Some Thoughts on CrossFit
Crossfit is an incredibly popular training system at the moment for a variety of reasons one of which being that the workouts are extremely challenging and demanding. A study recently published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research set out to evaluate the fitness adaptations that take place during a 10 week Crossfit training program (Smith MM, et al. Crossfit-based high intensity power training improves maximal aerobic fitness and body composition. J Strength Cond Res 2013. Published ahead of print.).
Subjects
The study began with 54 healthy participants of varying fitness levels; however, only 43 completed the study (23 males/20 females) and were able to return for the post training re-test (more on that later).
Methods
The subjects body composition and Vo2max were tested at the start and end of the study to evaluate for changes.
Following the initial testing the subjects performed a 10 week, periodized, CrossFit training program at a CrossFit affiliate gym. The program utilized basic gymnastic activities (handstands, ring work, etc) and multi-joint exercises such as the squat, press, deadlift, and Olympic lift variations. The training program had some variation to it, adding an element of periodization, where some exercises were performed as a time trial (best time) and others were performed in an as many reps as possible style for a prescribed time domain (E.g., 10 or 20min).
Results
The subjects who completed the entire 10 weeks (43 of them) all experienced significant improvements in both VO2max and body composition changes (decreases in body fat percentage) leading the researchers to conclude, “Our data shows that high intensity power training (which is what they refer to CrossFit as in this study) significantly improves Vo2max and body composition in subjects of both genders across all levels of fitness.”
My Comments (The Nitty Gritty)
First I’ll begin by making some obvious statements which, may not be so obvious given that marketing and hoopla tend to cloud rational thinking:
1. CrossFit is not that novel. Circuit training and calisthenics have been around for hundreds of years. Training over a broad range of mixed time and modal domains is certainly not a new thing.
2. What CrossFit did do is create and environment and a culture that made that stuff cool and exciting for people, “Hey, it really sucks to suffer when I work out hard but if I suffer with a group of my friends it really isn’t that bad!” In that regard, I think CrossFit has done a great job motivating a lot of people to get off their butts and exercise. This is a good thing.
3. High intensity interval training or really hard aerobic power type activities, which make up the brunt of the energy system demands during a CrossFit workout, have been shown to improve things like VO2max and Body Composition so do these results really come as a surprise? This stuff has been looked at in hundreds of studies by now.
Now to the not so obvious stuff – the devil is in the details
While the fitness and body composition results seen in this study are certainly impressive, as they are in many studies on high resistance interval training (as I alluded to in point number three above) the most concerning thing about this study and the biggest thing that concerns me with CrossFit is that of the 54 original subjects only 43 were able to complete the study. Nine of the subjects dropped out citing overuse or injury (two of the 11 dropouts cited time restriction as a problem in completing the study).
This sort of dropout rate is a bit hard for me to handle and I believe it has to do with the type of activities chosen from CrossFit workouts, the intensity with which those activities are performed, and the frequency of high intensity workouts within the training week (IE, poor sequencing of training intensities over the week). We don’t see this sort of dropout rate in traditional High Intensity Interval Training studies (usually performed on a bike, treadmill, or rower) and yet we similar exercise benefits. This sort of stuff makes me question the utilization of CrossFit as a training system because the risk seems to outweigh the reward.
My Take Away Conclusions
1. Hard workouts are great. Hard workouts are fun. Pushing yourself is awesome. But, you need to do so with safe exercise selection and have a training program that takes into account your abilities to adapt. This means you need to look at the training week and sequence things properly to ensure that you aren’t killing yourself in the gym everyday and training yourself into a rut. A training program should make you a healthier person, not crush you and deteriorate your body.
2. Olympic lifting exercises should not be used as exercises to be performed “as many reps as possible”. They are highly technical exercises and the athlete should have adequate rest before performing their set.
3. Things like deadlifts and exercises that place the spine in a compromised position as fatigue sets in should not be performed for “as many reps as possible”. This is just asking for trouble.
4. Qualify people to do certain exercises. Sure, gymnastics skills are great and can be a fun addition to a workout; however, not everyone is immediately qualified to perform these activities – just like not everyone is immediately ready to squat, deadlift, or olympic lift. Make sure you have some sort of way to qualify individuals to perform these exercises. This goes beyond skill and technique and should first include ensuring that they have the requisite joint ranges of motion and stability to handle the exercises. Once they are qualified then spend time on technique. Once technique is solid then condition. Do not just throw people to the wolves.
