Chad,
I'll throw my thoughts in on this one:

At its core, I think Crossfit is a good idea. It gets people moving and doing things outside their comfort zone. I'm all for people exercising and having fun; Crossfit certainly offers variety to many people who do not have an athletic background.

I assume that people that run these programs have the necessary education to teach ALL of their clients good form i.e. you can't be "Crossfit certified" after a weekend test or something like that. This would be preposterous and I highly doubt that this is true. Because they routinely do cleans, snatches, squats, deadlifts for higher reps the technique needs to be grounded. Anyone who knows anything about training knows this to be true.

I also assume that before ANY person is put into a Crossfit program the necessary steps are done:

1. Client is tested and evaluated for health.
2. Client spends several weeks and/or months in general GPP sessions to build up proper muscles and conditioning to do workouts.
3. Client also spends considerable time working their technique. This does not mean they have to be perfect or even that close - just good enough to have a training effect and little possibility for injury.


I also assume that there is a periodization in regards to the training and not every person is using the same workout. To not do so, to just "workout to workout" is pretty pointless and I know Crossfit wouldn't do this. Also, in keeping with this theme I assume the periodization that is in place has an end goal in mind for each individual. But "get in shape" or "look lean" is not a goal; clear, concrete goals that are discussed prior to training.

I also assume that the workouts given to the people are somewhat individualized so that the people do reach their goals. I think it would be great to see the progression of these clients and the training manuals that Crossfit trainers have. There has to be thousands of permutations of the workouts and something we can all benefit from.

So assuming that Crossfit is not negligent in any of these and takes care to assure the general public that any gym that bears this name has people with dozens of years of training in this style under their belts running the show, Crossfit is a terrific training program.

If not, then its another flash in the pan making money off people that don't know any better.

I prefer to remain optimistic,
Jim Wendler