There is a lot of debate and differing opinions on Crossfit. As defined by Crossfit.com, "Crossfit is constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity". (Glassman) This just means that Crossfit is a lot of compound movements using mostly body weight and some other weights. Some people are not too sure what to think because of all the indifference towards the topic. Is Crossfit a safe way to exercise and stay in shape? Some believe that Crossfit is not safe because of the high injury rate, and they are totally against this method of exercise and sport. Many who are totally against Crossfit, argue that the basic set up of the high intensity workouts with high reps and compound exercises is not safe. There are many that think Crossfit is a great sport and way to exercise but recognize that there are issues that need to be addressed with the sport to avoid injury. Many believe that the lack of focus on form in Crossfit leads to injuries. Others think that the progression rate in the sport causes issues.  It has also been found that Crossfit can improve your body composition along with your aerobic fitness. Crossfit has been around for a long time, starting to gain a large amount participation and publicity in the early 2000's. From the information I have gathered on the subject, Crossfit can be a safe way to stay in shape, as long as you take the time to learn proper form and technique. As well as allowing yourself to advance in the sport at the speed your body can handle, if not serious injuries can be attained. 

People who have the opinion that Crossfit is not a safe way to stay in shape and exercise believe that there is just not a strong enough barrier from Crossfit teacher to Crossfit student. What is meant by this is that there is no way to tell if your Crossfit instructor is really that informed and capable of training you in a safe manner.  As Erin Simmons, a former athlete and coach, says making a point as to why she doesn't participate in Crossfit "Secondly, Crossfit coaches are able to get certified in a weekend." (Simmons)This does not mean that every Crossfit coach is under trained and incompetent. This means you should do your research before you join a Crossfit group or decide which gym it is that you want to participate at. The amount of Olympic lifts in Crossfit is a very good argument against the sport that Simmons makes. Olympic lifts are compound exercises that are meant to be very form oriented with plenty of rest between sets.  It is not safe to perform Olympic lifts for time Erin states "Never once, in the five years I was at Florida State University working out with a three-time back-to-back national championship team, did my strength coaches give me a workout sheet that told me to do Olympic or Power lifts for time" (Simmons). I agree with Simmons but I do not believe that every Crossfit coach is ignorant to this information. Are there some coaches who shouldn't be coaching Crossfit because of their own lack of knowledge and experience? I have no doubt. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that every coach is under trained. There are many coaches who are dedicated to Crossfit as a sport and have been participating for years. But the problem is "How many certified CF level I "coaches are actually qualified to coach Crossfit or anything else?". (Rippetoe) It is important to be mindful of these negative aspects with the sport of Crossfit and to use caution. If you feel as though your coach is not experienced in what he teaches, then find a different Crossfit gym. These issues that Simmons noted are common but with knowledge of these problems going into Crossfit you can avoid uneducated trainers, and will know if your trainer asks of you something that is not safe. 

Elliot Hulse gives his opinion on Crossfit in a blog on YouTube. A professional strongman and strength coach who is well known for his informational videos on fitness that he puts on youtube.com. Husle is a fitness personality and is well known and respected in the fitness industry. He is for Crossfit and believes that there are a lot of people who talk bad about Crossfit who might not be as educated as they would lead you to believe. Hulse states that there are a lot of coaches who are highly qualified in the Crossfit community. This is important to consider when thinking about any sport is are their well respected coaches and athletes. Hulse says "I give Crossfit two thumbs up" (Hulse).  He also recognizes that there are a lot of people from the Crossfit community who post on forums giving false information which gives Crossfit a bad reputation. There are always going to be people posting on blogs or forums who claim to be experts in something when in reality they do not know anything about it. Much of the bad reputation Crossfit has acquired over the years comes from people being misinformed. People need to properly do their research before dismissing Crossfit as a bad sport or overly dangerous.  

Crossfit is not something you can do for a week and become an expert. Like anything you must progress at a speed you can handle. This is a big problem in Crossfit: people who are new to the sport try to progress too quickly and this always leads to injury. Progressing and increasing your weight is important but you must take the time to learn the proper form and become skilled at executing the exercises first. This means before you try to push as much weight as you can first you have to make sure that the movements are understood. Robert Camacho working in a sports physical therapy clinic says "The most dangerous aspect of extreme fitness is people chasing big numbers and advanced movements without any respect for the process or the mechanics to achieve them." (Camacho) One must understand how the body works and the movement to go through to attain these results. Before you can think about increasing weight you need to have a solid foundation to build on. Trying to progress without taking time to really master the form of every different exercise is like trying to build a house with no foundation; you can do it, but problems are inevitable. No one is the same. Some people will progress quicker than others, so it is important that you listen to your body. This idea of "no pain no gain" is not always true. If you are having serious pain that is not muscle soreness you are injuring your joints most likely. You should not be attaining injuries from working out, "Let me reiterate that once more just to highlight how important it is: If you are getting injured from working out, you are working out wrong." (Camacho) Torn ACLs, torn roader cuffs, pulled muscles, and not to mention back injuries are just some of the injuries that can occur while working out improperly.   So if you want to participate in the sport of Crossfit you need to respect the process and understand that everything comes with a learning curve and takes hard work. Before you even start any exercise you must understand this, "As a strength and conditioning coach, I make one thing clear to my athletes: you have to respect the process." (Tromello) Every coach should have this knowledge and pass it on to their beginners in the class. This is important to recognize the problem so it can be addressed. If you respect the process of Crossfit then the likely hood of injuring yourself is much lower. This doesn't make Crossfit unsafe and a awful sport, it just means that people need to take caution. It is not the fault of Crossfit that a athlete used improper form and there for injured themselves you cannot blame the sport for this. 

