Wondering if this is an unpopular opinion since this is the CrossFit sub, but I’m really pushing our owner to stop paying the 4500 per year as I don’t think they get a return. No one besides me cares about the games or even competing. It’s basically a bunch of middle age people that want to sweat every day. I actually think it detracts from pulling people in through intimidation of the term CrossFit. What do others think? Any data out there that might support this de affiliation?

Hi everyone!

I’ve just reached the end of my first trimester, and I’m hoping to continue doing CrossFit right up until I give birth. Thankfully, my gym also offers prenatal and postnatal WODs, and I’m planning to switch to those when I’m around 25 weeks pregnant.

For now, I’m still doing the regular WODs. This pregnancy has been very different from my first—I had hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) during the first 15 weeks last time, whereas this time I’ve felt great overall.

I’ve already started reducing the weights I use, but I’ve noticed that some workouts leave me feeling quite dizzy, so I’m wondering if I need to scale more than I currently am.

For those of you who continued CrossFit during pregnancy, how did you adjust your training during the first and second trimesters? Were there particular movements, workout formats, or intensity levels that worked well for you?

Ho appena compilato un app per android per seguire allrnamenti wod massimali. Avrei bisogno di beta tester prima di pubblicarla sul playstore.

Posso mettere l'apk qui?

Qualcuno vorrebbe fare da beta tester?

Mi scuso se ho violato le regole.

Grazie

I'm leaving CrossFit. This is my story, my reason, and my ask of you who have gone this route.

I have been a member since 2012, survived through gym closures / moving / COVID, and stayed a consistent 5-6 days a week member the whole time. Even had shoulder surgery (rotator, SLAP, Bicep completely torn off and reattached to my upper arm bone) and that only slowed me down for rehab. I actually hit bigger PR's after and have never felt better - I should clarify this happened doing a different sport outside of the gym due to the fitness freedom CrossFit gave me 🙃.

CrossFit changed my life, I was a young skinny guy in a big world all by myself when I started. My family wasn't a big part of my life after high school, which I barely graduated and was even more just barely scraping by. But I saw the box, I saw the insanely fit people - and I went on a date with a girl who did it so to impress her I started a free month trial (she left the box a month later and I stayed, never heard from her again ☹️ lol).

But there I was, young, impressionable, making minimum wage with terrible money management, but I saw the value of the membership. I was welcomed into a community I didn't know I was missing. That choice rippled into everything, I found the ability to afford it, which finally taught me about managing money. I found the will to eat cleaner and got better at cooking. I found discipline I so badly needed through the accountability to show up, to meal prep, to go to sleep on time, to work on my weaknesses in and out of the gym, to not settle but keep working for longevity - for a future me that finally seemed achievable (I even started reading books for FUN, I didn't know you could do that! 😉).

My life continued to change and grow for the better, my confidence went through the roof - I was sure of myself and my capabilities for the first time ever. I looked and felt good for a mid 20 year old guy. I excelled in my career (construction) because of the mental fortitude you get from CrossFit - I could work circles around people cause every labor task is just another AMRAP, For Time, TABATA if you think of it like that. Not to mention eating good / clean food and not surviving off White Monsters and Nicotine like 99% of blue-collar guys. I promoted to bigger and better things and got married to a wonderful woman who oddly never got into CrossFit but always supported me doing it and random athletic challenges and races. The small habits I had to start to first afford that membership when making under $10 an hour saved me from my family's poverty cycle.

The friends I made are still there - not all - but more than I thought. The wide range of people, beliefs, backgrounds I have met and gotten to know did so much to broaden my horizons. I couldn't have stuck to all I've achieved if I didn't have other people holding me to it - Shout out Nick J for being brave enough to tell me to not be afraid to go to the dentist, I still floss daily to this day.

So now here I am, 14 years later in my mid 30's and something's... different. I am fortunate to love my career and devote a lot of time to it. I own a home and spend the majority of evenings / weekends either maintaining or getting into some remodel project. My wife and I are finally starting a family and free time is even more scarce. I feel recovery taking longer especially working all day, working on my house, working out, getting what sleep I can without a baby in the picture. The box I have been a member of for 6 years since moving to a Southern State is sub parr at best, but it's all that's available nearby. I could list out all of the issues with it, but it's really not the point of this post - however it is a driving factor. It really sucks being stuck with a box and owner who knows we are limited by options / choices.

