Witness the Fitness
- Thread starter luka
- Start date
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I'm on break from here but this is so wrong I have to make an exception
or it's right, except exactly in reverse. doing construction will never make anyone remotely as strong as dedicated strength training.
if you were only doing isolation training like curls or whatever, sure. but no one trains like that, not even bodybuilders.
doing compound lifts - squat, deadlift, overhead press, etc - is the single best way to become "functionally" strong.
of course, there is biomechanical crossover between some of those lifts and some kinds of manual labor.
the idea that "gym muscles" look different from "work muscles" is a myth of people who aren't unfamiliar with one or both
most of the dudes I lift with - or did before COVID - are construction workers, and their muscles looks exactly the same as everyone else's
linebaugh
Well-known member
maybe he meant folksy, blue collar strength only given by god for loving and serving your country
@Linebaugh we have a lot of big white SUVs here
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
there is some truth in this, tho "functional strength" is a loaded term that can mean different things
it was more of a general dissatisfaction with existing approaches to fitness
fitness (and nutrition) are like money, or computer security - no one besides experts actually knows anything and if you're not an expert figuring out who to trust was/is very difficult, and it's always been full of hucksters and snake oil salesman looking to make a buck.
Crossfit is yet another iteration - a relatively early one - of the optimization of everything. kind of like mixed martial arts, actually - put everything together, see what actually produces the best results, in a (relatively) scientific fashion. and the results were undeniable.
CF gyms are undeniably hugely expensive and open more or less only to the affluent and/or supremely dedicated. tho I have known some places that did things like subsidized memberships, or work-trade.
the Glassman stuff didn't surprise me at all. the "main site" as it's called has been right-wing as hell since the beginning. most of the initial named workouts are named after soldiers killed in Iraq/Afghanistan, cops, etc. nowadays that really varies by what gym you're at. the once I used to go to immediately announced it was no longer going to be a CF affiliate. Glassman was never openly racist (to my knowledge) before but he's exactly the kind of old white dude you'd expect to tip into it over BLM, Trump, stupid conspiracy bullshit, etc
You got any pointers on who is and isn't worth trusting?
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
also in re: "functional" any kind of training has some kind of goal in mind, which may be more or less specialized
i.e. endurance athletes (runners, cyclists) do very specific training that makes them extremely good at their discipline but not very "overall fit" if that's taken to include strength, explosiveness, etc
powerlifters would be at the other end of the specialization spectrum, incredibly strong, no endurance
Crossfit - and any other high-intensity interval training (HIIT) - is about splitting the difference to optimize overall fitness, i.e. a true specialist should be able to outdo a CF person in that specialty but in a general competition - i.e. the Crossfit Games - including many elements of fitness the CF person should prevail. in practice, a ton of high-level CF people also have a background in gymnastics or Olympic weightlifting or what have you.
construction is likely closer to general fitness, depending on what exactly you're doing - where it does have an advantage over the gym (as a person who's spent years doing a physical job) is in conditioning you to the mental/physical fatigue of full 8-10 or whatever hour day, whereas the gym for anyone who's not a personal trainer/gym owner is about getting the most you can out of the limited time you have available
also - I always distinguish between capital-C Crossfit the business entity - Reebok, ESPN, affiliates, etc - and the lower-case crossfit as an approach to fitness, which is similar to any other kind of HIIT approach
i.e. endurance athletes (runners, cyclists) do very specific training that makes them extremely good at their discipline but not very "overall fit" if that's taken to include strength, explosiveness, etc
powerlifters would be at the other end of the specialization spectrum, incredibly strong, no endurance
Crossfit - and any other high-intensity interval training (HIIT) - is about splitting the difference to optimize overall fitness, i.e. a true specialist should be able to outdo a CF person in that specialty but in a general competition - i.e. the Crossfit Games - including many elements of fitness the CF person should prevail. in practice, a ton of high-level CF people also have a background in gymnastics or Olympic weightlifting or what have you.
construction is likely closer to general fitness, depending on what exactly you're doing - where it does have an advantage over the gym (as a person who's spent years doing a physical job) is in conditioning you to the mental/physical fatigue of full 8-10 or whatever hour day, whereas the gym for anyone who's not a personal trainer/gym owner is about getting the most you can out of the limited time you have available
also - I always distinguish between capital-C Crossfit the business entity - Reebok, ESPN, affiliates, etc - and the lower-case crossfit as an approach to fitness, which is similar to any other kind of HIIT approach
Re. Crossfit my main critique would be that the level of intensity that's offered up in most workouts is going to destroy you unless you're 20 years old and have an iron constitution. I know you're meant to scale them but I'd have to scale back so far I might as well do something else entirely.
Was totally unsurprised about Glassman also. I remember reading Crossfit years ago and him posting climate change denial articles on rest days. Exactly that sort of character, as you say.
Was totally unsurprised about Glassman also. I remember reading Crossfit years ago and him posting climate change denial articles on rest days. Exactly that sort of character, as you say.
To it's credit, Crossfit has completely revived the Olympic lifts. Idk what their was status in the US but it was a Oly lifting was a real minority thing here, and it's now much closer to the fitness mainstream. I don't wanna say it's in *the mainstream* as I doubt you could find a lifting platform in most big gyms but far far closer than it was.
Padraig put me onto Marcus Filly a few months back. I hesitate to say it's been lifechanging but it's certainly been lockdown changing
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
Marcus Filly, mentioned elsewhere I think, 100%
I don't want to name the actual gym I used to go but if you want you can DM me and I'll give you their website/IG, they post stuff every day and unlike some CF gyms are good about not crushing people to dust with unachievable programming, and also it's a cool place run by cool dudes (i.e. not right-wing meathead whatever types)
it really depends what you're looking for, I follow a lotta people on IG. one I'll mention is Kettlebell Kings, people send them workouts that they post all the time.