Should I say something?(dogcrap personal trainer at my gym)

[McIrish]

Ha..everything you just said describes the last 3 months of my life. It's wild how much your performance can change in everyday life. One example I use is that I can get an in-the-park homerun in my softball league (i'm not that good. they're just easy to get) where I sprint full-blast around the bases. I get back to the dugout and my breathing has barely increased..not much more than rotting up a flight of stairs. Meanwhile..any of my teammates does the same thing and they're bent over trying to get their breath back. I had no idea how much my overall strength/conditioning/physique could improve using crossfit. It's just...amazing.

We're on a busy road, too, so I often wonder what people think when they see me running with a stack of fire hose, or running 400m backwards, or doing burpee broad jumps as a team..lol

They probably don't think that much of it... unless at least 50% of the guys in the WOD are shirtless!

We have winter-time WODS (and this is in busted-ass cold mid-Atlantic region) where half the crew is shirtless (yours truly included) because it's hilarious watching people slamming down 20 oz. whipped cream lattes at the nearby cafe while we're out busting our humps doing 400s outside. Is it better for fitness? No. Camaraderie and community spirit? Most assuredly.

They haven't had us do any fire-hose running, though. That would be pretty sweet. Part of tomorrow's is sandbag cleans and tosses over a rack, so I'm pretty excited about that. We don't get enough chances to lift up oddly-shaped things at the gym.

Burpee broad jumps? I vomited just thinking about those. They seem so deceptively easy and something that a little kid would love doing... why is it that they make me want to die?

[f=ma]

my old gym used to have a bunch of kids who would hog the barbells doing WODs in the afternoon.. they would be doing their BS with empty barbells and underarmor shirts/shorts. very irritating.. one of the main reasons i went early AM

[chevelle2291]

my old gym used to have a bunch of kids who would hog the barbells doing WODs in the afternoon.. they would be doing their BS with empty barbells and underarmor shirts/shorts. very irritating.. one of the main reasons i went early AM

Lol, I like how you just come in here and $hit on the Crossfit parade. LMFAO.

[Tom Mutaffis]

I've been going to this gym, or as they like to call it "wellness and fitness center". Nonetheless, I go there because I can't go to my school weight room because it's summer. I go there 3/4 times a week depending on how tired I'm feeling after HCT-12. I'd say twice a week I see this wunder trainer named Laurie Caw doing exercises with her "elite athletes" that IMO anyways are pretty lame. Most of these kids have been with her for several years, none of them have gotten any larger or even faster or more flexible. They always complain about how hard she works them, yet they don't do anything super hard or intense.

Anyways, I have digressed. A kid I know named Alex is working with her, and threw out his back. Alex is a hockey player, and I suggested maybe doing some GHR's and/or good mornings to make his posterior chain a little less weak. After explaining to him what they were, he said she doesn't like doing exercises with a lot of weight because it stops them from being "fast and flexible". Sort of sounds like crap to me, but hey I'm just a teenager. So the question basically is, should I tell Alex that she's a garbage trainer, or am I being affected by the arrogance of youth?

You would most likely be wasting your time and creating more problems than it is worth by saying something to the trainer. I am sure that she firmly believes in her methods and being questioned by someone is just going to make her defensive.

One way to approach the situation is to maybe grab an article from Defranco or someone with a good reputation in sports training and share it with her by saying something like "Hey I know that you work with a lot of athletes and thought that you might be interested in this program, it seems to be quite popular".

Chances are that she will not even take the time to look into things but at least you can know that you tried to make a difference.

[WBBIRL]

Even if her methods are poor the fact is everyone's body responds differently to different programs...

About 2 years ago I was about as motivated and driven as I've EVER been as far as becoming bigger and stronger except I was cautious about piling on weight . I was doing a hybrid westside/DC routine that was working VERY well for me. Almost the best any program has ever done for me. I did a modified run of builts "Baby got back" routine and I never was able to pile on strength so fast and even wound up losing weight.

What works for you won't work for them and so on. Some people respond much better to higher volume while others respond better to low volume high intensity lifting.


She does sound misinformed though

[Iplan]

I wouldn't say anything.....

I would work your program up against hers...... and see who comes out better in the areas you are both training.....

BTW, A friend of mine is a Navy SEAL, and he was telling me that they are all into Crossfit. There is something to being able to bench your body weight 10 times, do 15 chinups, and run a 6 minute mile (especially if you can do all of those exercises in 10 minutes).

One other thing: I watched a guy bench 400 lbs on flat bench the other day. I was impressed, until he had to struggle to get up off the bench (unable to perform a single situp I guess)....... It sort of turned my stomach.

[Astreocclu]

Well theres no way that she is doing legitimate crossfit, cause even if i do somewhat disagree with crossfit for sport specific training, these kids definately dont see that kind of improvement, especially on big lifts. These are the kind of kids that are impressed when you warm up with 155 on squat.

[Alex.V]

[I]BTW, A friend of mine is a Navy SEAL, and he was telling me that they are all into Crossfit. There is something to being able to bench your body weight 10 times, do 15 chinups, and run a 6 minute mile (especially if you can do all of those exercises in 10 minutes).

Honestly, bud... if you think any of those are remotely impressive, even put together, you might wanna take another look at your concept of performance.

Crossfit has its place, but like any other workout regime, 95% of its advocates and adherents do a mediocre job of understanding its purpose, and therefore getting results.

[Maki Riddington]

It sounds like they may be doing some kind of Crossfit-inspired workouts. Several members at my CF affiliate wear the Five Fingers shoes and I'm told they're 100% worth it. I wear Nike Free 7.0's but I think the FF will be in my life soon.

So anyway..this lady is probably certified and has a lot of experience. And you said yourself that you're just a kid and there's nothing wrong with that either. The thing is..we (myself included) tend to get an eliteist view on the fitness world after all our reading and informational exchanges. We think we know what will work and what will NOT work, and what's smart and what's stupid, and what's useful/useless, etc.

So, armed with that "knowledge," we get critical and judgemental of what we see around us. When I was more in that mindset, it seemed like EVERYONE was doing it wrong. Everyone was using bad form. Everyone was incorporating useless movements into their workout. Everyone's workout made no sense to me because it wasn't a regimented, structured routine with the goal of hypertrophy. I thought cardio was mostly useless as a tool for physical goals (in certain situations or whatever), and so on and so forth. And while I'm sure some of that was true, I've come to realize since then that a significant portion of what I learned on WBB was either incorrect, or just not the all-encompassing answer that it was conveyed to be. That's not a knock on WBB or its contributor content, but just an effect of having thousands of opinions from members that may or may not be correct.

So...you should probably just stay out of it. The harsh reality is that she probably knows what she's doing and although her methodology may not make sense to you it still has a legitimate purpose. Without even knowing what exercises you're seeing, I can tell you that it's probably a lot of the same stuff we do at Crossfit. And if I had seen people doing those movements a year ago I'd have laughed and silently thanked myself for knowing "the truth" about what does and doesn't work.

The fact is, though, that I had no idea what fitness, strength, agility and stamina were until 3 months ago and I've made more gains in those 3 months of CF than I did in the 5 years prior. And armed with that knowledge, I've basically thrown out most of what I held as "absolutes" with regard to fitness and the body's response to challenges.

Very well said.