Has anyone heard of CrossFit?

There was a visitor in my gym yesterday with whom I struck up a conversation, and he told me about a way of training called CrossFit. Has anyone else heard of this and looked into it? There are some interesting ways of training on the site, and they have videos of nearly all of their exercises.

Though most of the photos on the site don't really show really developed physiques, this guy was huge (had to have at least 21 in. arms) so I can only surmise that 1) he is a genetic freak and 2) he juices--besides doing this Crossfit routine. I saw him do a few of the exercises from the site so I have to believe him at least a little about him working out this way.

Never heard of it, can you describe what he was doing or post a link?

www.crossfit.com

One of the exercises he did was called Kipping pull-ups. You essentially look like you are cheating on pull-ups using momentum to swing you up and down, doing as many as you can as fast as you can. For people who don't weigh much like the people in the training video, it looks like a normal cheating pull-up, but when the guy did them--holy cow--he must weigh at least 200 or more, and the whole pull-up apparatus was shaking hard from him going up and down so forcefully and quickly. I almost thought he might break it.

quick reply, I haven't been to the website...but any movement done in a quick jerky motion that requires momentum is opening one up for injury

I'll have to pass
according to IART standards everthing should be done in a SLOW controlled fashion-hell on cold winter days I don't even move the wieght...
I work outside so it takes a long time for my body to thaw out
when I work out in the winter a lot of times all I do are static contracitons

I agree with dorian for the most part, but there are some quick explosive motions that are done, like a clean and press, however they should never be done with a jerky or sloppy motion. As far as crossfit, I never heard of the name, but I have heard of these types of workouts. I read a little on the website and it seems that they include a lot of olympic and powerlifting movements with other bodyweight movements as well as running. It looks like it's about making a person fit, not necessarily huge, but fit and strong. Seems like it would work, might be a nice change of pace. I know I had a guy I used to work out with back in Oklahoma have me do one of these workouts once (although I didn't know it was crossfit). We did 20 pullups, 30 pushups, 40 sit-ups, and 50 squats all continuous with a 1:30 minute rest between doing them all over again for a total of 5 sets. Afterward I went to the bathroom to puke. Needless to say I don't look forward to doing that again until I start to cut, but some of the other workouts look very promising for someone looking for a change and to get in great shape.

They do say you can gain significant size if you want it doing crossfit. Some of what they do sounds a lot like exercises you would do for gymnastics, and we all know how big some of those gymnasts can be--and they usually only do bodyweight exercises.

you going to give it a try bud???

sounds interesting, I am going to check the link out when I get home... you going to try any of it Saudades?

I'm going to try a few more of the exercises to see how they go. I've already tried the way they do dips, and I'd swear I've never been more pumped since I combined it with my normal DC training at the end. I think my arms were pumped up literally to about 19.5 inches, judging from what I saw in the mirror last night. Chest was also extremely pumped, which doesn't happen very often. This might very well kick some of my lagging bodyparts into growing.

I have heard of it. Some people that I have worked with did it. It mainly builds strength and endurance from what I understand. It sounded pretty strenous when it was described to me.

I love this site. I am dragging myself out of the weight room after working some of the exercises posted on this site into my routine. Another one of my favorites is Gymjones.com not as many workout examples provided but this is the site created by the facilty responsible for training the actors in 300. The guy has an awesome old school philosophy when it comes to trianing.

i took a longer look at it and it definitely seems worth trying to me

The more I read about it the more intrigued I am by it. I am going to give it a try for 2 months and the re-evalutae and see how things worked. I will keep a log and try to post it after the 2 month period. I think this will work well while I'm waiting for my DC video to come it!!!

Ok, I've been through my 1st two crossfit workouts and I gotta tell you it's ridiculous. From what I can tell the idea is to get in the best total shape possible, by this I mean strongest, fasters, and most flexible. The workouts incorporate a lot of olympic lifts as well as some other things that are far more advanced than I am at this point. Here are my first two workouts and my thoughts on them. Oh, and I skipped my third workout as I had family in town yesterday and spent the night before sleeping on my floor...well I shouldn't say sleeping, cause I didn't do much of that.


Workout #1
3 Rounds of 21, 15, and 9 reps for time of:
Thrusters with 95 lbs on the barbell
To do these you clean the barbell up and then proceed to squat down to the top of a medicine ball, then on the way up you press the barbell over your head.
Pullups

This is the entire first workout. Of course you need at least a 10 minute warmup with cardio and then a cool down period. Coming in to this I felt like the workout was going to be cake cause this isn't much weight at all...but it worked me over good. I missed my second set of both and my third set of pull-ups badly. I think the biggest thing I am going to have to get used to is no rest in between sets. And I have to say I was more sore after this workout than I was the last time I was squatting 365 for reps of 8.

Workout #2
Today was farily simple...run a 10K for time.
I went to the fitness course here in the mountains and ran the hills until I reached 3.2 miles. It was tough, but not to bad. I think the difficulty will come when this workout rolls around again and I have to beat my time.

Workout #3 - missed workout
Find 1 rep max on Squat, Shoulder Press, and Deadlift
Do this just like you are competing in a powerlifting meet. Do a proper warmup and then do a weight you know you can do for at least 3 reps, but do it once. You get three tries on each exercise and you need to record your max lifts on each one.

Workout #4
21, 15, and 9 rep rounds for time of:
95 lb cleans
self-explanatory
L-pullups
these are pullups with your legs straight out in front of you.
95 lb thrusters
same as in first workout
handstand pushups (of if Malic were still here)

I haven't completed this yet, but I will let you all know how it goes today. BUt I gotta say I'm probably not going to be able to walk when it's finished. Happy Sunday and...tear it up guys.

I'm always a skeptic because I've tried all sorts of these types of workouts. I do straight low volume high weight workouts with very little if any rest in between sets so it's almost like a cardio session and weights in one. Please keep us updated on your progress.

Sounds great, Spidey. I found that I was very sore myself after doing it for the first time. I was surprised as well since the exercises don't seem like they are that much on paper, but when you do it--holy cow! Definitely keep us posted.