The reinforcement system can have a negative effect on Crossfit. Meaning that if you focus on only achieving the desired amount of sets and no matter how they are achieved when you do you feel as if you have accomplished your feat. In Crossfit the coaches put a lot of stress on making a number of reps. If you put the stress on doing so many reps, then you are likely to loose focus on form, "When we are trying to get in as many reps as possible or get the lowest time, we may lose sight of our goals of getting fit, looking better, and continuing a healthy lifestyle." (Marker) You can't just think about reaching a number or making a time. If you do, then this replaces your incentive this will make the exercise boring and painful. When you are on a long car trip and you count the miles they always seem to go by slower. If all you focus on is purely numbers while performing your reps, it will be harder and every number you count you will just be thinking about when the last rep is. Craig makes the point, "We have natural reinforcement from exercise. When we do a movement properly or get a good workout, we feel good. However, there can be problems when the time or number of reps becomes the reinforcer." (Marker) This means that if you make exercising into something where you count the number of sets and reps and finishing is the achievement anything just to finish you are not going to have the motivation to get at it every day. There is a big focus on this reinforcement system of reaching a number of reps or going for a length of time in Crossfit. Not only can this lead to a loss of internal motivation but this can drawl away from focus on form and this will lead to injury. There should not be so much stress put on reaching a number but focus on your body and the motions you are making to insure your form is good and avoid injury. It is important to count your reps and time yourself at times but this is not what you should put the most stress and focus towards. You should have fun with your work out and remember to always focus on form it is not safe to try to push out more poor reps just to reach a number. 

Crossfit has been around for enough time to have caught the attention of many people and scientists. It has been found that high intensity training of the crossfit style can increase oxygen count in the body and decrease body fat.  "After the training program, a significant increase in the relative V[Combining Dot Above]O2max and decrease in percent body fat were observed." (Smith) This shows that crossfit can be a safe way to lose weight. The subjects in this experiment where all under the supervision of someone from the American College of Sports medicine so they were not training improperly. This shows that if you pay attention to learning the basics of the sport and progress at a rate you are capable of crossfit can be a safe way to stay in shape and exercise. This being said it is important to use proper form for this reason the people who participated in this experiment were all closely watched and trained by professionals to insure the risk of injury was as low as possible.

What is it that makes Crossfit such a quickly growing trend? Crossfit gyms are not luxurious with nice spas and amenities. It is not a celebrity appeal that drawls people to join the Crossfit movement and it is not thriftiness, memberships to most these gyms are over one hundred dollars per month. It is a bandwagon appeal the idea that other people are doing it so maybe I should give it a try. People like the group aspect of Crossfit. They want to belong to a group of hard working exercisers and feel as if they are part of a team. Crossfit allows average people to feel a bond with their fellow workout partners that they would not experience otherwise a more extreme bond a team bond through common struggles. "But Crossfit is the first modern-day phenomenon that allows Jo-Anne from human resources to feel something like the fierce kinship of Marines (Herz)." Crossfit allows the average person to be a part of a group just as a sports team and this mentality really bonds the members together and allows them to push each other because they have this team mindset. In Crossfit classes the students or people exercising communicate with each other and motivate one another. "We build a strong camaraderie and the competition is motivating. You suffer through the workout, but you know that you are suffering together (Chavie)."  This is different from a conventional gym because most people working out in a gym have head phones on and are secluded from the rest of the world. This is a positive aspect of Crossfit that adds to popularity and growth but is important to not that Crossfit drawls a lot of novice exercisers. 

From the information I have gathered on the subject, Crossfit as a sport can be a safe way to stay in shape if there is regulation, and focus on safety and efficiency of exercises is implemented into the sport. There are issues with Crossfit just like any sport but if the problems are acknowledged and fixed than Crossfit can be a good way to stay healthy and in shape. I found that a huge problem is lack of a solid foundation in the sport. By this I mean people try to progress to quickly and this is a reason for high injury rates with crossfiters. Most importantly form must come before everything else in Crossfit as well as any form of exercise. If this can lower the amount of occurring injuries yearly from Crossfit possibly there will be less bad publicity for Crossfit. If there are less injuries in Crossfit yearly, then the sport will gain more respect in the fitness industry. On the flip side though if Crossfit continues to receive slander in the fitness world, it might decline in growth.