5. Structure your training in phases so that you don’t go high intensity all the time and run the risk of breaking down. The body can only tolerate so much high intensity or maximal effort work. All high intensity interval training programs should have phases where that intense stimulus is removed or minimized to allow the body to not only recover but to also work on developing the aerobic system, which can be helpful in moving the lactate threshold further to the right and allowing the individual to tolerate greater amounts of high intensity work once you get back into that phase of training.
Patrick
patrick@optimumsportsperformance.com
26 comments
Hello…I noticed the drop in participants and thought of injuries right away, or maybe some didn’t like it…I believe the former over the latter in this case since they’ll (most coaches from what I have seen/heard of) throw a middle age woman who sits at a desk all day before coming in the gym and into a workout doing 75 snatches for time…like you said, people are moving and that’s a positive…great post Patrick!
The paleo diet would be a confounding variable as well. Did changes in body composition occur due to the training or due to the restricted carbohydrate intake? Look at all of Tim Ferriss’ fans who posted pictures of their four-hour body transformations without enduring Crossfit exercise programs just by changing their diets.
Obviously the diet would not explain the Vo2 max improvements, but since many crossfitters are more concerned with body changes than with vo2max, maybe they can get the same benefits simply by changing to a paleo diet and not risking the high-injury rates of the actual workouts. Without a control group, one cannot conclude that the body transformation occurred because of the workouts, and not because of the diet.
Hey Patrick,
Agree with you 110%. I would add another specific thing “not to do,” and this was part of the programming at last years CF Games Open. That is do not do box jumps for max reps. I am not sure how many people tore achilles tendons last year during the competition, but in the year prior, there was 30+ cases. Dumb!
FYI, my shoulder is 100% now. Life is good.
We ( at The Elliott Sports Medicine Clinic) treat many people that injure themselves during crossfit workouts. For some reason these people are most often unfit to start yet think they can do these “cool workouts”. Its up to the instructors to choose appropriate exercises and their progressions so that these people don’t get injured, but many do not screen properly.
I need to express a long winded opinion on crossfit: I am 40 yrs old and have worked out off and on since i was 20. I have strength trained, body built, and did six months of military calisthenics. Let me start by saying that through all of it I have never been in a group of such motivated individuals willing to compete and push themselves not only in crossfit competitions but other competitions as a group. since I started crossfit one year ago I have personally competed 3 times, one of which was the spartan race right along side my crossfit friends and trainer Nicholas Tefs. In 20 years of different kinds of athletics…it took the crossfit family experience to open up these experiences. And to ice the cake that 3 events I got to suffer through with my wife Kristy Bracken. How rad is that!! Ok now that that is over: Yes people can and will get injuries from crossfit. That is what happens when you beat your ass! you get hurt! yes if you participate in a sport (which crossfit is)..DON’T HATE..you will push your tendons and joints to the breaking point. Yes we do high rep movements which may or may not make us crawl around like worms when we are 70 years old. Yes we might complain that we have to take time off to heal. BUT. In the end: most of us have changed a lot of bad eating habits, have gained un measurable amounts of personal records, competed in competitions among TOP athletes, and most of all participated in a sweeping sport dominated by some fit ass people and shown haters what women are capable of and shown the world what a team of dedicated people can do to elevate themselves. In any sport you will get injured. But in no other sport will you see the changes in physical being than in this sport. Your either dedicated to suffering and gaining…or you sit back and hate. — with Leah Marie Noack and 6 others.
I think also of note is that this was a clinically supervised and according to the abstract “periodized” program, which still led to high injury rate, over a short period of time. While it is conjecture, I would think that when thrown into a typical gym, without the progression and clinical supervision, the injury rate may increase.
What he said. I deal w treating all these people after they break down. They don’t want to hear that the workout they’ve fallen in love w feeds faulty mechanics and breaks down the body quicker than any other program. Olympic lifts should absolutely not be performed in the manner this program makes its athletes do them. If I were smarter I’d set up shop next to one of these gyms.
Crossfit makes me wish I went through with applying to PT school. I still might.
Until then, I’ll gladly keep welcoming those who have seen the light.
Thank you! Great comeback to the cf study. Sure it’s fun doing hard circuit training. But the amount of injuries from doing it day in day out , possibly with poor form, really show up here.
Thanks Patrick! Well written and addresses all the points I try to emphasize with my clients and patients.
Mace – love it. Totally agree. There’s nothing like it (Crossfit).
If fitness is a sport than that sport must have an off season preseason and in season. We all know what happens to athletes who push the limit and compete all year around!
