At the risk of getting flamed, ridiculed and ostracized from the fitness community, I’m just going to come out and say it……CrossFit is STUPID. Okay, now that I’ve got that off my chest I suppose I should provide my readers with a somewhat educated and adequate argument as to why I believe that CrossFit is single handedly ruining people’s physiques, rather then helping people achieve results with their physiques.

CrossFit has been around for decades. I remember learning and studying about this style of training back when I was in school trying to acquire my personal training license and certification. CrossFit itself never really interested me though, as it was not geared towards the types of fitness goals that I wanted to achieve with my own physique (which at the time was to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger). I figured that if Arnold didn’t do CrossFit to achieve his amazing body, then why should I? Fast forward two decades later, and my fitness goals and aspirations have now changed. However I still do not and will not ever do CrossFit.

CrossFit’s Contagious Climb to the Top

Even though CrossFit has been around for a very long time, it didn’t seem to catch the eye of the media and the general public until around 2007. I remember this year well as this happened to also be our first official year in business. Slowly from 2007-2009 CrossFit started to develop more hype and gain more popularity throughout the fitness community. More and more CrossFit gyms were opening and CrossFit itself had started to develop a large following of people also known as “CrossFitters”. The latest fitness trend had officially hit the market and it appeared as if it was going to stay. Being a new trainer who had just started his own personal training company, I knew very little about this style of training and therefore began to worry that I would not be able to compete with the CrossFit Trainers within the fitness industry. By this point, I had also formed my own opinion based on basic physiological and anatomical structure of the human body, that CrossFit itself was actually dangerous and unsafe for the average person to perform.

Refusing to give in to the hype and give my clients CrossFit exercises that looked “cool” or “different” I remained loyal to what I knew worked and what I knew was the safest and most effective way to produce results within the human body, which in my opinion was and still is bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding for a Better Body

Whenever the word “Bodybuilder” is thrown around, most people automatically think of a greased up juice monkey on stage posing in his underwear. However when I think of the word bodybuilder I think of someone who is serious about training his or her body for maximum results, both physically and internally. When you think about it this way, we’re all bodybuilders on some level. If you go to the gym to better yourself by becoming more active and fit, then YOU ARE a bodybuilder. Most people who workout do so with the intention to improve something about themselves. Whether that be to lose weight, build muscle, increase strength or just become more overall healthy, they have reason and purpose to exercise. The great thing about bodybuilding is that it works, and anyone can do it. When bodybuilding exercises, also known as resistance training exercises, are taught thoroughly, practiced repeatedly and executed properly, the results are simply amazing.

CrossFit is Careless

I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over the years and have explained my concept of bodybuilding to them all so that they themselves understand the benefits of training with weights in a controlled and respective manner. I’ve never had anyone injure themselves in the gym training this way because all of the exercises that I ask and show them how to do, are natural movements for their limbs, joints and muscles to go though. There are no ballistic movements, no bouncing weights off the ground and no upside down push-ups or one-arm chin-ups. The exercises that I ask clients to do are functional and focus on building muscle with minimum risk and maximum results. When combined with a healthy, nutritious and muscle building diet plan, the end result is always a success.

My Conclusion on CrossFit

The fact of the matter is that CrossFit is not for everyone. This has been proven time and time again with the amount of people who have injured themselves by doing CrossFit movements that are claimed to be functional, however seem to be more ego-driven and testosterone fuelled then anything else. Performing a push-up on one hand does not prove how strong you are. Completing a certain amount of Deadlifts in under one minute does not prove how fast you are. And walking on your hands upside down does not prove how “hardcore” you are.

I believe that being able to go through your day to day life, in little to no pain, rarely if ever getting sick, feeling energetic and confident in your body, determines how strong, fit and healthy a person is. And I believe that by training smart, eating right and listening to our bodies the results that we can actually achieve are limitless.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove