit. I do think the author of the article is probably a "Stairmaster chump" at best - she seems shocked by the concept of a hard workout, not like someone who appreciates it. Wonder how that article might have looked if written by a fitness enthusiast!

[_CQ]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

I will have to check out Crossfit. I do think the author of the article is probably a "Stairmaster chump" at best - she seems shocked by the concept of a hard workout, not like someone who appreciates it. Wonder how that article might have looked if written by a fitness enthusiast!

For some reason, I have an image of thousands and thousands of affluent and urban, older and overweight, upper-middle class families opening up their New York Times magazine over a breakfast of eggs and OJ and raising their eyebrows at America's "fitness elite." In that, I think the author has hit the perfect tone and approach if my guess at the Times' audience is right.

[Lisa~]

Originally Posted by swat fitness

Nice article. We like Crossfit. You really have to understand scaleability, though, as many of the workouts include repetitive motion (even though the WODs themselves change) and can result in some shoulder stress for inexperienced CF'ers or people who go full-tilt into the program and over-train, which is not uncommon. Some people really are hard core. Some people really try to be. Some people just shouldn't be. Just my 2.

Great post.

The only problem I have with CrossFit is the attitude that you should push till you drop, even when form is breaking down and you're on the verge of injury. If you can approach it more sensibly than a lot of the CrossFit websites seem to, then it can be a fun approach for a time. Remember to make choices based on your own goals too. CrossFit is about conditioning, not strength or quality performance in any specific endeavor. Think of it as another tool in the toolbox, rather than the best or only way to approach fitness.

[OldGuy]

JP's makes the NY Times. Cool.

[rixatrix]

Originally Posted by _CQ

For some reason, I have an image of thousands and thousands of affluent and urban, older and overweight, upper-middle class families opening up their New York Times magazine over a breakfast of eggs and OJ and raising their eyebrows at America's "fitness elite." In that, I think the author has hit the perfect tone and approach if my guess at the Times' audience is right.

Haha, yes! This describes my stepmom perfectly. She once told me (chubby kid) "Don't eat olives, they're full of fat." She also runs marathons. She runs so much, one of their dogs had to have surgery on BOTH her hips. Yeah.

And ten to one that breakfast the affluent families eat is something like Cheerios with skim milk, or toast and OJ, or black coffee and a Nutrigrain bar.

I wish we had a Crossfit facility here. Then at least I'd know where to go to find a workout buddy.

[DavidReed]

Originally Posted by Lisa~

Great post.

The only problem I have with CrossFit is the attitude that you should push till you drop, even when form is breaking down and you're on the verge of injury. If you can approach it more sensibly than a lot of the CrossFit websites seem to, then it can be a fun approach for a time. Remember to make choices based on your own goals too. CrossFit is about conditioning, not strength or quality performance in any specific endeavor. Think of it as another tool in the toolbox, rather than the best or only way to approach fitness.

Sorry about the thread necromancy...just thought I'd quit lurking these forums and actually make a contribution

I just wanted to dispell some myths here. First, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program. Before I did CrossFit, I was doing the typical bodybuilder 3 sets of 10 isolation exercises. Even though these are now known to be ineffective in producing strength gains, I think it speaks volume about CrossFit's strength training component that I bench-pressed 1 or 2 times a week for years but once I started CrossFit, even though it had me hardly bench pressing once a month, my numbers shot up in that area. It also exposed me to the effectiveness of the squat and deadlift in strength training, but that's another story.

Another myth is that CrossFit can't produce quality performance in any endeavor. I ran 5 times a week during the cross country season in high school, and my time never got better than a 27:00 5k (yeah...I know ). This year I went from being completely sedentary to doing Crossfit + running twice a week, and after a few months my 5k time was 22:34. Still not spectacular, but in the same amount of time, Crossfit + a little running on the side has improved my 5k time almost 5 minutes over what it would have been if I had been running 5 days a week during that time. I fully expect that using this training I will get my 5k time down below 18:00.

I'm not saying that CrossFit can be used to win olympic gold medals in running, but for those of us who don't have the time to put in 70+ miles a week, and who run for the fun of it, it can be extremely useful. It's also worth mentioning that my strength benchmarks AND running times are both better than they have ever been while using Crossfit, even though these two aspects of fitness are on opposite sides of the spectrum.