I kept meaning to write about the results of doing crossfit at the end of last year. It’s been forever now, so it hardly seems worth talking about it, but I’m doing it anyway.
There was a special offer at a nearby gym for 6 weeks of crossfit. I’ve always been terrified of it because the likelihood of injury seemed to be really high. Plus I’m an extreme introvert who is not competitive, so the whole ‘group training’ and ‘rah rah’ and ‘aiming to beat each other’ had me making THAT face (you know, THAT face: the lip-curled eww-face).
Anyway, I did it. Two weeks of intro and technique training, then three times a week for another four weeks. I was lucky: the crossfit version that the gym did was a very laid back ‘Australian’ kind of thing. Still in groups, but no competition and no cheering each other on (thank goodness). I still hated it. I hated going there, I hated the group thing, I hated being nice to people, I hated having to interact, I hated the high intensity of it, I hated the *really hard* work.
But I cannot deny that it got me results.
I didn’t log the crossfit exercises in Jefit, but I DID log my normal workouts up to the point where I started crossfit, and then saw the results when I went back to the gym after the 6 week program.
These graphs show the weights I was lifting before I started crossfit, there is a flat period where I wasn’t logging individual exercises while I was doing crossfit, then at the end of the 6 weeks, I went back to the gym and started logging again.
The results are really clear: I had significant strength gains after 6 weeks. I also think that I felt more confident to push myself harder after the high intensity work that crossfit introduced for me, so that helped also.
Am I doing more of it? Aw hell no.
I loved the results, but I HATED pretty much everything about it, plus it’s about four times the cost of a normal gym membership. So yeah, nup.
7 comments
This confirms my general idea about crossfit: it looks super effective but I’d hate every aspect of it.
I just need a super cheap gym where I can go lift weights with like two other people who also don’t want to interact with anyone else and then I’ll be set.
Exactly! I expected I would hate it, but I was really bored with what I was doing, so figured I should step out of my comfort zone (waaaayyy out!) and give my body a kick up the arse.
I’m lucky at my gym: I tend to go mid morning, and if there are more than a couple of people there, I’m all ‘wow, it’s so busy!’ :).
Ferns
LOL, I can so relate to your dislike of competition etc.
I have recently been reading a number of articles and some research talking about the benefits of intensity for general fitness. The general concept is that even very short time periods of uncomfortably high intensity has very high value. An example is here:
http://time.com/3082281/short-bursts-of-exercise-are-better-than-exercising-nonstop/
So it is interesting and makes sense that your results show this uptick.
Good for you for sticking it out and measuring the results! I have integrated this type of short burst intensity into my routine, which is actually pretty easy to do.
Cheers!
*nod* HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is huge right now. It’s kind of amazing to me that they are STILL figuring out what works best (and they can still NEVER agree).
When I did cardio, I did HIIT, and I know I should incorporate higher intensity into my weights program and mix it up, but I am REALLY bad at pushing myself: If I try too hard, my inner brat comes out and tells me to fuck off and if that happens, she won’t get up off the couch. It’s a tricky mental balance.
Ferns
LOL, that inner voice can be a problem, for sure. I can relate, but have no words of wisdom.
Oi, yeah. I mean, I went through some trouble to set up a nice gym in my basement so I wouldn’t have to go to other gyms. I like to do things at my own pace, thank you.
I like the idea of Crossfit, I really do. But I watch those videos and I question the safety of some of those WODs, at least, for people like me who are mostly deskbound. The weekend warriors tend to take a lot of injuries.
I’m a tetchy one: I HAVE to go to the gym to trigger ‘right: workout mode’. Weird.
And yes, the workouts as laid out are brutal, and you need a small group and good instructors to ensure good technique. Though I think the MAIN reason for injury is peer pressure and competition: Crossfit’s main schtick is groupthink, and people WANT to keep up with the group (some of whom are elite athletes), so they over estimate what they can do. It’s a recipe for injury.
Me, I had no problem going ‘Nope, not doing that’ (because I’m old and crotchety), and the instructor was really good with modifying things to reduce stress on my various body parts.
Ferns