Well planned and thoughtful CrossFit is the best way to maintain, and create GPP(General Physical Preparedness). However, CrossFit is not an all inclusive program that will make you the ultimate baseball player, football player, MMA fighter, Olympic weightlifter, or sport specific stud. If you’re using CrossFit to achieve a specialty, you my friend, are missing the boat. CrossFit is meant to train you for every day life and make you good, not great, at the 10 essential skills of fitness. These 10 skills include: Endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Although being strong in these skills will certainly prepare you to your best ability to start working on whatever specialty you’ve chosen to go for, it is not enough. For example, in a strong man competition, not one person cares about your 14 minute 5k time; point being, not all skills are created equal when it comes to specializing in sports. This is why it is so important to understand what you’re training for, and if that is to be as (and I hate this term) “functionally fit” as possible, then CrossFit is for you. If you’re trying to be an endurance athlete, you had better train like one and maybe stop trying to deadlift 600lbs.
I started to use the CrossFit methodology in late 2008. I would follow the HQ workout posted online like it was my religion and each post was a testament to god. My results were fantastic, and I was getting stronger at an exponential rate. I was hooked, and the kool-aide wasn’t just being sipped, it was being chugged. I fell straight into the mindset where body building was stupid, bicep curls were for the feeble minded, and that if I didn’t feel like I was going to puke, I wasted a training session. This elitist mindset followed me to my high school gym, the local globogym and even to my first CrossFit box in 2009. Was I wrong to think I was better because I was a CrossFitter? Yes, and no - let me explain.
The first box I attended was small, and I was quickly humbled by the coaches and other members, realizing that I wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought I was. Something curious also happened while training there, I didn’t die every day after my workout, and I was getting stronger than I ever had before. Why was this? On some days I was starting to lift like a bodybuilder would again, doing reps and sets that weren’t for time - blasphemy! And yet, I grew in both muscular size and strength, while also continuing to become faster in my metcons. Mind blowing right? Getting stronger in isolation movements transfers to complex movements!? Yes.. And therein lies the problem with the closed minded CrossFit elitist, and subsequently, was why I was wrong. Although CrossFit style workouts are the best for GPP (why I was right), not every day needs to be a freaking metcon! In fact, not everyday should be, ever! If you beat yourself down every day, you’re going to be just that, beat down..
To be clear, I don’t want you to go back to the old routine of back and bi’s, chest and tri’s and skipping leg day. The regular gym mentality will not make you a better athlete. If your goal is to simply lift for hypertrophy, than hell yeah, get some! Just don’t expect to run a faster mile, or to be able to do daily tasks faster and more efficiently, because that’s not how this animal works. However, what I’m saying is, don’t quit doing movements because they aren’t seen in CrossFit metcon workouts and for the love of god, don’t stop doing pure strength days. Three to four metcons a week for the everyday CrossFitter is more than enough! Even more crazy, bicep curls help strengthen your biceps and are good for the elbow joint, dips and weighted dips will strengthen your triceps and also help protect your elbow and shoulder joints, Furthermore, when done correctly, these movements will help keep you safe and make your CrossFit movements even stronger! In every movement there is a protagonist muscle(the one doing the contracting or pulling) and an agonist muscle (generally stabilizing the protagonist). If we as athletes train one side of our body, or are constantly in one plane of movement, we are asking to get hurt. Musculoskeletal imbalances will become causes of pain and injury that will lead to us moving with the wrong parts of our anatomy. Unfortunately, to compensate for the weak parts of our body we will start to recruit the path of least resistance - that is, use our stronger muscles to avoid using the weak ones. Even worse, this happens whether they’re the correct muscles for that movement or not. This is where accessory work should be used to strengthen our weaknesses and keep our body in a state of anatomical balance. For instance, in CrossFit there are very little rowing movements (horizontal abduction), but a ton of pressing movements. So, we tend to build the anterior side of our shoulders and neglect the posterior. This can cause shoulders to adduct and start hurting - so if I feel this way, you better believe I’ll be doing bent over rows or dumbbell rows to strengthen my upper back and bring those shoulders back into their proper position.
In essence, what I’m saying is to take lessons from every aspect and type of training, there’s something to be learned in all of them. A bodybuilder’s job is to get huge, put on a tiny mankini and bronze themselves, all in order to look as close as possible to being a Greek god. I’m not saying go do that.. but the other side of their job is to train symmetrically and have symmetrical muscles. Symmetry means stability, and stability means less risk of injury. Sounds like a good deal to me, and a wonderful way to support our training. CrossFit is built on great principles, and it will make you stronger than you probably ever have been, while also making you look great. However, focus on training intelligently, not just by breathing hard and moving faster. Do your accessory work, and be diligent about it. Besides, Jason Khalipa didn’t get that huge doing toes-to-bar and metcons. Now where’s my mankini and tanning oil, it’s back and bi’s today.