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CROSSFIT FIT FOR PURPOSE?

By Dr Mark Bellamy and Rob Coleman Managing Director, Leisure Lines (GB) Ltd

We are concerned that large numbers of the UK military are are better able to make critical decisions from the experience they

increasingly advocating as their training the product of the have already gained than less experienced personnel.
Crossit Company that is primarily marketing driven with
many quality training programme components seemingly absent Expert coaches and biomechanists in sport do not need to see
to facilitate the eficient mass marketing of their product? Should training injuries happen to assess whether training is both effective

there not be a debate about the eficacy of this programme before and appropriate or potentially damaging. We know that an injury is
it is widely introduced within the military as a training approach?
almost inevitable if movement is not good and good movement is
not ingrained as the primary habit. A major problem with Crossit is
Crossit seems to ignore what we know high level training looks that as a competitive activity it allows poor movements to be built

like. If we look at sport, athletes are in training for years before into training and thus become ingrained as training habits; such as
reaching potential, and the skill of a long term training programme kipping pull-ups and poor Olympic lifting done under fatigue. Poor
is that athletes develop over years with minimal injury risk through movements become habits and are likely to become the primary
training. This is important as the training is not the competition, movement habit during those ‘one off’ events that CrossFit claims
they are preparing for something speciic. Thus scheduling, to be training for. Good training will develop good movement habits

individualisation, periodization, skill development, macro and and then layer power onto that good movement. You cannot train at
micro-cycles, rest and recovery are all important components of a peak all the time and expect not to be injured, similarly you cannot
high quality programme and yet seem to be absent from Crossit train for a ‘one off’ event that is extreme by training in that manner all
programming. If Crossit is so good why aren’t top coaches and the time, you may survive un-injured if your training is good and your

sports teams using it?
movement patterns have been well grooved, but if your training is at
the level of the ‘one off’ unexpected event then you should probably
We know that the underpinning behind injury is often abusive expect your training to injure you before the ‘one off’ event occurs.
training; we do not need to see the injury itself happen to know

the training will eventually cause injury if the training is abusive. Before diving headirst into the Crossit river, let us at least check
A primary goal of training should be to push back the onset of the depth by mapping the needs of our military against the training
injuries, not make them more likely. If we can push injury back (and recovery) approaches that will provide the best it and the
through good programming and training, then we have the least number of personnel injured in training.

opportunity to maintain it and healthy injury free personnel after
10 or 12 years in the military who are expert at what they do and
www.leisurelinesgb.co.uk