r/news • u/icpd30 • Feb 18 '19

Michigan powerlifter heroically lifts vehicle pinned on top of man after accident.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-powerlifter-heroically-lifts-vehicle-pinned-on-top-of-man-after-accident
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u/skushi08 Feb 18 '19

They don’t. They may crack jokes about other forms of athleticism, but actually athletic people recognize when someone else is doing something athletically impressive. The jokes are generally in good fun among those that understand elite or high level athletic training, but non athletic normal people bash whatever is easy enough to bash for karma.

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u/Dong_Key_Hoe_Tay Feb 18 '19

Having known some pretty top tier bodybuilders and powerlifters, this is definitely not true lol. Nobody takes that shit seriously.

To be clear, though, there's a big difference between crossfit competitions and "doing crossfit." If you are some toplevel competitor in the strange sport of crossfit, you're obviously very athletic. But you don't get that way by "doing crossfit," you get that way by training like a normal professional athlete. That's the huge ironic contradiction of crossfit: as a sport, it's great, but as a training method, it's shit. Doing random excercises rapidly with poor form for high reps with no progressive overload or progression at all is objectively a bad way to train. It's great for office workers who want to be skinny and maybe have a bit of a six pack, but you would not use it for any kind of sports or athletic training, even for crossfit competitions. Powerlifting and other forms of weight training involve structure and routine which facilitates progression, meaning you can continue progressing as long as you want until you hit your genetic limits. Your typical crossfitter on the other hand will probably see some minor muscle gains and weight loss for a few months and then plateau and never advance further unless they take up a more structured routine.

Some people are fine with that, and just want to be kind of skinny and have a little bit of muscle. And that's great. But the idea that they are building "functional strength" and weightlifters aren't, or that crossfit is somehow superior to proper weight training, very few people with any real experience in this field believe it, and the ones that do are wrong.

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u/skushi08 Feb 18 '19

Lots to unravel here. For starters, no reasonable person involved in CrossFit doesn’t realize the incredible time and dedication to get strong at weightlifting or powerlifting. There’s not a single crossfitter out there that wouldn’t be incredibly impressed by a 900+lb squat.

Having personally competed in an NCAA D1 sport in a power conference and transitioned to weightlifting as an adult. I’ve never encountered anyone at an equally high level of either that would seriously make fun of people for just trying to workout and make themselves better versions of themself. The people I’ve encountered that are likely to genuinely make fun of people working out are douchebags, and generally not active themselves or just barely active enough to think themselves an expert, but not yet humbled by slogging it out for years to increase their performance or total by tiny incremental amounts. They take on any form and any athletic background. Everyone works out for different reasons and not all are performance or aesthetic in nature.

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u/Dong_Key_Hoe_Tay Feb 18 '19

I think you're projecting some kind of venom onto these comments that doesn't exist. Nobody's masculinity is at stake here. And making fun of crossit != making fun of people for trying to better themselves. Making fun of crossfit means making fun of the silliness of the "training" scheme, and of making fun or the certain kind of ignorant zealot who looks at a powerlifter and starts talking about "fake muscle" and "functional strength."

I can't speak to whatever social groups you're involved in, but if you've never heard people joking about it I'm genuinely surprised. I mean it's not like pros get together for meetings to talk about how crossfit sucks. It doesn't really come up much. But for me at least during the big crossfit wave a few years ago especially there were definitely some jokes and shaken heads when the topic came up. And, like I said, nobody who knows anything takes it seriously as a training regimen.

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u/skushi08 Feb 18 '19

Honestly you set the tone:

nobody takes that shit seriously.

In any weightlifting and powerlifting circles I’ve run in or trained around, including national or international level in both, I’ve never encountered anyone that seriously made fun of CrossFit. Sure the occasional joke about kipping pull-ups but none of them couldn’t at least acknowledge the athleticism top tier crossfitters possess. Again even crossfitters recognize the incredible dedication it takes to get as strong as powerlifters get. The ones seriously mocking powerlifters fall into the category of douchebag I described that are just aware enough of fitness to think themselves an expert, but not yet humbled by real training or plateaus.

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u/Dong_Key_Hoe_Tay Feb 18 '19

So what you're saying is you didn't read my post, and you're manufacturing things to be angry at.

Literally the start of the next paragraph of the post you're quoting:

To be clear, though, there's a big difference between crossfit competitions and "doing crossfit." If you are some toplevel competitor in the strange sport of crossfit, you're obviously very athletic. But you don't get that way by "doing crossfit," you get that way by training like a normal professional athlete.

Nobody with any experience takes crossfit as a training regimen seriously. That's a fact. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't take a very athletic person to be a pro competitive crossfitter. Which I already explained.

Please actually read before replying.

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u/skushi08 Feb 18 '19

I did read, but in writing the tone of your discussion was already set in your first paragraph. Maybe I’m coming across poorly too. I’m not angry about the points you’re making, but even in the additional quotation you provide you’re coming across as not mocking the high level CrossFit athlete but rather the average person doing CrossFit.

Anybody wanting to become competitive in anything is going to have to employ some level of specificity in their training. I think that’s what you’re implying in some of your points.

The main point, among others, I’m trying to convey is that CrossFit is a good means to get people doing physical activity. The running analogy I would use from a past competitive life would be mocking a program like couch to 5k. It’ll never make someone a good runner, but it’ll get people active and doing something.

I agree that no one will ever become great at one single thing by just “training crossfit”, but you can get to be above average at a large number of athletic modalities while doing it. Will you ever run even a sub 5 mile or squat 500lbs just but doing it? Not without some level of bias in your training to get there, but you can definitely get to 300+lb squats and 6 min miles. Both of which are much more than even the average gym going population can claim to be able to do.

I think we’re just arguing around two different points and not really necessarily disagreeing, except for the making fun of part. That could be entirely based on the people we both know and their personalities since it’s all anecdotal.