I tried Crossfit 1 day and I haven't been able to lower my arms for a week

They do kipping pullups, the use of motiona nd recruitment. Yes it gets you from point A to B in a way.

Not as strict as regular type pull ups and can possibly cause injury. Video search cross fit pullup.

There are seperate records for leg whip/kick pullups as opposed to a more strict version, which I tied the WR for 1 minute recently. I can probably due 51 but after that speed pullups require to much motion to actually be legit in my opinion

http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/chinups.html

Scroll down to the bottom and you can read my extra explanation:

http://speedendurance.com/2007/10/25/matt%e2%80%99s-preparation-for-a-world-record-pull-up-attempt-a-60-second-pull-up-wr/#respond

Kipping pullups are just a different technique that I think is done for a couple of primary purposes. 1. it gets more muscle areas in use rather than strictly using your lats (works your abs fairly well). 2. I believe they are in a nutshell easier to go longer on so you don't wear out quite as quickly allowing some aerobic benefit.

Pick your poison - sometimes you run at tempo pace, sometimes much slower, what are you trying to get out of it?

I personally don't do the kipping pullups in crossfit workouts but many do.

my second workout at crossfit was 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 burpees for time. this after only doing 25 max pushups a day. i know i should have eased into it, but alas, it is too competitive to sit back and not finish the workout. i couldn't bend my arms more than 90 degrees for like 5 days. my tris were so sore. i'm trying the paleo thing now and have been on it for 10 days and all my runs SUCK!!! I'm going to keep with it to see if I have a breakthrough - little experiment, but doubtful that I will get much benefit for marathon training!

Plan on no benefit for your marathon trying to complete that arbitrary workout of 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 burpees for time.

Paleo = eating like an OCD anorexic.

Follow a proven marathon training program to improve your marathon time.

Started crossfit as way to get back into shape 7 years after my college running career was over. I must admit some workouts seem way more intense than anything I remember on the track. At 33 after 2 years of crossfit I could probably out perform my 20 year old self at any physical challenge but running. Just running is too boring now especially since I'm nolonger competing. Crossfitters can be fanatical but track has thought me the importance of consistency. No need to blow it out on 1 specific day. Occasionally I'll go out for a run and am always surprised how fast I run having only done crossfit. I think you just did too much too soon. Good luck.

Well, the stupid smartass simple response to this is...

work your triceps! if you can't lower your arms, you're not even training in a balanced fashion... do what you will with your muscles, just train them balanced. So go out and do a killer tricep workout. Do some "back" lifts, or, gripping a kettle ball and thrusting/lifting it backwards via the tricep action. This is very good, quite difficult and a lot more useful in the long run, basally, for your running form than some overglorified bicep bullshit. Not that the biceps aren't important but don't be fooled. Running is a systematic endeavour, not some cheap, workout-fad mirror gimmick.

in the same camp wrote:

my second workout at crossfit was 100 pushups, 100 situps, 100 burpees for time. this after only doing 25 max pushups a day. i know i should have eased into it, but alas, it is too competitive to sit back and not finish the workout. i couldn't bend my arms more than 90 degrees for like 5 days. my tris were so sore. i'm trying the paleo thing now and have been on it for 10 days and all my runs SUCK!!! I'm going to keep with it to see if I have a breakthrough - little experiment, but doubtful that I will get much benefit for marathon training!

1. Instead of eating a fad diet how about you just try to "eat natural": beef, fish, poultry, fruits, veggies, potatoes, yams, rice, oatmeal, etc...ie: ONE ingredient foods. You are probably suffering from too low a carbohydrate intake too fast.

2. Don't confuse effort with results. That workout you do will do nothing but make you tired.

3. If your goal is to increase strength to help your running...then do some actual strength training.

Alan

Alan I find you to be a pretentious ass... High rep oly lifting executed with good form and technique can be benificial (sp?) to any athlete, at least crossfit uses science and such to prove their claims. You talk trash on a message board, if your so damn smart where are your published papers on exercise science. I don't doubt that your probably a good athlete, but you have no tact in these types of discussions. Either look up how to formulate an argument in the proper way or continue to be the pretentious ass on the letsrun message boards. In all likely hood when you will read this the testosterone will rise and off you will go again but hey it took man thousands of years to evolve im sure you won't wake up in a day.

