
Some Turn to Church; Others, to CrossFit - nerfhammer
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/some-turn-to-church-others-to-crossfit.html
======
hoodoof
CrossFit works for me.

The reason CrossFit is better - for me - than the ordinary gym, is because in
the past I would join a gym and not know what to do, and not know how to use
the equipment, and not have a specific time to be there, and not have anyone
to ask what to do, and feel silly, and stop going (but keep paying).

CrossFit is like group personal training, not a cult.

The trainer is very good and there is a big focus on safety and avoiding
injury. The trainers are always available to help and guide you on how to
exercise properly and safely. In fact I think it's much safer than going to an
ordinary gym where you are left to work it out yourself and you'll probably do
it wrong, endangering your health.

I don't love exercising - I value it but nothing more than that. So at
CrossFit I don't need to think about it. I go along and get told what to do
and it's a balanced exercise program. I just try not to go too hard - I'm in
it for the long haul.

It's friendly but it's not a church or a love-in.

I did get a shoulder injury (currently recovering from it) but it's because of
my years of sedentary living my muscles are weak and things like shoulder
muscles aren't held together well by atrophied muscle. That's not the fault of
CrossFit.

~~~
1563565
I am not surprised that you don't like exercise. There is a general trend in
society to exercise instead of just live an active lifestyle by playing sport,
going for walks, helping your friends move house, and so on.

Being active develops your body in a much better way as well. Muscles and
tendons are much more complex than what is suggested by people who lift
weights. Squatting heavy for 10 reps is only going to result in a very
specific type of muscular development. Muscles have multiple compartments as
determined by the various nerve endings. They have different types of muscle
fibres and there are multiple smaller muscles all over the place.

It is pretty easy to recognise people who lift weights and don't do anything
else because their bodies look strange. Many people at gyms have bigger chests
than the worlds greatest fighters, bigger legs than the fastest people in the
world, and wider shoulders than the fastest swimmers. Their muscles are
counterproductive to being athletic as their legs rub together when they walk
and so on. It is not just about size, it is about everything.

No it was the fault of crossfit. Most likely you had overdeveloped internal
rotators which caused impingement due to poor posture. Any responsible trainer
would get you to do facepulls and rows and maybe posterior chain exercises
like deadlifts to correct your posture before you did overhead work. Injuries
at the gym are extremely common because the body is more complex than some
people think.

Having fun outdoors should be people's main source of exercise, not rep 1, rep
2, protein shake. Nutrition is another topic. Weight lifting is to being
active as supplements, frozen meals, processed shit is to actual real food.
And no you don't need 500 grams of protein per day. The whole fitness industry
is garbage. It presents these bizarre bodies that nobody finds attractive as
ideals and so people try to obtain them.

~~~
HillRat
I'm not sure you're addressing Crossfit. While it has its faults, CF is _all
about_ "functional movements" similar to what you're arguing for. No WOD
consists of "[s]quatting heavy for ten reps;" instead, they're combinations of
lightweight movements. CF athletes are generally built more like a gymnast (or
a Navy SEAL) than a gym rat.

~~~
1563567
Yes I am. There is no such thing as functional movements. Whatever you do is
functional to whatever you are doing. They do lighter squats and heavier
squats for reps.

Look at any crossfit facebook page. For example:

[https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/?fref=ts](https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/?fref=ts)

You will see people who have:

massive arms that are completely out of proportion with their shoulders. Most
people are not designed to have arms that big, which is why they don't match
their shoulders.

Take these guys for example:

[https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/pcb.16302...](https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/pcb.1630260180588843/1630258833922311/?type=3&theater)

Then there are the girls with massive legs:

[https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/a.1627123...](https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/a.1627123420902519.1073741843.1442597876021742/1627123927569135/?type=3&theater)

and the guys with muscles that look like fat worms have invaded their body:

[https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/a.1627123...](https://www.facebook.com/CrossFit.Coorparoo/photos/a.1627123420902519.1073741843.1442597876021742/1627124094235785/?type=3&theater)

They are a joke and the media is trying to make people think those types of
things are attractive but the general population do not find them attractive
at all.

~~~
nailer
Most people who do crossfit don't look like that, and they don't want to. Guys
have less beer guts and better arms than the general population, girls are
slimmer and have shoulder muscles. That's about it. There are very few ultra
jacked dudes and women.

