Total Fitness

[MickMatusik]

Mark,

(If you want to skip through the bull shit and get right to my questions, they're in tge last paragraph. )

I am a CrossFitter. I have seen many of your videos and read many of your articles. I have also read Starting Strength. I realized, after reading your book, that you have disassociated yourself with CrossFit, but I'm not interested in find out why because that doesn't really matter. I have inferred from reading through these forums a bit and through reading your book that you are reasonable and intelligible. So, considering that you were associated with CrossFit at one time, you must think that they do at least some things right.

I believe in much of the methodology behind CrossFit (i.e. functional movements and total fitness); however, I recognize that strength is the foundation of total fitness and obviously the most important part. It's also the aspect of fitness where I am lagging the most.


I like doing CrossFit because I want to be fit in every way possible, but can I implement your strength program and still do CrossFit? Is that something I should do? Would you recommend doing your program alone, and if so, what would you recommend to maintain my total fitness?

[dpinsen]

There are Starting Strength coaches who run Crossfit 'boxes'. Why not join one of them?

[Adam Skillin]

http://www.t-nation.com/training/cro...d-and-the-ugly

To answer your question, strength underlies all the other physical attributes that CrossFit promises. When you're stronger, you can pedal a bike longer, balance better, jump higher, etc. You cannot train too intensely for these other things without it becoming detrimental to your strength training.

Here's a quick video to catch you right up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnjYyfkcaNI

It's funny, but when he says CrossFit delivers "The ability to lose gains," he's dead on.

If you want to do an intelligently programmed CrossFit workout or two each week as "cardio" work, have at it. But if you want to be an every day CrossFit junkie, you probably won't be able to get very strong at the same time.

Also, the above video is hilarious.

[oscar231]

No one can prevent you from doing whatever you want. If you want to do barbell exercises with your CrossFit workouts, just do it. It won't be SS, though, but why would that matter? Assess the results. If you're happy, then why should it matter what members of a SS forum think?

[steven-miller]

I believe in much of the methodology behind CrossFit (i.e. functional movements and total fitness); however, I recognize that strength is the foundation of total fitness and obviously the most important part. It's also the aspect of fitness where I am lagging the most.

I like doing CrossFit because I want to be fit in every way possible, but can I implement your strength program and still do CrossFit? Is that something I should do? Would you recommend doing your program alone, and if so, what would you recommend to maintain my total fitness?

I think the problem you are presenting is one without a clear solution since you don't really have a realistic goal. Being "fit in every way possible" means that there is an infinite number of scenarios of you having different levels of strength, power, mobility, endurance and movement skills where your goal is fulfilled. That is so because you don't have ONE variable to be optimized. Think of a powerlifter or a weightlifter. Their goal is to increase their total while being in a certain weight-class at a certain point in time (competition). An endurance athletes' training for a marathon has the goal to improve the time necessary to run the race. A long-jumper wants to increase the distance he can jump. ALL of these performances can be formally maximized within the confinements of certain fixed parameters such as the rules of the sport, the genetic potential of the athlete, the resources spent for the training and so on. "Fitness in every way possible" is not really a construct that can be optimized in the same way because it is not objectively defined. That is one of the reasons CrossFit has been called exercise on this website, not training. As a thinking individual it is up to you to improve upon this lack of understanding and define what fitness means to you and what your actual goals are. Then we might be able to help.