New Research Shows “Crossfit” Style Training May Not Be as Effective…Not So Fast
About 15 years ago there was a relatively seismic shift in fitness as CrossFit gyms began popping all over while simultaneously there was research coming out showing the benefits of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). The average gym goer who would traditionally work down a row of selectorized machines for 3 sets of 10 and finish up with 30 minutes on a cardio machine were now doing Olympic barbell lifts, jumping on boxes and doing burpees until they verged on vomiting.
A recent study has now questioned whether this hybrid, or what is called concurrent training, is as effective as separating your strength and cardio training. The sexy headline is that the participants who did this separation in their training gained fitness twice as fast as the combined/hybrid training group.
So does that mean the whole Crossfit and HIIT thing was BS?
Not necessarily. I wrote an article about my feelings on Crossfit many years ago and my feelings haven’t changed all that much.
The Cons:
-No workout can provide all of the fitness you need, especially aerobic fitness, since there are several dimensions to it. The expression that the Crossfitters would love to say is that for strength they lift weights and for cardio they just “lift weights faster”. Supplementing Crossfit workouts with some extended lower intensity work like cycling, hiking, rucking, jogging, etc,. would help better round out your program
-I actually looked into bringing Crossfit into my facility at its peak and unfortunately at the time there was very little oversight into the quality control from one facility or coach to the next. This can lead to bolstering the reputation that Crossfit has gained for being injury factories. This is not always the case and I have met several facility owners through the years who do a phenomenal job with their programs.
-A lot of the programming doesn’t scale to meet the trainee where they are at, and they simply follow pre-built WODs (Workouts of the Day), where everyone does the same thing, regardless of goal or ability.
-There are also elements in some of the programming that don’t make sense physiologically. Doing sets of 20 Power Cleans goes against the purpose of the exercise. We run out of power in 5-10 seconds, so sets extended far beyond that produce diminishing returns and leave you more susceptible to injury due to the high technical demand of the movement
-Crossfit is awesome for building GPP or General Physical Preparation across many physical attributes. However, for this same reason, it doesn’t really get you good at anything specific. This is why I would go nuts when I would consult with high school teams and find out they were doing Crossfit for their football program.
The Pros:
-As I mentioned earlier, thanks to Crossfit, people starting engaging more seriously in not only strength training, but also gymnastics and calisthenics as opposed to sitting on machines which is awesome=
-It also got people to train a little harder. It created an edgier atmosphere that made people want to challenge themselves and get out of their comfort zone
-Perhaps most importantly, it created a tremendous tribal culture that gave people social connection and a support system that they couldn’t get working out on their own
But what about this study and getting twice the results???
There have actually been multiple studies on concurrent training and they have all shown anywhere from a 5-10% increase in results by separating your training, so the real question is, will that even matter to you?
If you are an athlete competing against equal or better talent, every percentage point of increased performance matters and could be the difference between winning and losing and the trajectory of your career (and possibly lots of $$$)
Also, are you actually fit enough that you will even notice that minor increment of improvement? For most people – No.
The biggest issue is this: Can you actually do it?
One of the first things I do with a client starting out is give them a checklist of what they will need to do to achieve their goal in terms of time per week and then together we map that out across a typical weekly training schedule. Most of my clients don’t have the desire and/or ability to train every day or even multiple times per day, so we end of doing some type of concurrent training in most cases just so we can fit it all in to their schedules and busy lives.
So, after all of that, as with most things, the answer to whether you should combine or separate your training is – it depends.
If you have been doing Crossfit and this email or the research has made you question whether you should switch to something else, I would ask you this:
1 – Are you subjectively getting the results you want?
2 – Are you avoiding injury and feeling good?
3 – Are you enjoying it and sticking with it?
Then keep going. Could I write you a program that may be more effective? Absolutely, but who cares if you won’t do it or don’t like it. Remember that unfortunately there a way more people eating cheese filled pretzels and riding scooters in Walmart than there are doing what you’re doing. We need more of you.