Should I Do CrossFit?

If you’ve gone anywhere near a gym in the last few years, you’ve probably heard someone talk about how much they love CrossFit and how great it is and how they’re benefitting in all these ways from it. And that leaves you wondering, “Should I do CrossFit?” Here are some reasons why you should try it out (never hurts to try, right?) and a few words of caution.

Anyone can do it

CrossFit isn’t only meant for hard-core athletes and dedicated gym-rats. CrossFit is a fitness program that incorporates strength training, flexibility, balance, endurance and stamina in short, but intense sessions. Those are areas that everyone can benefit from improving. Plus, the workouts are scalable and customizable, so you can tailor them to your individual needs and limitations.

CrossFit’s philosophy is highly functional

As an avid CrossFitter and Army Officer, Ryan Easterling values the way that CrossFit prepares you to be able to accomplish a wide variety of tasks in life. This idea is really the core concept of CrossFit. It’s not just a program to help you lift more weight, it’s designed to develop your overall fitness, and to better equip you to accomplish life’s tasks.

Check out our CrossFit program!

Competition

Many athletes thrive on competition, and CrossFit is no exception. Because every workout focuses on measurable results, it allows you to compete with your fellow CrossFitters. If you want to ramp it up, there are events that allow gyms to compete against each other all the way up to a national level.

Not everyone wants to compete against other people though, and that’s ok. CrossFit constantly encourages you to compete against yourself. It stresses that in the end, it only matters that you do better than you did yesterday.

What else do I need to know?

As with any workout program, there are some shortcomings in a CrossFit regimen. When we asked Ryan what some of these were, he said, “CrossFit focuses a lot on big compound movements, but for someone who doesn’t have a fitness background, just doing these movements can lead to an imbalance.” So for instance, military folks often have over developed upper traps from carrying body armour and rucks. They need to focus on accessory movements and isolation exercises to help regain balance in their muscles so that they don’t get inured. This is just something to keep in mind when beginning a CrossFit regimen. A good coach will recognize these imbalances and help you work to correct them.