Crossfit Revisited

[Guest guest]

Please read my last two paragraphs of this post. It sums up

everything this I'm trying to convey. I then responded to many of

the Crossfit posts and noticed a common thread amongst all of them.

So I addressed several of them below.

>CrossFit is a philosophy of GPP.

> Once you understand the philosophy you will see nobody else has

done this

> exact sort of thing. On the surface it seems very similar to

what has been

> around for years, but it is unique. The workouts of the day that

they post

> online are simply educational and have helped form the philosophy

over the past

> few years as they get feedback from people around the world.

Many people

> follow the CrossFit philosophy and incorporate it into their other

training, but do

> not need a workout handed to them due to a lack of creativity or

education.

***** What philosophy? GPP isn't a philosophy, it is a training

protocol developed for one aspect of training Albeit an important

one, it is far from a philosophy. This has not answered the `why.'

Would Pavel's philosophy be summed up as `he uses kettlebells?'

Would Sonnon's philosophy be described as `he uses clubbells

for circular strength training?' Even Crossfit writer and teacher

Dan has a much deeper and more fulfilling philosophy than `he's

the Olympic lifting guy.'

>Training philosophy - I think there is a philosophy and it

basically is

>General Physical Prepardness. Yes it's been around before but so has

>everything else. It's certainly not a bad way to attain a high

level of

>fitness. As with everything else there's a trade off - I guess you

could say

> " jack of all trades, master of none " but many trainees prefer

variety and

>are not interested in excelling in one particular activity.

***** Still not really a philosophy, again more of a protocol for

program design. Fitness is far more than simply a level of physical

ability, and GPP, even something similar to Crossfit (although not

identical, people, don't get bent out of shape) was a staple of the

physical culture movement a century ago. But these practitioners,

and many after them, pontificated about WHY they did what they did,

not just how. Arthur Saxon, Alan Culvert, Bernard MdFadden, et al

all wrote a great deal about the `why.'

>Regarding the puking discussion I don't believe I've ever read

anything from

>CrossFit saying that you should strive to puke during or after a

workout.

***** Recently there was an icon of someone puking on their main

page! A little cartoon figure barfing up something nasty.

>Their philosophy can be summarized as performing functional

>exercises at high intensity in a constantly varied fashion with the

goal being an >improvement in all 10 fitness qualities; i.e., speed,

power, agility, coordination, >endurance, stamina, balance,

strength, flexibility, and accuracy.

***** Sounds familiar, like almost any other athletic off-season

training program. Again, not a philosophy, but merely program

design.

>The program is a GPP program and is not appropriate for an athlete

or someone wishing >to maximize only 1 or a few of these

qualities. Well, it is not appropriate without >modification.

*****Do we see a trend in responses here? So far four people have

mentioned GPP without actually explaining anything more. ANYONE can

create a GPP program, and it has been done for centuries. I

remember a Polish weightlifting team video that I watched at Mel's

home once where they trained with all sorts of tools, ideas and

exercises. The strongmen of a century ago used anything available

to them, and often were also distance runners/walkers/cyclists or

boxers and wrestlers.

>I mean nobody has developed a long-term training philosophy that

>incorporated gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, kettlebells,

powerlifting, sprinting, >rowing, and other functional exercises at

high intensity in a somewhat random fashion >with the goal being an

improvement in speed, power, strength, agility, coordination,

>balance, endurance, stamina, flexibility, and accuracy.

***** What long term training philosophy? That GPP thing again?

Yes, many folks have developed programs using all those tools. I

use all those things and more, which is why Crossfit folks come into

my gym and always ask `Are you Crossfit? " No, I'm Chip, and this is

Bodytribe, and nothing I do here is new. Bud Jeffries,

Kubrik, Steve Justa and many others have been doing strange

combinations with many tools in unique ways for a while, and they

admit to not having too many new ideas amongst them either.

>My point is nobody has developed and explained a philosophy exactly

like that which >CrossFit has developed. If you disagree, then

please direct me to the literature where I >can read about this

philosophy.

***** Nobody at Crossfit has actually developed a `philosophy,'

especially if people think their `philosophy' is what everyone above

has mentioned.'

>So, when you did the philosophy you incorporated Snatches, Clean

and Jerks,

>muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, sprints, box jumps, medicine ball

exercises,

>deadlifts, squats, L-sits, etc. into your GPP with the goal being

elite GPP?

***** Sounds like MANY athletic training programs.

>This is my exact point, nobody has defined a GPP philosophy exactly

as CrossFit has >and if you believe differently, then please show me

the literature (or perhaps you

>need to read more about CrossFit to understand what they are

saying).

***** Her we go again. What philosophy? Reading more of Crossfit

simply shows me that there are a bunch of great ideas, great

exercise designs, great workouts and several fairly unique

combinations, but nothing resembling a big WHY behind anything, just

some recited physiological jargon that ANY athlete or trainer can

use to support their chosen workout.

>I have recently been training according to the ideas presented by

Bud

>Jeffries in his Twisted Conditioning books. There is some common

ground

>with the CrossFit philosophy.

***** Yes, there is, and the others I've mentioned in this giant

post.

Crossfit is more of a giant supportive community that shares a

common motivation and drive. It's an exercise club, or society,

that loves to share ideas and try new things. I fully support

organizations such as this (heck, my workshop partner is Crossfit

certified), but am leery when members start behaving a little

cultish by not questioning things, boldly accepting all things as

truth and becoming followers rather than free thinkers.

Yes, I hope too much for any group, but, as all the responses above

may show, there is a strong belief in a system that has no REAL

philosophy. Are we each allowed to create our own, while adapting

the designs and protocols of other systems? Heck Yes!! So my point

is why be Crossfit when you can be You, while using some of the

tools and ideas from Crossfit.

Chip Conrad

Sacramento, CA

www.bodytribe.com

www.empoweredtribes.com