Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 55 total)
  • Anyone on here do Crossfit.
  • twinw4ll
    Free Member

    Have been hitting the gym for 8 months now, still loving it and making gains, but spotted Crossfit on Youtube and it looks more exciting than just pumping iron.
    It does look like a young un’s game though, will it end in tears?
    The other downside is it’s bloody expensive.
    Any thoughts good or bad happily received.

    mattbee
    Full Member

    Circuit training & brainwashing = cross fit.

    toby1
    Full Member

    Do you have a lot of friends you can tell all about it in social media each day, if so it may be for you!

    In honesty, I’ve never tried it, but a friend moved to NZ and got into it and he’s certainly not in bad shape because of it. It does seem a lot like a religion though.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    It’s not so bad. Nothing groundbreaking, it’s just competitive circuit training with some oly lifts thrown in. Can be good fun, and can be downright dangerous due to the lack of weightlifting experiences some coaches have. I believe that the CF olympic lifting cert is 2 days which is dreadful.
    I think I was viewed as “difficult” due to the fact I refused to do some of the dumber shit encouraged by CF. Kipping (anything), KB swings overhead, oly lifts for time etc.

    sofatester
    Free Member

    Crossfit – How to perform good lifts badly

    footflaps
    Full Member

    I train in a CF gym. CrossFit is an interesting franchise scheme, created by a Libertarian, so there is virtually no quality control as he believes that the good boxes will succeed and the bad ones fail and that the market will provide quality control.

    If your local box has good coaches then it will be really good.

    Interesting interview with Greg Glassman (CF founder) here: http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/2V3s2ipVtqaIhDBTZ9TVxmx7ZvSz6RuW/king-of-crossfit/

    Kipping (anything)

    There’s nothing wrong with Kipping if you realise that it’s a gymnastic move and not a substitute for a strength exercise. Eg a kipping bar muscle-up is a really elegant and impressive skill and not a substitute / alternative to a pullup etc.

    badnewz
    Free Member

    What are you currently doing at the gym? Lifting on your own?
    I do standard circuit training/interval training in a gym as part of a group these days. It’s a lot slower than cross-fit but works for me.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    created by a Libertarian,

    😆
    Oh really? Glassman and Castro behave nothing like libertarians!
    See their corporate behaviour towards the likes of Rob Wolf, Greg Everett, Mark Rippetoe and the crossfit kids guys. All respected experts who have been treated dreadfully by CF.

    they refuse to be an incorporated franchise as they don;t want liability if someone ****s up.

    It can be fun, but the organisation is rotten to the core.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Oh really? Glassman and Castro behave nothing like libertarians!

    I’m not a fan of Glassman or CF really, I just use a Box to train on my own.

    However, the requirements to become a box are really really lax, you need one PT with the L1 course (£1k outlay and 2 days, which you can’t really fail). Then you only pay the license fee (£2k per annum) and that’s it! You can run the gym as well or badly as you like and be a Crossfit affiliated box. No other franchise / brand is that lax about quality control.

    If you were a traditional gym eg Virgin Active, DW Fitness etc you’d have minimum kit levels, kit types, changing room specs, towel specs, uniforms etc. It’s a real breath of fresh air in the fitness industry and (so far) very, very successful.

    Edit: having said I’m not a fan, I have watched a lot of classes in my local box and as such I would recommend it to anyone as the standard of instruction is very high, but that’s an endorsement of one box rather than the brand.

    mark88
    Full Member

    For people who have never played a team sport or struggle to push themselves when training alone I can see the attraction, but for the most part I think it’s a load of over-hyped, expensive rubbish.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    It’s more expensive than a traditional gym because they have a much higher attendance rate per member. A standard gym (DW, LA, Virgin) will have several thousand members of whom only a very small percentage attend every week. A CF box will have typically 80-200 members of whom 95% attend once a week or more.

    The VFM is probably higher with CF as your access to kit / coaching is much better.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    Over hyped maybe, but it’s not expensive; about £5/session around here. For an instructed class, it’s actually very reasonable.

    I would recommend that anyone looks around for any “functional” gyms nearby. They are popping up and the ones I’ve been to have proper UKSCA coaches with far more emphasis on form and far less macho bullshit.

    centralscrutinizer
    Free Member

    Whatever your fitness goals are, there’s a better way to achieve them than crossfit.

    willard
    Full Member

    All good comments.

