Physical Limitations of CrossFit?

Dear readers,

This article is probably very obvious to you if you are a member of Orleans CrossFit (OCF) but it might help answer questions some of your friends or family might have.

I’ve had some of my own friends and co-workers tell me this way too many times and this is why I wanted to share my thoughts on this topic.  

"I’ll get in shape and then I’ll come and do CrossFit!" or "I’m out of shape right now so CrossFit will be too hard."

Let me explain why this is so wrong!

At least you got one thing right - IT WILL BE HARD! But that really is irrelevant if you get in “shape” or not. I consider myself in a decent shape and 99% of workouts I do get me sweating buckets and lying on my back for a few minutes after trying to catch my breath. This is because I push myself to the limit I know I can take after many years of practice CrossFit. You can even scale it up and look at the top athletes in the world. If you think this is easy for them because they are in “shape” just go on YouTube and you'll see them lying on the floor after a workout (guaranteed). The reason is that they push their personal limits everyday because they are competitors.

Second, I'm sorry to tell you this but you will most likely never get in “shape” if you stick to what you know. CrossFit will have you go out of your comfort zone and this is exactly why it work! People are usually scared of CrossFit at first because it looks hard. They're not wrong, it's hard but it's hard for everyone equally. At Orleans CrossFit, we program so that no matter what your fitness level is, you'll be challenged on every single workout. For some people, this might be doing squats with a 200 lbs. bar on their shoulders, for others it might be as simple as sitting down on a bench and learning to engage the proper muscles to stand back up. Whatever it is you need help with, that’s why we always have a coach guiding every single class.

The third reason why you should start at Orleans CrossFit before “getting in shape” is because we'll make sure you perform every single movement correctly. Not only does this help prevent injuries but remember article, Volume #4, on Practice makes permanent? Now think of what you think will happen if you decide to get in shape before trying CrossFit and it turns out the movements you thought you were doing right are a little bit off. You might just be slowing down your progress and when you do decide you are fit enough to try CrossFit, wrong patterns are even more ingrained and harder to change.

At Orleans CrossFit, we're making sure our coaching skills are refined and we find scaling options for every athlete to preserve the intended stimulus of the workout. This is why it will be hard, this is why it will be hard when you start, this is why it will still be hard after 10 years of doing it, but this is why it works! This is also why it will keep you healthy, motivated and you won’t pay for a membership you don’t ever use.

That's all for now folks. If you have any topics you'd like to see address please message me at info@orleanscrossfit.ca.

Thank you for following along with The OC Articles by Orleans CrossFit.