Reform Yourself

Certain Crossfit movements are bad news

Originally, when I signed up for Crossfit almost 3 years ago, I did it to supplement my Ironman training, and Crossfit did wonders for me. Since then, I’ve started to question the dangers of movements like the upright row, a movement which seems to pinch a nerve in my trapezius every time that I do it, and butterfly kipping pull-ups, which seem to sacrifice the virtues of a strict pull-up in exchange for a less energy-demanding movement that serves solely to beat the clock. Like wise with upright rows, similar criticisms could - and, indeed, should - be made about sumo deadlift high-pulls (a cornerstone movement of the infamous Fight Gone Bad Crossfit workout).

Lastly, it’s ridiculous to try to rationalize the use of lumbar support belts, wrist straps, grip straps, and other devices. Crossfit has blindly pushed its functional rhetoric so hard that it has shoved itself outside the playing field onto an alternate plane of delusion in which a certified Crossfit trainer straps on a weight belt in order to achieve heavier lifts. If you need the weight belt to feel like your lower back secured sufficiently to lift a certain weight, then you are asking for injury. Using a weight belt, for example, would be required if your core wasn’t sufficient to do a 400# back squat, but your legs were capable of handling the weight. If you keep using the weight belt, the differential between your leg strength and corresponding lower back strength will increase even more, and you’ll open yourself up to injury, and that’s no fun for anybody. In addition, it’s like learning to play the piano on an instrument with the key labeled by their corresponding notes. If you learn with a crutch you’ll never get stronger. If a (tiny) car was crushing a mother and her baby, and you and I were on the scene, we could potentially lift the car enough that the victims could escape…as LONG as you brought your weight belt. My Crossfit trainer’s response to my inquiry into whether or not I should bring such devices to his gym was spot on: “No, you can shove those things up your ass.”

I’ve stopped doing kipping pull-ups, upright rows, sumo deadlift high-pulls, and using straps or other devices meant to sweep my weaknesses under the rug because I want to actually perform better in my sports of choice (climbing and triathlon) without getting injured.