------
Spooky23
They even have a penance... After you fuck up your back doing deadlifts and
swinging stuff, you end up self-excommunicating.

------
kyllo
I've been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for the past 8 years and I sometimes joke
that it's my church because it's very much the "third place" for me. The
camaraderie has kept me coming back, it's great to train with a group of
people you know and trust several times a week and help each other progress
over months and years. I've met many of my friends at the gym, of whom several
have since quit training, but we still keep in touch. I can see the appeal of
Crossfit because it also taps into the camaraderie that people crave, as
opposed to a traditional gym where you put in your headphones, zone out and
never talk to anyone.

------
xacaxulu
I'm an atheist but I'm pretty sure church is safer...and if you're single the
dating pool is probably more tolerable. No creatine small talk.

------
mhb
Crossfit's Dirty Little Secret:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10639874](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10639874)

------
elipsey
Someone opened a Crossfit gym next to my house a couple of years ago, which is
in a mixed residential-commercial neighborhood. The building is closely
surrounded by residences. They operated largely outdoors, they woke me and my
neighbors up every morning before dawn yelling and throwing stuff outside, and
they kept it up until after dark six days a week. A lot of cops hung out
there, and the city PD wouldn't enforce the noise ordinance against them. In a
way, I spent 16 hours a day 6 days a week at Crossfit, for a couple of years.

It really did seem kind of like a religion or a cult; clearly the owners and
the more serious customers had deeply invested their identities in what they
were doing, and were seeking approval from one another. I perceived a kind of
aloofness or elitism in the way that they valued validation from the in group
over the rights and values of their neighbors. I came to recognize many of the
customers, some whom were often there 20 or more hours per week. It seemed
that one of the core tenets of the religion was that one must always have an
audience while working out, if not willing then captive. Cheering, yelling,
throwing large objects like tractor tires, and just generally doing everything
outdoors, at maximum volume, in a public space, was apparently mandatory.

I worked at home for a couple years next to these guys. I could hear them
inside my house all day, which they ran laps around in groups, with the leader
shouting commands like a drill Sargent. When I worked in garden they were they
there, throwing weights – it was required that all weights be thrown
forcefully to the ground, in a dominance display accompanied chimpanzee-like
shrieks, never merely set down on the pavement. When I retired to my porch for
a cup of coffee, they were there, milling around next to my yard taking about
their core workouts and protein shakes.

So it was almost like I lived at Crossfit for a while. In principle, I love
the idea of a community gym. Now and then I would see one of the instructors
cheering on a chunky middle aged person lifting weights, and that was so great
it almost made up for it. Almost.

They moved away last year. My life has become much more pleasant, and I have
had several months to reflect on this strange phenomenon. I value health and
fitness, and I'm really not just jealous because they were more “swole” then
me. For what it's worth, I ran 25 miles and lifted this week, but you probably
wouldn't guess by looking at me. I'm not perfect, but I'm pretty much where I
want to be with fitness – trying to do my best mostly, and not be nut job
about it.

But is it really necessary to serve up personal fitness with a double side-
order of external validation and group identity? Good health is it's own
reward, and when our self image is so narrowly invested in one aspect of our
lives, especially appearances, it's easy to overlook other personal growth
opportunities. My neighbors muscles were big enough; I think they should have
taken a break to work on their personalities.

I'd like to close with a joke: “If a Vegan does Crossfit, which one do they
talk about first?”

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _But is it really necessary to serve up personal fitness with a double side-
> order of external validation and group identity? Good health is it 's own
> reward,

For some, it may be. I feel like it could be good for me, as a way to hack my
mind. I hate exercising - not because of the physical effort, but because I'm
too attention-deficient to experience it, or "good health", as any kind of
reward. Exercising feels like a waste of time that could be spend on something
else, e.g. reading a book or helping someone with some problem. I know my mind
simply doesn't factor future health in day-to-day computations. I have to
consciously and explicitly _force* myself to care about it, and any way to
push that care back from System II to System I is something I appreciate.

> _and when our self image is so narrowly invested in one aspect of our lives,
> especially appearances, it 's easy to overlook other personal growth
> opportunities._

True, though if your other areas are well-cultivated, then it may be worth to
take that risk.