    I’ll say up front that I do Crossfit and enjoy it, but again that could be due to the box than the actual movements. There are some things that annoy me about it, but overall I prefer training there than at the local normal gym. Classes are smaller, there is a far lower student to instructor ratio and no fighting over equipment.

    Costs? It’s more expensive than the local gym, but not by much and I go four+ times a week, something I never did at the other place. I get more access to weights, get to train outside classes if I want and get to socialise outside classes too, something that the other gym never really did. People just went in, used the equipment in silence for an hour, then went home.

    Anyway, I enjoy it.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    get to train outside classes if I want and get to socialise outside classes too, something that the other gym never really did. People just went in, used the equipment in silence for an hour, then went home.

    That’s one big reason for it’s sticking power, by having a smaller membership but with much more active members, it creates a community which you just don’t get in larger gyms.

    It’s success seems to be a combination of three things:

    1. They’ve found a formula for competitive training, which seems to motivate people to push themselves
    2. They’ve got a good scheme for accessibility via scaling, I’ve been in a CF Box in the US which had a class with both clinically obese people and steroid monsters, who all did the same class (via scaling) and it worked surprisingly well.
    3. They foster a community spirit by having a smaller number of higher attending members

    The number of boxes opening and expanding show that it works commercially. My local box has doubled to a 7000 sqft unit in under two years and there are 3 more in and around Cambridge.

    willard
    Full Member

    Indeed. Another one opened up a couple of months ago in Over. Bloke that runs it is a really good lad.

    mark88
    Full Member

    Over hyped maybe, but it’s not expensive; about £5/session around here. For an instructed class, it’s actually very reasonable.

    £185 for an unlimited monthly membership at the one near my house, I stand by my expensive comment.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    £185 for an unlimited monthly membership at the one near my house, I stand by my expensive comment.

    Central London?

    I pay £77/month for unlimited access to the gym (but 2 classes per week), which I though was steep enough! I train for 1.5 hours 5-6 times a week.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    £185 for an unlimited monthly membership at the one near my house

    😯 😯 😯
    Hooooley sheeeeeettt. Here the prices range from £55 to £80 (all unlimited).

    badnewz
    Free Member

    I pay £59 a month for two interval classes a week.
    The group size averages around 6.

    mark88
    Full Member

    Central London?

    Wimbledon area. There’s a ‘performance’ gym 5 mins walk away with high level equipment, indoor track etc and unlimited classes which is 1/3 of the price.

    Crossfit have certainly built a strong brand which they are milking for all it’s worth!

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Crossfit have certainly built a strong brand which they are milking for all it’s worth!

    Or at least that franchise is, there is no control over fees from the mother ship and the franchise fee is a flat $3k per annum no matter what size the box is.

    Judging by house prices in Wimbledon, I suspect the rental on a unit is pretty steep!

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    Thanks for the input, i currently pay £28 a month so crossfit would compliment my existing training, costs are a one off £40 induction + £10 per session.
    I do a fair bit of body weight based stuff with very short rest periods so crossfit just seemed a move in the right direction, got to say i’m not a fan of the kipping pull up though, wouldn’t want to destroy my shoulders at my age.
    Perhaps interval training may also be worth a try, that would be included in the £28 i currently pay.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Pick the classes you want, it will vary completely by box as they’re all locally set. My box has a good variety all suitable titled eg Strong man (Power lifting), Bar Bell Warriors (Olympic Lifts), Gymnastics, traditional cicuits, etc.

    jools182
    Free Member

    If you do crossfit you have to tell everyone at every opportunity that you do crossfit

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    jools, the kind of people in my circle would only look at me blankly if i mentioned Crossfit, no-one i know cares or is impressed i can do 40 straight pull ups.

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    Somewhere on the net there’s a well reasoned article on crossfit’s limitations by Mark Rippetoe.

    https://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly

    IMO. It looks like a fad, walks like a fad, and quacks like a fad. So to speak.

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    I always remember to rehydrate with a herbalife energy tea after my crossfit sessions.

    sofatester
    Free Member

    This eloquent American gentleman sums it up quite well:

    [video]https://youtu.be/qnjYyfkcaNI[/video]

    Probably not safe for work.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    It looks like a fad, walks like a fad, and quacks like a fad.