Here is a question to any and all out there - has anyone or does anyone know of someone who started as a 3:15ish marathoner who actually improved their time significantly doing crossfit? like go sub-3 hours? i know people who believe that a 25 mile a week regime (crossfit endurance - tons of short sprints) plus crossfit WODs 5 times per week will get them sub-3 hours? are there any proven cases for this? so far this group didn't do it because the paleo screwed up their fueling in the race?!?!

I checked and no... their was no research done on the effects of just crossfitting and low milage training for the marathon. And not all avid crossfitters paleo diet. Personally its not for me. And going sub-3 on just 25 miles per week, sorry to be crass but thats stupid. I believe that the wods and such can help to a certain degree with the marathon training but in the end it comes down to running, running, and more running. 26.2 is a long freaking way to race on 25 mpw or less. Now that doesn't mean that their aren't a few crazy Xfitters who would try that crazy plan but in the end its their body to experiment on.

dj nietzche wrote:

Alan I find you to be a pretentious ass... High rep oly lifting executed with good form and technique can be benificial (sp?) to any athlete, at least crossfit uses science and such to prove their claims. You talk trash on a message board, if your so damn smart where are your published papers on exercise science. I don't doubt that your probably a good athlete, but you have no tact in these types of discussions. Either look up how to formulate an argument in the proper way or continue to be the pretentious ass on the letsrun message boards. In all likely hood when you will read this the testosterone will rise and off you will go again but hey it took man thousands of years to evolve im sure you won't wake up in a day.

Umm, alan does come off as an ass sometimes, but....Crossfit does NOT use science to prove their claims.

Go look at their website, listen to their instructors. It's full of pseudo science crap that makes no sense.

Yet, if they talk in big words, no one knows the difference.

Yes they do... if you had really spent the time looking at the web site and doing a LITTLE research then you would see your folly. From Mike Burgener(who was the oly lifting coach for the US national team) to Mark Rippitoe they have substanciated (sp?) their claims in the fitness industry with science. And im not trying to be a prick mearly putting my two cents in. Oh and this information is in the CF journal, organized all nice and neat for you to learn, but you do have to pay a whopping $25 a year to educate yourself on almost every aspect of fitness. You can sit and say crossfit does not validate any of their claims with science, by all means your entilted to your opinion, but you are WORNG. Take the time to investigate something before you make that all mighty opinion.

Dont you think that CF is better for most people wanting to lose weight and tone up than following the old body builder type lifting style that'd dominated the gym for so long? You know one day it's the chest, one day arms, one day legs, always a bit of cardio mixed in.

That seems to be a great routine IF you are going for definition, but too me the CF idea looks a lot more practical for MOST people. I like that it's intense, something that seems to be lacking in SO many workouts.

I've seen huge improvements for people who are just trying to get fit, lose weight and become a better overall athlete, but I'm not sure that the program improves one's performance in specific sport in a significant way - I think the theory on specificity applies here.

If you like it do it... what I don't like is people who ACT like they know what they are talking about without any substancial (sp?) evidence to back it up. Its like they see this trend in fitness rising, crossfit, and they don't take the time to appreciate that it is helping getting people off their asses and doing good things. I don't always agree with the programming at crossfit.com but they at least take the time to publish informative articles with use of the scientific method that we all learned in grade school. problem, hypothesis, experiment, results... "constant progression" to me that is what crossfit is about

I agree with this post... Idealy I would use running as my base work with a regular 3 on 1 off Crossfit wod schedule with a little track work to break up the monotony.

But thats me and I don't specifically train for anything anymore... i.e. road races, triathlons etc.

I know a guy that has run under 3 hours and he is my crossfit class. Need more proof? Go to one of the CrossFit Games finals and watch the running event. These guys are rolling and can sustain it longer than most pure runners. These guys are big too--not some 130 pounders. So you no these CrossFit workouts are no joke.

I think it's only relevant if your crossfit friend was not a sub 3 hour marathoner before starting crossfit. i know a guy who ran a sub 3 who is in my crossfit class, but he did that before starting crossfit and hasn't performed as well since (not necessarily due to crossfit though).