your body your health

[endersgame]

i've only done a trial at my local crossfit box which was very expensive at $300/month. they try to sell you on the fact that everyone here is your buddy and we go on hiking trips and bbq's.

a lot of the exercises were already introduced to me by my trainer, so it wasn't worth the membership. definitely a lot of big men and women in crossfit, but not as defined as bodybuilders.

[lowrey]

you're not going to get that build automatically, I mean, think how different people who do weight training can look, same thing with crossfit. It takes a lot of work and a proper diet to gain a lot of size.

[theetruscan]

I've done quite a bit of crossfit. Definitely leans you out. You get some muscle mass, but not much. Unless you go to a very strength heavy CF gym, you won't end up with a lot of mass without trying. There's a reason lifters describe crossfit as the way to lose your gains.

When I was doing CF 2x/day 5x/week I got as lean as I have ever been. 20 pounds less than I am now, and I could wear clothes I haven't fit into before or since. I ate a shitton too. But, had some thighs.

If you eat rigorously to gain size with crossfit, you can get a bit big, but if you don't, you'll get some redistribution of mass, but won't end up large.

[apathy!]

what Rommel said

[theetruscan]

I'm also not a fan of what they do with some of the movements, i.e. there's strict pullups that they modify into kipping pullups which I think are fine since your still getting full motion with some help from your lower body and core.....but then there's these butterfly pullups which look like they don't really engage anything and you're really just using some strange momentum to do "reps".

Naming kipping and butterfly pull-ups is stupid. The movements are fine, they are cardiovascular movements, not strength.

I don't do butterfly pull ups, ever, because they are hard on your shoulders. But, the core core is engaged throughout along with the shoulders and arms, and the momentum comes from the hips. They definitely keep most of the body engaged throughout the entire movement. I still dislike them for other reasons (increased risk of injury in order to go a little bit faster).

[endersgame]

after spending an hour swimming, i guess it really limbered me up for running. no problems track running today. even tried a sandbag on my shoulders without issues.

i was reading about running injuries in a PT clinic today. apparently every pound you lose takes 4 pounds off your knees..

[apathy!]

Naming kipping and butterfly pull-ups is stupid. The movements are fine, they are cardiovascular movements, not strength.

I don't do butterfly pull ups, ever, because they are hard on your shoulders. But, the core core is engaged throughout along with the shoulders and arms, and the momentum comes from the hips. They definitely keep most of the body engaged throughout the entire movement. I still dislike them for other reasons (increased risk of injury in order to go a little bit faster).

This is a pretty confusing post. Seems like you understand the disadvantages of flappy pull-ups but have concluded that they're ok?

[kamsky]

after spending an hour swimming, i guess it really limbered me up for running. no problems track running today. even tried a sandbag on my shoulders without issues.

Nice! Are you training for something specific, or running just because?

Some unsolicited advice (assuming you're running an indoor track, and that, like most indoor tracks, it's less than 400m): careful increasing mileage too much or very quickly on it... The repetitiveness of constant, prolonged leftward turning can sometimes lead to injury (this is true of 400m tracks as well).

[endersgame]

i gonna try out a triathalon group training class next month, that is if my wrist recovers from a skateboarding accident. the track alternates traffic direction depending on the days. i guess this is to avoid injury?

[t-bone]

CrossFit, like any kind of "personal training" (which is why you pay more for it, you have a coach) is great if you find a good box with qualified trainers. I did it for a couple years and made more gains on my lifts in the first 6 months than in years of lifting on my own at the Y or NYSC. Now my focus is on weightlifting but I still train at Crossfit South Brooklyn at their open gym and 2x a week weightlifting program.

Also can we just bury this kipping pull-up argument already? Nobody is saying that they are the same thing as a strict pull-up. It provides a different training stimulus that can be appropriate at times, but any good trainer will require a buy-in of at least 3 strict pull-ups before allowing you to train kipping. Until then banded or jumping pull-ups can provide a similar stimulus.

[theetruscan]

This is a pretty confusing post. Seems like you understand the disadvantages of flappy pull-ups but have concluded that they're ok?

Sorry for the lack of clarity. I don't know what a flappy pull up is, so I'll just try to rephrase what I wrote.

1) kipping and butterfly pull-ups are poorly named because they are primarily cardiovascular exercise.

2) Kipping pull ups, despite the name pull up, seem entirely fine to me. They're definitely something different than a pull up though.

3) This "but then there's these butterfly pullups which look like they don't really engage anything and you're really just using some strange momentum to do "reps"" is completely wrong. Butterfly pull ups require substantial engagement of most of the body.

4) Butterfly pull ups are hard on the shoulders. I don't do them as a result.

5) Butterfly pull ups and kipping pull ups are different.

[apathy!]

Fair enough. Poster above is right too i guess.

just train how you want to train one love etc

[Monoral]

I train obsessively. I go out for a run usually around 10 kilometers a day after work. I dont run every day tho i try to mix it up with gym and thai boxing. So basically 2 days of long running, 2 days of gym sessions and two days of thai boxing training and 1 day of eating cake and pizza. I dont smoke but i go out for a drink pretty much every saturday. I never eat candy and try to avoid sugary beverage as much as possible.

Also thinking of moving to San Francisco because there's no fat people there (joking)

[kamsky]

i gonna try out a triathalon group training class next month, that is if my wrist recovers from a skateboarding accident. the track alternates traffic direction depending on the days. i guess this is to avoid injury?

Yea, that's the primary reasoning (think it's also done so as to at least minimally reduce monotony, though I wonder if it's very effective for this purpose). Especially if the track's turns are banked, constantly running one way can lead to some muscle-development imbalances. Alternating direction alleviates this, provided of course that your schedule results in running both clock-wise and counter-clockwise.

[endersgame]

yeah the track has some steep banked turns. unless you run full speed at the apex, its hard to negotiate and i generally tend to stay away from them..