Anyone see the Crossfit Games yesterday?

If you want to be stronger, lift.

If you want to be faster, run.

If you want to be better at a sport, practice.

If you want to be better at crossfit, do crossfit.

Some the my issue with people 'running' crossfit are the same issue i have with trail runners.

There's nothing wrong with lifting and sprinting and there is nothing wrong with running on trails. It's more the mentality that gets to me.

A thousand times i've heard people say, yeah i ran an 18 minute 5k, or a 3:30 marathon ---or whatever--- with obstacles, That equates to a ---insert fast time here.

It doesn't. Just like running 16:30 in a hilly road race doesn't mean you can claim you are in 15xx shape. If you are going to think of things in terms of fast times, you have to go out and run fast times.

Running is a sport dictated by times. Yes, if you are tearing up the trail circuit, you may be a good runner and run fast time on the track and road. If you do crossfit all the time, you might be able to run a good race. But running slower on more challenging courses doesn't make you more of a badass. It just means you are less concerned with your times than most on these boards. Which is cool for you, but don't justify it by putting runners down who are trying to better themselves by running fast times.

Crossfit people, trail people: great job. keep it up. But brag your accomplishments, not your made up conversions. A 100 mile run is impressive. Not more so than a fast marathon, but it's still cool. So is a crossfitters deadlift pr---i actually don't know any lifting metrics, but you get the idea. Just knock off the ridiculous posts on a RUNNING website.

crossfit tool wrote:

If you want to be stronger, lift.

If you want to be faster, run.

If you want to be better at a sport, practice.

If you want to be better at crossfit, do crossfit.

Which is what is so silly about the contest on the video - they have crossfitters competing in something that they have not trained for (swim/bike/run)instead of competing at doing crossfit exercises, which they are probably good at.

When you are the fittest people on Earth, you excel at whatever is thrown at you.

Not making sense to me wrote:

crossfit tool wrote:

If you want to be stronger, lift.

If you want to be faster, run.

If you want to be better at a sport, practice.

If you want to be better at crossfit, do crossfit.

Which is what is so silly about the contest on the video - they have crossfitters competing in something that they have not trained for (swim/bike/run)instead of competing at doing crossfit exercises, which they are probably good at.

distance guy wrote:

You can just sit on a Ski-doo whenever you need a break? It's only 750 meters, people.

You try to swim 750 meters with fins on and we'll see what happens, chump.

750m is not far.. if you swam 1 time per week you would be more than capable of doing it

I actually know a few people that do CF, which is probably why I'm defending the sport on here. The ones I know wear baggy t-shirts and loose fitting shorts when they work out. I asked them why their gym had no mirrors and they said it's because CF is intentionally not about body image. Look at the female CF athletes for chrissakes. They are pretty bulky and not what would be consider "classically" beautiful.

The point of that triathlon was to be an unexpected shock. One of the "goals" of CF is to expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. They knew the athletes would handle all the classic stuff that will be done this weekend, but they wanted to stick to their "goals" and throw in something unexpected and unconventional for CF.

Why are you comparing them to runner/triathletes, and why would you expect them to compete well in endurance events? Watch the rest of the coverage this weekend and read my above posts and it might start to make more sense to you.

I don't care what they "stated" in the video. Commentators make mistakes. If you go to the website and read the workout description and then you look at the leaderboard, it's fairly easy to figure out that the two hours was for the whole event. You're wrong.

No, you're wrong. In both the competition video, and then again, several times, in the highlight video they stated that the times were for the run. You could also attempt to use your reasoning ability and figure out that you can't walk 1/2 of a 7 mile course and average 10 minute miles unless you're doing 5 minute miles when you actually run. None of those guys came within several minutes of 5 minute pace at any point.

Xfitguy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

Breaking news: life isn't always fair. Why should you have to lift less weight just because you're tiny? 500lbs is 500lbs is 500lbs.

Take a clue from evolution: only the strong survive.

XFIT 4 LIFE

You guys ain't lifting sh!t.

Blowing.Rock Master wrote:

No, you're wrong. In both the competition video, and then again, several times, in the highlight video they stated that the times were for the run. You could also attempt to use your reasoning ability and figure out that you can't walk 1/2 of a 7 mile course and average 10 minute miles unless you're doing 5 minute miles when you actually run. None of those guys came within several minutes of 5 minute pace at any point.

According to your brilliant reasoning ability, it took the fastest guy 2 hours to run 7 miles. That is 17 minutes per mile for the fastest guy. That is a moderate walk.

The guys in the video weren't going at a moderate walking pace for the whole course. They showed the leader several times and most of the time he was running.

I know that's 17 minute miles. You need to watch the video again. Those guys walked practically all the uphills at a slow walk. They then walked much of the downhills, again slowly. When they did run, it was very slow.

But of course, you're right and the broadcasters must be wrong.

UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:

The point of that triathlon was to be an unexpected shock. One of the "goals" of CF is to expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. They knew the athletes would handle all the classic stuff that will be done this weekend, but they wanted to stick to their "goals" and throw in something unexpected and unconventional for CF.

If that's one of the goals of crossfit, than this element of the competition revealed how poorly crossfit meets its own goals. These athletes, the best 90+ crossfitters in the world, were NOT prepared for anything. I can't figure out the clock situation for the life of me (the scoring and website is hopeless confusing on that point)-- but regardless, the times don't matter. Watch the video and see how poorly most of these athletes were performing-- walking huge stretches, trudging to the finish line (even though this is supposedly an intense competition), hanging out on the jetski to recover from the swim.

Then add to that the fact that at least one guy was hospitalized, several were on IVs, at least three athletes couldn't finish, and an ensuing event had to be cancelled. These athletes weren't prepared for this-- and if being prepared for anything is truly a goal of crossfit, they should modify their approach.

Of course they won't, because crossfit isn't really about being prepared for anything or really being fit at all-- it's just a glorified lifting program that is more expensive than joining most gyms or just doing pullups and burpees for free in your own backyard.

Xfitguy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

What is even more disingenuous is that there are no weight classes, even though weight lifting is a major aspect of the comptetition. It is almost impossible for anyone (male) under 175 lbs to get past the weight lifting in this competition. All the guys are huge.

Breaking news: life isn't always fair. Why should you have to lift less weight just because you're tiny? 500lbs is 500lbs is 500lbs.

Take a clue from evolution: only the strong survive.

XFIT 4 LIFE

Professional weight lifters recognize the advantage of body weight in lifting when they compete. Crossfit doesn't because they do not want to let in lighter guys that may excel on other disciplines where lighter body weight is an advantage. If there were weight divisions, that first day video would show a bunch of 140 lb guys finishing 30-40 min ahead of the 190+ lb guys. But they do not want that because it would spoil their brand of being the ultimate athletes. So, they rig the competition with lifting requirements to weed out people who may have an advantage in other events by being lighter.

Crossfit has always been a response to the running boom. Big jock guys saw their gyms empty out as everyone wanted to join a running group. They tried distance running, but quickly learned that they stunk at it because they were too big. So, they created their own sport designed just for their body type so they could try to win back all the people who joined running groups.

Precious Roy wrote:

Professional weight lifters recognize the advantage of body weight in lifting when they compete. Crossfit doesn't because they do not want to let in lighter guys that may excel on other disciplines where lighter body weight is an advantage.

Sorry but you just don't get it. A 100lbs man lifting 100 lbs is simply not the same as a 200lbs man lifting 200lbs. The difference in lifting is 100 lbs.

Are you also suggesting they set the hurdles lower in T&F for shorter guys or that in the high jump, heights should be adjusted to body height? Seriously, how dumb are you?

Why do runners care so much about what other people do to work out?

Yeah. That's why they did away with weight classes in Olympic weightlifting, boxing, and wrestling.

Xfitguy_the_real_one_1 wrote:

Sorry but you just don't get it. A 100lbs man lifting 100 lbs is simply not the same as a 200lbs man lifting 200lbs. The difference in lifting is 100 lbs.

You guys ain't lifting sh!t.

I think it's because crossfit claims to be searching for 'the fittest on earth' and after watching them attempting the triathlon on Wednesday people here are disagreeing with that claim

From the website: Pendleton 2 will be ranked by total time to finish the entire swim, bike and run race. Arrival order at the checkpoint (Pendleton 1) will have no bearing on the scoring for Pendleton 2.

If that is true, then explain the times and rankings on the leaderboard page:

Select Individual Men and sort on Pendleton 2.

CrossFit is used by Fire Fighters and Police to help prepare for real world situations. How often do those people have to run 7 miles? Training for a 7-mile run is meaningless for any real world application.

This was a test to put CF athletes in an environment where they would struggle. And they did. No surprise there.

It's not a glorified lifting program. Many of their exercises don't involve weights. Pushups, pullups, situps, rope climbs, muscle ups, burpees, box jumps, sprints, rowing machines. Those are just the ones off the top of my head. When weights are used, it's often a technical lift like one of the Olympic lifts, which, if you know anything about lifting, depends more on technique than raw strength. Your ignorance is overwhelming.

I agree with this to some point. But in T&F, we say the Decathlete is the world's greatest athlete. They require speed, strength, agility. CrossFit is an extension of this idea. And yeah, it's weighted differently and favors different strengths and weaknesses. There is no perfect formula. CrossFit athletes look just as silly doing endurance events as endurance athletes would look doing CF events. I think it's crazy to argue these guys aren't athletic or fit.

They are peaking to be ready for mostly strength and sprint oriented events and then they get thrown into a triathlon. How crappy would Usain Bolt look in the same triathlon two days before the Olympic Games? Does anyone argue that he isn't fit or athletic?