Charles Poliquin on Crossfit

[Ryan Hagenbuch]

From: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...ngth_october_1

(Moderators addition: Link is "safe", although it's T-Nation, which means generalized stupidity throughout, interspersed with supplement ads in the middle of the articles to pay for it all, and barely-clothed fitness models all around to make it worth your while to go there. Ryan, if I forget to delete your account, please remember to post the "safe" (or not) designation with every link you post.)


Q: What do you think of that Crossfit stuff?

A: I have no clue what the hell that is. Is that one of those systems that's a mish-mash of everything?

Wait, I saw on article on that in Muscle & Fatness. Looked like a bunch of cachexic fitness-model wannabes searching for their souls in the weight room.

It reminds me of a Hungarian proverb: "If you only have one ***, you can't sit on two horses." If you try to do everything in your workout, you get nothing.

Another way to look at it is to think of Tim Ferris's example of wearing your underwear over your pants. It's different, and maybe even fun for some people, but it's not very effective.

No athlete has ever gotten good training like that.

Opinions?

[Andrew James]

Something tells me this one will be hitting the bucket in a few minutes.....

[George Mounce]

Opinion is he's never done CF, so he has nothing to base his baseless opinion on. Remember their goal for the most part is to get big and strong, CF's goal is to make people fit. CF works for its goal, there is no doubt about that among those who have actually gone out and given it a go.

[Steven Holm]

Originally Posted by Andrew James

Something tells me this one will be hitting the bucket in a few minutes.....

Oh, I think Pukie and Mr. Poliquin's thoughts would go great together

[Tim Luby]

However tactless his response is, we have to remember where the guy is coming from. He's an S&C coach who trains world-class athletes. To him, Crossfit is relatively useless.

I think his response is less a dig at Crossfit and more him asserting his viewpoint on GPP--which is not surprisingly--is unfavorable.

So, in all fairness, he's not completely off base (though his tone is). Crossfit is not going to be useful for the lion's share of competitive athletes.

P.S. I hope David isn't too quick to throw this one to pukie. It's about time we had a spirited discussion around here!

[Ian McArdle]

Yup, he's not worded it very well but Crossfit would be useless for his athletes. If you are training specifically for a sport, why waste valuable recovery including so much variation in your training? The point of Crossfit is to be generally good at many different facets of physical activity; the point of being an Olympic coach is to make people superb at a very distinct set of attributes. They're at cross-purposes.

[Scott Moore.]

Originally Posted by Tim Luby

However tactless his response is, we have to remember where the guy is coming from. He's an S&C coach who trains world-class athletes. To him, Crossfit is relatively useless.

I think his response is less a dig at Crossfit and more him asserting his viewpoint on GPP--which is not surprisingly--is unfavorable.

So, in all fairness, he's not completely off base (though his tone is). Crossfit is not going to be useful for the lion's share of competitive athletes.

I think the question was also worded improperly. There wasn't a context to the question, it was simply thrown out there. Also, the question had a very dissmissive tone to it, as if to say that CF is a fad. A more proper question would have been "have you tried crossfit? what type of atheletes would it apply to, if any?" or something to that effect. Instead the program is referred to as "crossfit stuff"

I think his overall tone was arrogent and unprofessional. He refused to even recognize that while CF may not benefit his atheletes, it may benefit "regular people". What's funny is that later he talks about the bruce lee principle of "adopt what is useful and reject what is not." Well how do you know if something is useful or not? You try it!

Everyone has their own methods, some prefer CF or SS, some prefer a traditional lifting/cardio approach. If it works for you, GREAT! But one shouldn't dismiss other programs just because they don't work for you.

[Matthew Stafford]

Like a lot of people here do, he is tailoring his response to get a laugh out of his audience.

How many times have you read a post on this forum poking fun at the way other coaches train their athletes? I'm sure if someone took what an affiliate said about traditional training methods and posted it over at T-Nation, the response would be the same no matter the circumstances or clientele of the trainer.

That said, I do agree with Tim and Ian.

[David Meverden]

Ian & Tim, I'm with you guys. This guys (from what I've briefly read) is a good, effective, coach for whom Crossfit training protocols would not be very useful and I won't try to convince him otherwise.

But whether or not he SHOULD like crossfit that doesn't change the fact that he clearly has little to no understanding of what Crossfit training is about and as such I'm not going to be concerned about his opinion. If he gets educated about what we do and then presents a well articulated opinion against it, it might THEN be worth discussion.

[Eddie Watts]

i agree with the reaction to get a laugh. and ian and tims remarks in general

interestingly my personal 'guru' is a S & C coach here in UK and when i mentioned it to him he was actually quite positive about it.
although he did express concern over the fast dynamic moves and over olympic lifting being taught via the net only...

but he does deal with clients with specific goals, bodybuilding shows, strongman contests, powerlifters etc and said that if you have specific training you'd be better off.

pretty much what most people post on here to say anyway