It seems to me that it is very much dependent on the gym you go to, as pretty much anyone can get a certification and open a gym. This leads to a lot of 'coaches' not actually knowing about things like bad form and actively encouraging people to do advanced manoeuvres like kipping pullups, without teaching the basics first, leading to injuries down the road.
It seems like a good program if people are given a good progression, but from what I've seen, they just like to slap together a bunch of exercises into a circuit and call it done.
Personally I'd just follow an actual routine instead of 'a bunch of exercises' and progress accordingly. I also think that **** like 'dieting plans' is way overthinking it and you should just eat based on your macros and TDEE requirements, but whatevs.
Well its not just a bunch of exercises, they spent quite a lot of time teaching how to program your workouts so that everyone could do it & also one of their biggest points was that all their workouts are scaled so that your grandmother could be able to do it. so they actually do teach the basics, but the dieting plan was more of a way of raising awareness on the harmful effects of complex carbs & basically preaching a keto- type of diet, I'm more of a firm believer in winging it when it comes to eating; maintaining a 1 gram of protein to pound ratio atleast, some fats, wholesome carbs, no glucose. thats been working pretty good for me. Until I decided to bulk
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Crossfit is really great as a program and motivator to get you "in the gym". It goes through a lot of core lifts, works a variety of fitness goals and has a simple, easy to follow program. The community is also encouraging to new people (to the point of zealotry sometimes...) while providing concrete progression for lifts and such. If thats what you want, do it.
The biggest problems with crossfit though is lack of focus and a competitive angle, which breeds a lot of the critisisms of injuries and generally wasting your time. I think those criticisms are fair, and there's a certain point where you really don't want to be rushing lifts or doing ARAP for your progress. This is really going to depend on your box and how they program, which is true for any fitness activity, but in this case its set in place what you're going to do a given day/time.
Now thats 100% true. they do so much and they literally have 10 things they want to achieve they preach into being wellrounded in everything, which seems fine and dandy but lets be realistic. we have finite time. The competitive angle is terrible, and the fixed program could mess you up, if you're not feeling 100% but decide to workout because bro-science and herd-mentality.
that being said I was thinking of it more as a complementary type of activity and still going to the gym and lifting etc
If you can afford that, and like having someone provide you with a workout and guidance, go for it. Using it as a supplement is a great way to hit the parts of your body/fitness that crossfit will miss in any given class, and allow you to address muscle imbalances. Again though, it REALLY depends on your box. There are some I would never recommend people to go to, and some that I would recommend even experienced lifters to check out for coaching. Know your limits and your body and lift accordingly.
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Well I can afford it, I want to try it out but we don't really have any boxes open here yet! but I'm a firm believer in knowing your limits and not lifting heavy and going fullretard. I'm interested in it as a form of cardiovascular activity( I got bored of stairmasters mayn) and testing my threshold of willpower & perseverance required to finish any AMRAPS/ challenges. I mean 2,000 meters on a row machine in 7 minutes is the type of stuff that's getting me interested, because thats no common feat