> _I 'd like to close with a joke: “If a Vegan does Crossfit, which one do
> they talk about first?”_

They'll tell you how everyone from their Crossfit group loved their new fruit
smoothie.

;).

------
austinjp
Lots of ill-informed comments in this thread, and some good stuff sprinkled in
here too.

If you get injured, it's a combination of luck, morphology, and activity, ie
the interaction of your genes with the environment, just like anything else.
You can follow an excellent routine with exemplary form and still pick up
injuries, although good technique should reduce this. However good technique
and appropriate routines are hotly debated.

So here's the truth: what works for you will work for you. And that's it.
There's no magic formula that works for everyone. Consequently you have to
experiment, and consequently you risk injury. That's the story.

Trainers are (probably) not medically qualified, or qualified in
rehabilitation. ("Qualified" is a technical term, it does not mean
"enthusiastic about"). Consequently they (probably) do not know why your
shoulder/whatever got injured, and what to do about it. "Imbalances" and
"core" and "posture" are (probably) nothing to do with it. Do not follow their
advice. Do not follow the advice of the guy who's had the same injury as you.
Do not follow your friend's advice. Go see a professional. And shop around to
find the right one for you.

Here the secret secret to recovery from nearly all injuries: Stop doing what
caused it, and what makes it worse. Quit that stuff for 3 months. Replace it
with something else if you need to (analyse your goals; think long-term not
short term). Stay motivated and realise that your body is hugely resilient and
adaptable. When you go back to the aggravating activity start from square one,
real beginner-level basics, and sloooooooowly phase up the frequency and
intensity. Modify, adapt, find your own path.

Good luck :)

------
radoslawc
Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strenght has some good insights about
CrossFit: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_7pN-
TJgM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_7pN-TJgM)

I believe it's good to engage people in any kind phisical activity, but when
it's fueled by marketing rules and encouraged competitivity might especially
for people without any sport background cause sometimes unreversible phisical
harm.

Plus in Church of Brodin it's a sin ;)
([http://bookofbrodin.wikia.com/wiki/The_Story_of_Brometheus](http://bookofbrodin.wikia.com/wiki/The_Story_of_Brometheus))

Wheymen!

~~~
nailer
It seems like a lot of people who write about crossfit haven't seen a
significant amount of crossfit. We're 'competing', but someone is doing
overhead squats with 60 kilos and someone else is doing it was a plastic bar.
Someone's doing strict pull ups, others are using giant elastic bands. Cross
fit has scaling built in. At the three boxes I've been a member of, coaches
ask yo to take off weight when your form breaks down.

------
paltman
LOL at people talking about CF being dangerous.

~~~
austinjp
Any weights routine is more hazardous than doing nothing, in the short term
(not the long term). CrossFit is no exception.

~~~
paltman
Thanks for the laugh! :)

"Hazardous". Haha.

~~~
austinjp
It is truly bizarre that you are blind to well-documented hazards.

[https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_vis=1&q=weightliftin...](https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_vis=1&q=weightlifting+injuries&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5)

~~~
paltman
You can be injured doing any activity, especially activities incorrectly. You
can also die prematurely from inactivity.

I've been doing CrossFit for 2 years and feel better than I have in decades. I
do have a background in weightlifting (college football). However, my wife
does CrossFit as well and prior to starting she never touched weights. Again,
she feels better than ever. But then again she isn't being stupid about doing
movements she is uncomfortable with and isn't loading until she has got the
technique down. Furthermore, there are 70+ year olds in our classes, some of
them first timers as well. They are obviously not snatching their body weight
but scale the exercises appropriate to them.

I guess this just goes along with a general societal trend to eschew personal
responsibility and blame externalities.

~~~
austinjp
> You can be injured doing any activity

I completely agree. Your comment seems to support my assertion that there are
"well-documented hazards" which I took the time to cursorily reference. And
yet you replied with "Thanks for the laugh! :) 'Hazardous'. Haha."

Your comments don't seem logically consistent. (Plus there's more than a touch
of ad hominem attack in there, which isn't necessary.)

You follow this with bandwaggoning and appealing to anecdote: "I do X, I know
someone who does X" etc etc.

> "general societal trend to eschew personal responsibility"

I just have absolutely no idea how you arrive at this.

For the record: I lift weights. I highly recommend it. It mitigates the risk
of certain diseases. It increases the risk of certain injuries.

I really have no idea why you'd debate this.

