What does CrossFit do more for athletes: good or bad? Many believe that this sport does not tolerate weakness – the number of workouts per week can only be limited by free time. Free 7 days a week – that means all 7 days you need to plow in the gym, because healthy lifestyle is above all. It is known that crossfit fans are healthy and strong people who keep their bodies in exceptional shape. But how good is CrossFit for your health? Today we will try to figure out when training will be beneficial, and when your burpees will only harm him.
Benefits of crossfit training
We will not write hackneyed phrases here – “a healthy mind in a healthy body” and similar banal stuff. It is clear that going in for any sport (well, except that chess will be the exception to the rule) is much more useful than lying on the couch. If you train in moderation and according to all the rules, then the benefits of this are obvious.
Crossfit is another matter: is there any benefit from it in comparison with other sports? Maybe you shouldn’t force your body idle – after all, they say that only harm is from it? Here are some reasons why it’s worth it:
Strength of the Spirit
Let’s start with the motivational component of the benefits of CrossFit: you will harden not only your body, but also your spirit. Most of the workouts take place in group sessions and, although it is believed that there is no direct competition between athletes (everyone has different weights, experience, shape, etc.), willy-nilly you cannot ignore your neighbors. This seriously motivates you to complete the exercise – not to give up and complete the whole complex. As you become a more experienced CrossFit athlete, you will most likely stop paying attention to the results of others and start competing with your biggest rival – yourself. And in an environment where you don’t have the option to lose or surrender, you will win over and over again.
Endurance and functionality
Crossfit is, first of all, high-intensity and functional training. As a result, you will become more resilient in all respects: you can tirelessly move grandmothers across the road, get tired much less at work, easily dig potatoes and make repairs without straining. Functionality will add a lot of useful skills to you – you can climb a rope, walk on your hands and row fiercely. “What’s the use here?” – you ask. It will come in handy – you never know what is around the corner.
Appearance
For many, oddly enough, this is very important. And although this is a matter of taste, but taking into account the modern canons of a beautiful body, it should be noted that CrossFit athletes and athletes have an amazingly athletic and beautiful figure. (And, since we touched on this issue, many girls are afraid of becoming “pumped” like eminent CrossFit stars. Don’t worry! You will only face this if you decide to make CrossFit your life’s business. Just go to any site and look at experienced girls who have been training for a long time, and everything will become clear to you).
Health
Is CrossFit good for your health? Definitely yes! Your body will say thank you. When combined with the right nutrition, CrossFit will strengthen your body like never before, and it will reward you. You will feel better in general, sleep better, worry less about your sores – in short, you will be healthy.
Is there enough evidence for CrossFit? In our opinion, more than.
Harm from crossfit training
But not everything is cloudless in our sky – in any barrel there is always some kind of nasty stuff. Of course, CrossFit can be harmful to your health, just like other sports. So, what is CrossFit dangerous and can health problems be avoided? More on this later.
Let’s start with contraindications.
Contraindications to CrossFit
When deciding whether to train in principle, it is important first of all to familiarize yourself with the contraindications to CrossFit (it is possible that you simply cannot train for medical reasons):
- In the presence of diseases of the cardiovascular or respiratory system;
- Pregnant women, as well as during breastfeeding;
- In the presence of injuries of the musculoskeletal system;
- Recently transferred surgery;
- Any acute illness;
- Acute infectious diseases;
- Diseases of the central nervous system (central unequal system);
- Diseases of the liver, kidneys and biliary and urinary tract;
- Diseases of the musculoskeletal system;
- Mental illness;
- Diseases of the digestive tract (digestive tract and gastrointestinal tract).
The complete list of contraindications to crossfit training is quite large. You can see it in full here. Quite a strict and extensive list, but, as you know, careful … In any case, if you have any doubts, only your doctor will give you the best recommendation.
Medical point of view
Is CrossFit harmful to the heart, joints, muscles and the musculoskeletal system? For those who are seriously interested in the issue, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the results of studies on the effects of training on the body, and the opinion of doctors about the benefits and dangers of CrossFit. The video is large (a little less than an hour), but with a scientific and experimental base and sufficiently answering the question about the dangers of CrossFit on human health.
Cross.Expert Portal Opinion
Let’s figure out what is the harm from doing CrossFit using everyday examples:
- Let’s start with the most popular theme – crossfit and heart. Are classes harmful? Yes, they do harm if you do them incorrectly and do not follow the training regimen. How to make this “minus” turn into a plus read in our article.
- The second dangerous moment lies in the plane of weightlifting – a component of almost any crossfit complex. This direction in sports is very traumatic – first of all, the spine and joints are in the risk zone. Incorrect exercise technique, cold muscles and joints, or trivial negligence often lead to injury. We think that it is not worth dwelling on the question for a long time – is a spinal injury somewhat dangerous for a person? How to get around this disadvantage? It’s simple – carefully follow the technique and rules of training, calculate your strength and do not set unnecessary records, and you will be happy.
- Another disadvantage in this sport lies in one of the 3 foundations of a healthy lifestyle for an athlete: effective training, proper nutrition and recovery. With recovery, punctures often happen. CrossFit fans often have overtraining syndrome – an unpleasant and sometimes dangerous thing in its extreme stages.
- This also includes one of our advantages – the team component of CrossFit. Many (especially beginners) athletes, in pursuit of records or fellow athletes, put in an excessive amount of effort and, as a result, get the 1st, 2nd or 3rd points described above. The spirit of competition is great, but you shouldn’t forget about common sense, for that it is common sense to keep you in a safe zone. Do not hurry! Everything will be there: there will be records and victories – everything will have its time.
Famous athletes about the benefits or harms of CrossFit
Sergey Badyuk sharply categorically spoke about the dangers of CrossFit:
Denis Borisov has a similar opinion:
Mikhail Koklyaev, on the other hand, has a positive attitude towards this sport (see from the 9th minute):
Detailed analysis from another famous athlete:
Today there is no evidence that crossfit is harmful, primarily due to the youth of this sport. Only discussion on forums, medical portals and social networks. Famous people also differ – there are a lot of comments on the network both for and against CrossFit from very famous athletes.
Nevertheless, there have been no victims of training yet. But at the same time, you should not calm yourself down with this and thoughtlessly approach your studies. As we said above, crossfit can cause plenty of harm, the only question is that the reason for it is the inexperience or negligence of athletes or the pursuit of records.