    Much mocked, but very successful and I’d wager it’s here to stay.

    As with any gym, it’s only as good as the instructors, some are bad, some are excellent and most are somewhere in the middle.

    thekingisdead
    Free Member

    A cross-fitter and an Ironman walk into a bar; how do you know which is which!?

    They’ll tell you.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    As with any gym, it’s only as good as the instructors, some are bad, some are excellent and most are somewhere in the middle.

    That sounds like really bad model for a franchise. Surely the one thing you want from a franchise is some consistency and hopefully an assurance of quality.

    I always remember to rehydrate with a herbalife energy tea after my crossfit sessions.

    i did some contract work in a herbalife office once, the whole place was plastered in company slogans and everyone appeared to buy in to the company message. I got out of there at the first opportunity.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    no-one i know cares or is impressed i can do 40 straight pull ups.

    A better demo of what is wrong with CF could not be found. Great work!

    tron
    Free Member

    By god, if anyone on this place was doing crossfit you would know all about it.

    As others have said, there’s a lot of emphasis on doing / lifting lots and very little emphasis on form.

    I have a mate who does crossfit, he basically lifts anything like he’s got very comprehensive insurance shares in the local physio…

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    I always remember to rehydrate with a herbalife energy tea after my crossfit sessions.
    i did some contract work in a herbalife office once, the whole place was plastered in company slogans and everyone appeared to buy in to the company message. I got out of there at the first opportunity.

    Wasn’t in Edinburgh by anychance?

    My cousin and her husband are well hooked to the point of giving me the hard sell at my grandfathers 100th birthday!

    footflaps
    Full Member

    That sounds like really bad model for a franchise. Surely the one thing you want from a franchise is some consistency and hopefully an assurance of quality.

    Intersting point.

    If you look at the competition, mainstream gyms, they offer even less than CF. Virtually no instruction bar maybe a 30 minute orientation, weight machines which do virtually nothing for you, massively over subscribed classes, etc. Their whole business model is based on people not turning up very often and hence massively over subscribing their ineffective equipment.

    So, whilst CF isn’t perfect, it’s probably a notch up to start with.

    Yes, there are terrible CF instructors out there, but there are also terrible electricians, plumbers, builders and you don’t write off all builders or decide never to refit your kitchen just because some trade people are bad.

    simmy
    Free Member

    I’ve never heard of Crossfit so I will have a look but firstly, if we are comparing prices, I’ve started going to a Gym that only does classes.

    They are a couple of cardio sessions and a muscle one, 5 classes a day spread out over different aspects.

    £49.99 per month, go to as many classes as you can handle and a one hour personal training session is included in that price. Diet plans etc and discounts at the health food shop are also included.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    Yes, there are terrible CF instructors out there, but there are also terrible electricians, plumbers, builders and you don’t write off all builders or decide never to refit your kitchen just because some trade people are bad.

    True but if they were part of a franchise I’d expect the same level of service/advice/professionalism from them wherever i was in the country.

    To liken it to one of the more obvious franchises. Some independent places that sell burgers are nice some are horrible but if I bought a McDonalds burger in Plymouth I know it would be the same as one I’d buy in Glasgow or York. So that’s what I’d expect from a franchised model.

    I think your other points are entirely valid, gyms are a hit and miss affair entirely dependent on the character, ability and enthusiasm of individual staff. If you’re lucky you’ll find someone thats brilliant but in my experience for every one of them there are ten that are less than ideal.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    True but if they were part of a franchise I’d expect the same level of service/advice/professionalism from them wherever i was in the country.

    You can see it two ways, each Box has a character which is unique to the owner a bit like each Pub is different even though they may sell beer from the same brewery. The whole CF ethos is not to have identikit gyms although they are very much alike in style (I’ve been to Boxes in the UK, Poland and USA now and they all have a similar warehouse look to them).

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    Are we allowed to called them gyms, with a small ‘g’? Or would STW get sued and shut down?

    if we are comparing prices, I’ve started going to a Gym that only does classes.

    I go to a gym that charges £17 a month and that includes classes.

    By comparison, Crossfit is reassuringly expensive.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 55 total)

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