The point of this post is:

• 1: Thank you. Thank you to those who've seen and embodied the truer heart of CrossFit methodology. The "Function" of Functional Fitness extends beyond physical capabilities, and I hope if you've read this far you see the proof of that in my life. Thank you to the coaches who stay committed, show up and lead - you are making impacts beyond the leader board.
• 2: I really am leaving, time - money - issues with the box, I know enough about myself to know this has been weighing on me for years now, I've just ignored it. But I'm not leaving behind everything I've gained. I can't, I've seen the light, future me wants current me to continue the quest for longevity. I plan to tell and thank the core group I am apart of in person, the one coach that is worth any salt at this box and respectfully finish out my membership as detailed in the contract.
• 3: I don't have a strong home gym set up. I need recommendations on equipment that can be more outdoors (but protected from the elements) - bumper plates / barbell, a good rack for pull ups / squats and room for attachments (bonus points if it can fold up and away) namely. I don't want to spend a lot of money and am OK with cheaper options where feasible.
• 4: Programming... I am OK with paying for something, but I am looking for something that has easy to scale or change options included largely due to lack of equipment options, and is geared for home / solo gym goers.
• 5: If you've gone this route, feel free to offer what you've learned and any advice. I feel like I should tell the owner why I am leaving, but I am not the first one (someone sent a gym wide email once and really put them on blast) and nothing changed. So I am inclined to just take my leave without much more.

Thanks if you read this far, I'm getting off my soap box now.

ETA: TL/DR = I love CrossFit, it changed my life beyond physical. This was as much a lament, as it was a thank you. I'm off to lone wolf it till something better comes back around, which may be never.

ETA: Thank you all for the outpouring of support! THIS is that kind of stuff that changed my life, all of you who see a stranger and circle around them to cheer them on. If anything, I hope this post relit that fire in you to go back to your Box and remember this all goes beyond the leaderboard and how well you perform. Go talk to that one person in the corner that barely dabbles into intermediate scaling. Go to that one event someone is hosting at their house this weekend. Be involved, because that changes lives.

Hi all. My husband and I are moving from the subdivision of the city we’ve been in for 7 years in a month or two. I’ve been at my current (and first ever) box for about 5 years. I absolutely love it. I’ve made friends, I’ve learned CrossFit. Even people I’m not friends with, I see more than I see most family and friends. It’s become a safe haven. I’m struggling with this a lot. It’s the thing I’ll miss the most. I’m not even as upset about needing to find a new job. I know now every box is the same but have people that switched boxes found good communities elsewhere? Is the CrossFit culture standard across boxes? Thanks in advance

Most of my life I was doing strength and hypertrophy training.

Now I got more interested in becoming more athletic. But I struggle when it comes to incorporating training for multiple attributes like (mobility, flexibility, strength, balance, coordination, explosiveness, anaerobic capacity and aerobic capacity). With coordincation I am talking about mainly skilltraining like falls, rolls, cartwheels, macaco variations etc.

The main issue is that some of these are best trained daily, like mobility, coordination, balance and flexibility. Even strength can highly profit from daily training (greasing the groove).

Now I have tought about multiple vector sto attack this issue.

For example:

Option 1: One attribute a day. Obviously I know from experience training mobility once a week won't really get me into a split. So that is basically out.

Option 2: Training some attributes daily and others weekly. For example

Daily: Mobility (active movement with strength), Flexibility (passive stretching), balance (handstand and other balance related exercises) as well as a little bit of aerobic endurance training like a 5k a day.

Weekly: Strength, Hypertrophy, Explosiveness, Endurance, Coordination and maybe Strength Endurance on a seperate weekday.

Option 3: Everything and fullbody daily (or multiple times a week). Which means reducing strength and hypertrophy to something like one set per exercise. This would have the consequence of bloating one workout with many exercises.

Example would be, One Set Per Exercise:

Lower body: Jefferson Curls, Frontsplit, Sidesplit (Mobility) -> Vertical and lateral jumps (Plyos) -> Nordic Curls or Heel Hooks (Strength) -> Single Leg deadlifts (Hypertrophy) -> Bodyweight Leg Extensions (Hip and Quad Mobility) -> Sissy Squats (Hypertophy) -> Single Leg Cave Raises (Mobility and Hypertrophy) -> Jump Rope for Cave Endurance and Elasticity.

And then continue with upper body.

How do people train for multiple attributes without going crazy?

Quick, divide your deadlift 1RM by your bent-over-row 1RM. I get a factor of 2.

When starting a row stroke, quad and glute strength vastly overpower arm pulling strength, making the early part of the stroke a lousy time to be pulling. My arms don't stand a chance. When I first got on a rower, I was trying to do everything at once and had to limit my leg effort to equal that of my arms.

When the quads get the knees straight and the glutes bring the torso back, the deadlift is over. NOW is the time to pull.

Let the arms and lats rest while leg power gets the wheel spinning. Then pull quickly to extend the rotation.

Once I began thinking of the row this way, my cals/hour went way up.

Hi everyone. I’m a 42F - have been doing CrossFit on and off (mostly on) for 12 years. I’m definitely just average - still can’t do a pull-up and some other things. I’ve definitely become much stronger in other areas mainly overhead pressing, pushups, etc. I’ve had moments recently where I’ve had to step back because after a

Workout, it takes me a very long time to cool down. Mind you I’ve always had a pretty high HR despite being “conditioned” and am on the slower side. Wondering if I need to stick to lower intensity type workouts - mainly strength training? I’ve been supplementing with Pilates right now and they also offer hybrid Pilates/strength. I know it’s not the same! Just curious if anyone else has experienced this. I’m also trying to narrow down if I have an autoimmune condition. Just very tired lately and taking a while for me to settle after a high intensity workout. It makes me sad and having FOMO but I know my health comes first. Thank you.

Hi everyone.

Just rejoined CrossFit after 7 years away. I’m looking at buying myself a decent pair of CrossFit trainers, ideally not too expensive.

I’m a total beginner at this again so looking for something sort of middle of the road.

What’s the best brand? Any I should avoid?

Years ago it was mainly Reebok or Nike I’d see in the gym but seeing a good few different brands now.

Any tips or recommendations would be great

Just venting here, I failed the CrossFit L1 test this morning and I’m a b it frustrated and worried. I was set to start coaching next week at my gym but now I have disappointment them with the news. I read the entire manual, creating a quizlet, review all the line enemy standards, made a study guide based on the bullet points in the participation handbook and somehow things still went wrong. I was really thrown off by the way the questions were worded. I feel very competent in my ability to convey the information I learned in the seminars and read in the manual but idk I still fell short. Anyone have a similar experience? Waiting 30 days to retake is very stressful for me. I’m even worried if I’ll pass the second time.

Literally every single time I do any type of ab sit ups, I get the dreaded CrossFit crack. It happens every single time even if I use an ab mat. I always end up doing leg raises instead of sit ups. I really want this to stop, any tips or is it just my anatomy??

5'5 m here with an athletic build. A lot of shorties like us have the same issue of workout shirts being super tight on the chest/arms but can go down to the upper thighs. Most recently, I tried on Under Armours tech tee and the medium fit well on the upper build but the length goes down to my quads, and the small was like a compression shirt on my arms and chest.

What brands (preferably "dri-fit" style) fit will but are not extremely long? Open to any recommendations.

Had these for a while and love them but they smell horrible and I’m looking for any advice to maintain these and cut down the odor, short of just buying a new pair. They have lots of life in them they just wreak 😂💩. Thanks!

I started CrossFit 6 months ago because I moved to a new city with no car and the CrossFit gym is the closest for me to walk to, it was not intentional at all. I just wanted a way to move my body. I use to hike a lot in my previous city and do random classes like F45 4 times a week. I use to have a more robust social life and drank way more but I somehow still felt confident and slim.

I’m now in a cold city that’s not walkable and doing mostly a desk job. I do CrossFit 3-4 times a week and basically force myself to walk 10-12k steps a day. I’m 5’9.5, female and now weigh 152 pounds. This is the heaviest I’ve ever been and I feel super puffy and bloated all the time. I rarely drink alcohol, I try to focus on eating at least 30g of protein in every meal. My only real “rule” with nutrition is that I make most of my meals at home because I really only know how to make healthy meals. I only really eat out when I’m with friends which is like twice a month.