Really well put, Patrick. I agree that a 16% drop out rate in a 10 week period is wholly unacceptable to any respectable professional trainer. When I was still doing personal training, I loved to give my clients who were READY FOR IT high intensity interval training, but that phase of training was 4-6 weeks, just like any phase in a properly periodized training program. To constantly do high intensity is definitely asking for injury. Like Jeremy Frisch said, all sports have off seasons for a reason.
Good stuff, I agree with most of what’s written here and I think Crossfit HQ should do a better job of quality control. Furthermore, I think some of the pro-Crossfit comments above reveal the flaws of the Crossfit culture; a training system shouldn’t be accepting of mass-injuries. As Jeremy pointed out, if Crossfit is a sport then there should be an off season; I own an affiliate and I do my best to preach the deference between training and competing. With that said I think Crossfit has done far more good than bad and it will continue to grow (for the better) over time. Quick question Patrick, were there multiple Crossfit gyms involved in this study? If so how many? Also, although it might be out of the scope of this particular study I’d be curious to see more in-depth information such as the most common injuries reported by the people in the study; how many people continued the program for +6months/+1 year ; as well as the general thoughts and opinions of the participants on their experience with Crossfit. This is a decent study on the system but ultimately it tells us what most people already know; that being that Crossfit is effective yet flawed and potentially dangerous if applied incorrectly. I’d be more interested to see a study like this applied to many different Crossfit gyms from all over the country. Then the public could get a better view of what they are getting themselves into.
Justin,
Thanks for the response. Sounds like you run a responsible affiliate and are doing a good job. I think that CrossFit has done some good (and my article was not written in any sort of inflammatory way towards the system) and I agree with you that as it grows there should be improved education to those doing the coaching.
I believe it was just one single CrossFit gym taking part in the study and, since the study was from Ohio State University, my guess would be it was something around the Columbus, OH area. They didn’t mention what the common injuries were but I too would be interested. I think that would be good info to see as well as how many folks continued the program after the 10 week intervention.
Keep up the good work and thanks for commenting.
patrick
Thank you. This is an excellent commentary – I will be bringing this to the attention of my college students…..stressing that programs such as CrossFit aren’t “bad” – but they should be approached with common sense and the ability to say “no, I probably shouldn’t do that.”
There are some crossfit gyms popping up, in this area, with owners/programmers that have excellent certs and credentials like CSCS with BS in exercise science. They are applying exactly what you say is missing. Combining that with the current crossfit model is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the training industry. Maybe people would be better off trying to figure out why millions of people ARE going to crossfit. Personally, I think it’s providing the balance for certain personality types… The unanswered “fight or flight” response that occurs with today’s stress can be “burned off” where otherwise it destroys the body. I think it’s something on the primal level that draws people there.
That being said, nothing beats personalized fitness although it can be boring training by yourself.
Great great job writing this article, well done! Sharing.
this is a top article.
Great post Patrick. Some really valid points. As you mentioned, you cannot overlook the addition of the Paleo diet for all of these participants, that throws a wrench into the works and if you read the study, the authors conclude that these results cannot be definitively attributed to the training alone.
I also think that this is a poor study because of the negligent statistical analysis. When you lose body weight (even fat mass), your relative VO2max increases, it is simply a matter of mathematics. It says nothing about their aerobic capacity improving. They should have looked at absolute relative VO2max in relation to their fat free mass (ml/kg ffm/min). When they looked at absolute VO2max, they only found a significant improvement in some groups. This leads me to conlcude that very little of the improvements in aerobic capacity are actually due to the training.
Also, this study took participants from a local crossfit affiliate and there was no controlling for training history (people who have trained for years will respond differently than those who started crossfit a month ago).
All in all, this is the type of research that perpetuates false claims by crossfit proponents. When I see a good crossfit research article that stands scrutiny, I will begin to take it seriously but I have not found one yet. This does not surprise me coming from the JSCR.
