CrossFit gets a lot of cult like love and a lot of, frankly, ignorant hate. Some justified I am sure. In light of the recent CrossFit regional qualifiers, I asked my Instagram audience a few questions. The questions were aimed only at those who have consistently participated in CrossFit for 6 months or more. So 3-5 days per week of CrossFit for at least six months. That was the requirement in order to answer my questions.

This episode is NOT backed by science. In fact a physical therapist friend actually said they had some recent decent research that debunks some of the common beliefs about CrossFit and injury volume or frequency, but I am still waiting on that data - I can’t and wouldn’t speak to it until I got the chance to read and dissect it myself. Because truly so much research is bias. But we always hope it is not.

The questions I asked were as follows:

* What are the positives/pros/things you love(d) about CrossFit?* What were/are the negative sides of CrossFit? Personal experience or observation

* How long have you done/did you practice CrossFit as your main medium of fitness?* If you stopped, why?

* If you still do CrossFit, why would you ever see yourself leaving? Or doing something else? If you can imagine that.

* For those who no longer do CrossFit, what do you do now as your made modality of fitness?

I was so amazed and interested by both the volume of responses and the content of those responses that I had to be consolidating that information into a podcast episode. Especially because no one but me gets to see all these responses in the question boxes!

As a disclaimer, I feel I need to share my background with CrossFit because I do and have undoubtedly had biases over the years. Now I feel much much more neutral about CrossFit - largely due to the changes I’ve seen.

I did CrossFit for over six months, under one year in my early 20’s. Loved it. So much. Thought it was way too heavy on overhead volume to lower body volume, and also lacked unilateral work, and lateral work - things I was learning about in school at the time. Ended up with a meniscus surgery, and an undiagnosed shoulder injury that the doc chalked up to bicep tendonitis. So, stopped and changed modalities back to weight lifting and more traditional conditioning with some retcons here and there.

I then as a professional jumped on the CrossFit hate train - “they use momentum for everything, that’s not a real pull up, lack of regulation and anyone can be a coach” etc.

I interned at a physical therapy clinic as a performance coach for six months at the tail end of my college career and past graduation. I was actually offered a full time position but turned it down. The owner and PT’s used to say “as long as CrossFit exists, we’ll stay in business.” They weren’t wrong. A massive percentage of the clientele came from CrossFit. Mostly  knee, lower back, and shoulder injuries. That’s the side I was introduced to next. Thus, my disapproval continued.

Even with that said, who doesn’t love watching the CrossFit Games? I watch them every year. Always have.

Stick around till the end for my current stance/view of CrossFit. But now let’s breakdown YOUR DATA.

* What are the positives/pros/things you love(d) about crossfit?

Intensity

Unknown Challenges

Mindless workouts - show up, do what’s on the board

Randomness or Variety

Strength, aerobic and skills work all involved