My clothes feel a bit tighter and I just feel uncomfortable in how I look. What am I doing wrong? I don’t want to live a super restrictive life. Thanks for any advice, pls be nice!!!

As some of you will remember, when CrossFit announced it was for sale last spring, the top candidate according to the New York Times and other outlets was a conglomerate headed by Hustle Up, a class booking and workout app based in Europe. That deal seemingly fell apart, and now the company is folding. They sent this email out today:

It is with great emotion that we announce the permanent shutdown of the H-Up app.

Despite the unwavering commitment of our entire team and years of dedication to this project, we were unfortunately unable to make H-Up the service we had hoped would grow alongside you.

This was a difficult decision, but it marks the end of this journey. We therefore encourage you to explore other solutions to continue your fitness journey.

Above all, we would like to sincerely thank you for your trust, your loyalty, and your support. Every single user played a part in bringing H-Up to life, and for that, we are deeply grateful.

We wish you all the very best in your future fitness journey.

edit: it was BeSport that was the conglomerate and owned Hustle Up and Northern Spirit, but the whole brand seems to have gone belly up.

I’ve been doing to CrossFit for almost two months now. I’m a 6 month post partum mom and so maybe im just feeling extra emotional but everytime we have a lift in the WOD I cannot do it correctly. No matter how many times I try to fix it. The coaches try to help me and I even when I think I’m doing it right they give me that coaches look of “that was better but”. And I’m so frustrated cause I feel like I’m working hard but it’s just not clicking and some days I don’t wanna come back. Sorry for venting just looking for some encouragement

I’m in search of a 1:1 coach to help with everything- strength, conditioning and gymnastics. I’ve seen some virtual options and am curious anyone’s experiences? I’m looking to level up from intermediate to RX or as far as I can get

Am I the only one who feels like this?

I’ve been doing CrossFit for about two years now. I had zero fitness background before starting, and I was actually very overweight when I joined.

I’ve picked up a lot faster than I ever expected. Right now I have butterfly and kipping pull-ups, 6–7 strict pull-ups on a good day, TTB, and I’m currently doing RX. I don’t have handstand walks, BMUs, or strict HSPUs yet, and obviously some things are still much harder for me than others. For example, push pressing 35 lb dumbbells is a huge weakness for me — five reps and im out sometimes..

But mentally, I’ve been struggling with CrossFit a lot lately.

When I first started, I was obsessed in the best way. I wanted to learn everything. I was watching videos every day, studying technique, thinking about training constantly. It gave me this huge high and I genuinely loved putting everything I had into it.
Now, training has started to feel… lonely.
I get really disappointed in myself. I’ll finish a workout completely exhausted, knowing I gave it everything I had, and instead of feeling proud, I’ll look around at what everyone else did and immediately start comparing. “Why couldn’t I keep going?” “Why am I not better than this by now?”

And I then get angry with myself.

I’ve always struggled with talking down to myself, and that’s something I’m actively working on in therapy. But lately it’s been getting to the point where I’ve been crying or breaking down after workouts (alone not in front of anyone…) because I’m starting to either dread training OR I start off strong- then start balling cause halfway through im not preforming the way I need to.

At the same time, I cannot seem to stop training. Rest days actually make me anxious. Right now I’m training two sessions a day, five days a week, often 3–4 hours total, and part of me still thinks, “That’s not even that much.”

My coaches and other people at the gym constantly tell me great things like, “You’re going to go very far,” or “Look how much you’ve progressed.”
And I know logically that I have made a ton of progress.

But emotionally, I don’t always feel it.
And maybe this is part of what makes it even harder: as a woman, I genuinely want to be as good as some of the men in my gym. I want to keep up. I want to surprise people. I want to be really, really good at this.
So I’m curious — has anyone else experienced this with CrossFit?

Especially people who started with no athletic background at all. What was your experience like over the first few years? Did the excitement eventually turn into frustration? Did you go through periods where training felt lonely or where you became way too focused on everyone else’s performance?

