Why Crossfit is Awful

While I think there is a time and place for crossfit style workouts, I think crossfit training year round is absolutley ridiculous.  Crossfit has become on of the biggest fads to ever hit the fitness industry and has grown exponentially within the past couple years.  There are several factors that make crossfit absolute hogwash:

• The majority of "crossfit coaches" out there are not qualified professionals.
• Many of these "coaches" know very little about technique, periodization, and training in general.  Typically, all it takes is a weekend course and a 50 question quiz to become a certified crossfit "coach."  Sure, there are good crossfit coaches out there.  However, a large percent of them have no idea what they are doing.
• Olympic lifts are not meant to be done in a rushed manner or against a clock.
• Olympic lifts include the clean, jerk, and snatch.  They are extremely technical and require strict form while being performed.  These movements, in sport, are used as a means of power development for athletes.  When training for power, rep ranges are from 1-5 with a relative percentage of your max and need about 2-5 minutes rest in between.  Performing a higher volume than this with less rest can fry the nervous system and cause technical failure and injury.  Here is a sample crossfit "workout of the day": Perform 6X3 of max effort deadlifts followed by 3 snatches, 6 pushups, and 9 jumps continuously for 15 minutes...
• Crossfit is not functional.
• Adding speed to bad movement patterns and form is dangerous.
• I can go into almost any crossfit gym and find that 80% of the people in there have awful form when it comes to cleans, deadlifts, and squats, yet they are encouraged to perform these exercises as fast as they can. This is a recipe for disaster and I am absolutely infuriated everytime I see a "coach" encourage somebody to go faster or heavier whenever they are not even performing the correct movement pattern to begin with. 
• Plateau
• Performing max effort workouts too many times per week will deplete you muscle tissue and fatigue your nervous system.  We become stronger at rest when we let you body adapt to the stress we just placed on it.  The body will find a way to adapt to this stress for a short time but, typically after about a month of training, crossfitters will plateau and see very little gains in their training. 

 
For more elaboration, go to:
http://convictionwp.weebly.com/1/post/2012/09/5-reasons-why-crossfit-sucks-and-drives-me-nuts.html
http://www.zenstrength.net/crossfit-nj-sucks/