Crossfit “works” if your fitness goals are to complete a crossfit workout with a better time than you have previously. The Paleo diet also “works” in the sense that you will lose bodyfat and look better. I actually think everyone would benefit both athletically and health-wise from taking at least a modified Paleo approach to their diet (less processed carbs and more healthy fats and protein). However, if you want to move and feel better (and I would argue look better and last longer) then crossfit does not “work.”
patrick, thx for taking the time to chat about this, although a novel study, its impt
some thoughts:
- any program can suck, it depends on the person getting it and the person giving it, there are numerous injuries in start up PT shops, local YMCA step up programs and of course even the dreaded “aggressive Annie” new massage therapist (i just made her up b/c of the cute alliteration, but you get my idea)…from what I have seen, like in the S and C profession over the past 20 years the consumer will get educated over time and it will all balance out, the same thing happened with swiss balls and peeps doing classes on them with weights and standing on them with BB’s, etc…
- the unfortunate thing about CF and its one size funnel approach is that I’ve been seeing “somewhat” resilient people take years to develop the issues structurally…now lets take a closer look at this concern, as in IM or multi sport, you play for a little and the 30 min extra in running you do in week 2 gives you a signal, you ignore it and blow up or you say, “ok, that is enough”…b/c of the variation within the Rx for CF for most, the shoulder capsule and anterior hip capsule take time, build up this adhesive amounts that change posture to accommodate then 2.5 years later its a major issue that is unresolved…
(now I’m in a position where of course I have given the dose and received it as well as coach thousands of CF folks directly and indirectly, so its not a “CF is hurting people” is where this is coming from, its a “this is what i have seen in comparison to weights alone vs circuits at intensity”)
- i’m not a fan of the fact of where the study is going, doing VO2 max and BF% for the study…c’mon man…so i see this is a ploy to get after the injury rate hidden in there, or the peeps doing it only wanted some basic info on the system of CF and what it “might do” and truly not know much….if they did, with their peers they could review and see that it does not take much to improve VO2 max and BF% with these folks, spin classes, dance classes – Zumba, IMC training, etc…have all shown to do the same and better in some cases
- paleo, oh my…i still do not know what this means when researchers report this?…maybe i have to look deeper into the study, but was it food reports?…cause if it is, i can tell you honestly from the coaches we work with and feedback we get on teaching nutrition to these gyms that approximately 20-30% of people actually follow a paleo diet (i.e. 2/3 meals per day are paleo, then the beers on Friday night, the 2 cheat nights and the Sunday football cheezies are not)…so the education on what this exactly is makes it worse to look at also knowing food recall is false 50% of the time (sidenote, just go and ask most who say they are paleo what it means, you’ll get multiple answers without the basic knowledge of macros, the why, etc…)..i could go on
- lastly, i am too in the boat of CF being positive for igniting convo on exercise, making people move with intensity and at least thinking about eating right…and it is done REAL WELL in some gyms and cases; and of course in other cases its not, thats the way it is…but if we dont discuss it or do something about it, we’re just as bad as the next complainer (without even trying what touch and go DL’s feel like…which by the way is not what sends most people to the physio or chiro – its when the movement is mixed with other hip speed movements, like DL/box jump combos, or DL/sprint combos or DL/sit up combos; ironically the higher speed oly lifts are not what get people the most, as the abs strength of most is not there to support aggressive action in the force of the oly lift, so the load is lessened and so is intensity where after higher reps, it just turns into singles of poor movement without load)
“A training program should make you a healthier person, not crush you and deteriorate your body.” -Wholeheartedly agree. As with anything, there are those who dont know wtf theyre doing but want to cash in.
“They are highly technical exercises and the athlete should have adequate rest before performing their set.” -You need to start talking to more Olympic coaches…
“This is just asking for trouble.” -Are you just a hater or have you done any real world research (ie been to good CF gyms)?
All of # “4.” Have you done ANY research or investigating at all? ….besides hand picking the bad gyms as the “standard.”
“Structure your training in phases so that you don’t go high intensity all the time…” -Seriously. Did you only READ about CF in some blog or forum or magazine and make a decision?
I agree with a lot of what you said, like, “CrossFit is not that novel. Circuit training and calisthenics have been around for hundreds of years. Training over a broad range of mixed time and modal domains is certainly not a new thing.” However, I believe there is too much resistance from the Old Guard about CrossFit, “conventional wisdom” and all that. Are there shitty CF gyms? Absolutely. Are there fantastic ones? Unquestionably.
What Glassman did was slap a name and trademark on S&C and circuit training and let it run. Good for him. Is it trendy? Fuck, yes. Is that annoying? Dont get me started. Most ‘old school’ gym rat types seem stand-offish because someone put a name on it and made it the new shiny toy that overshadows theirs. Dont be like way too many CrossFitters Ive seen and bash what they do because its not what you do. That just muddies the waters and makes you look jealous and trite.
