First, a confession:
I know very little about CrossFit. In fact, I tend to switch off whenever someone tells me they’re into it.
I’ve never visited a box and I’ve never done a proper session aside from the occasional “Grace” or “Murph” workout (the former because it’s a laugh and the latter was something I did many years ago when I was allowed to train on work time but the on-site gym lacked resistance equipment).
However.
I am thankful for CrossFit because its mere existence shatters the nonsense that doing a lot of cardio (including steady state cardio) “killz gainz”. No serious person can look at the run times, weights lifted, and overall muscular development of competitors at even the local level and say it is so.
There are some who still cling to the idea of course. Generally speaking, it’s those who identify as powerlifters and/or bodybuilders (despite never having entered a competition).
The irony?
If they’d just sack up and go for a run, they’d probably find themselves a lot closer to what they aspire to be.
The guys and girls who want to shift big weights would have an easier time getting stronger because they wouldn’t get so gassed they need to take ten minutes between sets to recover. Hence, at the very least the density of their training would go up (they’d probably manage more volume as well), thereby facilitating greater amounts of quality work leading to more weight on the bar overall.
And the aspiring bodybuilders?
Well, they wouldn’t be so damn fat their blood runs cold at the thought of going swimming, let alone cavorting around on a stage.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that introducing meaningful amounts of cardio won’t cause some loss of strength and muscularity in the first instance.
It will. But not much, provided you’re not an idiot about it. And in any case, you’ll quickly regain whatever you lost once your body adjusts to the new demands placed upon it. Moreover, the long term upshot is such that anyone who is genuinely committed to training has nothing to worry about.
Anyway.
What I’ve just described is most of the reason why the first phase of my muscle building course is quite cardio heavy (actually, the whole course is by a lot of people’s standards), but I’ve found those who want to look good, feel good, and not suffer an untimely demise from a preventable illness tend not to mind.
If that’s you, my biased recommendation is that you check out the details immediately.
Why the rush?
Deadline’s tonight (6th) at 23:59.
I’ll respond to submissions made after that time out of courtesy, but we won’t be working together this time around.
Behold the details:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/course/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman