What is it and what’s so great about it?
I got a magazine at the recent Can Fit Pro show in Toronto and it looks interesting. Yes I know I can simply Google it and I’m going to do that as well, I just wanted to hear if any of You Guys do it.
I don’t do crossfit, but I am a gym rat and am quite familiar with it, so I can give a general idea of what it is. It is intended to be targetted at doing high-intensity functional training with little rest. Functional training is different from your typical gym exercises in that they’ll either be exercises that recruit a lot of different muscles, like power clearns, or movements that mimic things one might actually do in every day activities or sports, like throwing, climbing, etc.
As for whether or not it is for you, it really depends on what your goals are. For a lot of people, wanting to be in good shape and fairly well rounded in terms of strength, endurance, power, it’s good for you. If you’re training for body building, or power lifting or a specific sport or activity, say running, biking, football, or baseball, it’s not going to be the best method of training.
I think it’s become popular for a few reasons. First, it hits what a lot of your average people who want to get in shape are after. They’re not in there to be body builders, they just don’t want to be in decent shape. Second, it’s often going to be a bit more efficient at achieve those goals. For instance, body building could take hours several times a week, whereas that can be done in less time. Third, it’s going to be more fun for a lot of people. Traditional exercise has a lot of the same or similar movements and some boring cardio for extended periods, where that will have lots of different exercises in quick succession and the routines are often changed up very frequently.