Timmmy,
I am not bashing Crossfit. In fact, my review of the paper was rather tame and I think pretty middle of the road. All I did was give some of my own ideas on where I thought people could train in this manner in a way that yields less risk and similar reward. I do have friends that work at Crossfit gyms or own Crossfit gyms that do an amazing job and when we sit down to talk training theory we agree on most things – they have good training principles. This doesn’t seem to be the norm, however. When you do a youtube search and see most of the stuff out there representing Crossfit it is pretty disappointing. It isn’t like there are people who are “out to get Crossfit” or “jealous” taking these videos and publishing them on a public forum, rather, these are videos being posted by those that own/work at Crossfit affiliates publishing the videos in an effort to say, “look what we do”!! This is sad and unfortunate because it misrepresents those that are trying to do things the correct way and using good training principles to guide their programs and progressions. Perhaps you should direct your comments at Crossfit HQ, who doesn’t seem to be doing a good job at educating their coaches (which has no barrier of entry mind you) and you can’t learn to be a coach in a 2-day weekend certification.
patrick
One key point in all this, was that even with *qualified* (as in ACE, ACSM, etc) supervision (doesn’t sound like a typical Crossfit gym to me) they still had a 17% injury rate, which actually sounds low for a Crossfit gym. Chacun a son gout. Crossfit, the physical therapists and orthopedic surgeons of America thank you for picking up where the marathon craze left off.
This article was fairly tame in comparison to many of the articles I’ve read that criticize CrossFit. However, the common thread between every single article I’ve read, including this one, is that the author seems to lump all CrossFit gyms into one category, as if they’re all created equal.
I will agree that there are boxes out there that are run by unqualified people. I agree with Patrick that a level 1 cert is insufficient to open a box with. I agree that much of the programming I see is based on the “beat your ass for 35 minutes” mentality.
But having been a trainer for 12 years prior to affiliating with CrossFit, certified through NASM (4 separate certs), ACSM, ACE, ISSA, etc., and now holding multiple CrossFit certs, to include coaching on their Olympic lifting cert staff, I would be remiss if I didn’t address a few of the generalities made in this article in order to shed a negative light on CF.
First, let me correct your perception of our community. It is more than just common suffering. We are a family in every sense of the word. When one of our coaches’ moms died of melanoma earlier this year, the box donated money to the charity she had chosen, they watched her children, they made food for her family. Another coach lost her 14 year old stepdaughter to cerebral palsy. Our members filled half of the chapel and were standing packed in the back at her funeral. We care about each other outside of the gym.
Second, you make points about injury that could be applied to any “training facility,” with trainers certified through any governing body. Before we opened our own facility, which eventually became a CF, we trained at a small private place where I saw some of THE Craziest stuff ever….a trainer making his 14 year old girls run fifty 100m sprints (ever heard of minimal effective dose?), a client standing on a stability ball doing shoulder presses with 50# db (um, there’s a recipe for injury if I ever saw one), and clients doing one mile of lunges (pretty sure there patellar tendons were fired up after the first 50 or so). My point is, there are ignorant and stupid people in every genre of “training.” That phenomenon isn’t exclusive to CF, yet everyone wants to write about how “we” overtrain and are slaves to high-rep movement. And as was pointed out in an earlier post, you can’t learn to be a coach in a 2 day weekend cert…no matter what the cert is. NASM, ACSM, ACE, AFAA hold weekend certs as well, by the way. ISSA lets you take your cert online, so realistically you could have cousin Bob take it for you and you can train with zero knowledge. 2 days isn’t enough for anyone, but it’s a starting point.
Even with a host of knowledge, there has to be some consideration made to the human element. We conduct movement screens in On Ramp, give specific prescriptions/homework to people based on their mobility limitations and movement patterns, and regularly post/host mobility resources. At the end of the day, since this is GROUP training, whether the person chooses to do their mobility or not is up to them. The people who take advantage of my knowledge regarding prehab and recovery generally don’t get hurt. The people who spend their prehab and recovery time chatting, only to run out the door without being properly cooled down, usually are the ones who suffer. They are adults. They’ve been warned about the consequences of not taking care of their bodies. The oneus is on them if they choose wrong.
Finally, anyone with any inkling of statistical knowledge knows that the population of the study plays a big role in the validity of the data. Choosing one gym to sample from hardly makes this study a good one. Come to my box and sample the population there. Of the people who DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD, including their mobility homework, SMR, cooldown, stretching, etc., see how many suffer overuse injury.
As I said, not the most abrasive article I’ve seen on CF, but still falls into the trap of applying broad-brush statements and limited data to your conclusions.
Why would a JSCR caliber publication not include the very measurement that CrossFit training promotes…power!
Leave a Comment