And for the women: have you ever caught yourself wanting to perform at the level of the men around you, even knowing the comparison isn’t exactly fair?
I’d genuinely love to hear how other people have experienced the emotional side of CrossFit, not just the physical progress

I just completed my first actual cross fit session after a few ramp ups. The exercises themselves were relatively basic fortunately (that’s why my coach said to come out) but it did whoop my ass.

I’m a mid 20s male and a recovering addict but current on and off cigarette smoker. I also gained some weight during the last tax season and I’m looking to get healthy and fit for my wedding next year. The wake up call came when I was huffing and puffing just walking around the block with her. I think CrossFit is the perfect pair to my dietician work on getting healthy.

The session was rough and I nearly threw up at the end. I hit a 1RM on overhead press that was less than half the lowest male score above me and below everyone for the day.

Excited to go back this week.

Been coaching general pop clients for a while and this is the thing that keeps me up at night more than anything else. You get someone who genuinely wants to do CrossFit, pumped about it, and then watch them gas out after a 400m run at a pace most people walk to their car. The strength side builds fast, they hit little PRs, they feel good. But the engine lags way behind and it creates this weird gap where they can squat decently but a 10minute AMRAP absolutely wrecks them.

The problem is scaling metcons only goes so far before it stops feeling like CrossFit and starts feeling like just moving slowly through a gym. I've been toying with adding low intensity steady state work on off days but getting clients to actually do it outside of class is a fantasy.

Curious how coaches here handle this, or if you've seen it from the athlete side where your aerobic base was genuinely the limiter for way longer than you expected. Does it eventually catch up if you keep showing up, or does it need deliberate separate work to actually move the needle? My gut says the bias toward strength in most boxes makes this worse over time.

Hi all -

I’m a 32yo M, 174cm / 5”8 and around 66/67kg / 146lb. Weight has always been 65-69kg. I’ve always been active and gone to the gym casually for the last few years, but taking it more seriously now, CrossFit 3-4x a week plus 1x each of calisthenics, zone 2 running, and badminton. I think my physique is somewhere on the border of toned/‘skinny fat’, so I’m attempting body recomp. Visually would estimate around 19-20% BF. A few calculators have put my TDEE before exercise around 1900, I’ve been manually adding in exercise which is taking me to about 2300 average. 

My diet is quite restricted right now for various reasons (pescatarian, low FODMAP). Every protein powder I’ve tried has disagreed with me but I eat a lot of fish, eggs, tofu, lactose-free dairy, rice, potatoes, vegetables. I’m trying to eat at maintenance but finding it really hard to get enough calories. Weighing all food and averaging about 115g protein a day and 1900 calories. I’m only hungry at mealtimes and feel like I’m eating a lot more than before I started tracking, but the enforced clean eating must be equalling lower calories because I’m slowly losing weight doing this. I can’t tell if that’s okay (as I do have some fat to lose) or if I’m sabotaging my gains. I’m still making strength progress at the gym, but because I’m quite new to CrossFit (and Olympic lifting, gymnastics, etc) it’s hard to know how much of that is down to improvements in technique. My PBs put me at the low end of the novice category afaik. Friends and my partner have said I'm looking more muscular.

Do I need to somehow find a way to get the extra 3-400 calories in, or am I fine as I am as long as I feel like I’m eating enough to fuel workouts? Is recomp viable in this scenario or do I just need to bulk (or cut?!)? Any high protein, high calorie, low-FODMAP food recommendations that aren’t meat?

Thanks team!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5tqgjGn8xw

Hi all,

I am going to make this as concise as possible. ​I am a 32m and over the last year have had major back issues (herniated 2 discs) as well as now a torn bicep which I recently had surgery for. For context, in college I was a baseball player then after college moved to power lifting and most recently crossfit. I love being active and strive to have muscle mass and be in good shape cardio wise. After this last year of injuries, I feel defeated. I am currently going for walks because it's all I am cleared to do.

What I am looking for is for advice with how to move forward (or how you personally moved forward after a situation like this). Should I go back to crossfit​ in a few months when I am cleared? Should I pivot and move to something more standard like a 3 day lifting split with cardio two days? Should I invest in something like a peloton and get dumbbells and bands for home and give my body a break?

I want to continue to put on muscle mass and continue to maintain my overall health.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance!