Doing Crossfit, afraid of gaining weight.

[Jose Valdivia]

Hi, Currently doing Crossfit / HIIT 4 or 5 days a week and keeping my weight (body fat around 25%) trying to eat clean at least 5 days a week.

I will like to work on my mobility and flexibility and I know your progrmans will help me a lot; however, I am afraid that I will not have time to keep doing Crossfit / HIIT and GST at the same time.

I am also afraid of gainnig fat if I stop my Crossfit / HIIT training.

Any recomendations on how to aproach my new GST without gaining fat?

Thank you.

[Mark Collins]

Your weight will mostly be determined by what you eat. I know many overweight crossfitters that train 5 days a week. They could not train any harder, but they could eat a lot smarter.

Adjust your eating to match your training and you won't gain weight.

[Jose Valdivia]

Thank you Mark,

Will Thrive help me with that?

[Mark Collins]

Thrive is a great program that you will learn alot from and get results.

[Jose Valdivia]

Thank you.

[Marcus Patterson]

I don´t see it possible to be able to train HIIT , crossfit and give 100% to this training program. You will see that it is very demanding if you try it, and will not have the time or energy to do the other two also. You would never recover sufficiently to progress well at any of them. 

 

That is besides the fact that I think anyone doing cross(shit) is a bit mental knowing the history of injuries and the fact you can open a box with a weekend course in training people. Not to mention the scarcely there programming. 

[Dan Powell]

I Am 54 and was a CrossFit lover for about a year until I got Frozen Shoulder due to poor mobility and improper form. Finally after 4 years I'm making my way back into a fitness program. While I have just started GST, this definitely seems to be the healthier/safer way to go. 

[Anne DeMartini]

My experience and anxieties may be similar to yours, so I hope you find this helpful. I came from an intense CrossFit background (6x/week) with a lot of fear of gaining weight. I originally planned to both train there and to swim, or do additional HIIT, to maintain my weight. However, I ended up solely training at the gym, with no additional metcons. I really enjoyed it, continued to eat the exact same as always, and my weight stayed almost the same (maybe a few pounds less - which may be muscle loss since I was no longer lifting heavy, or it could be my body settling with less cortisol - which peaks with high intensity exercise). What I discovered: 1. one needs to determine goals and train to reach them. If you really want to do GB (to improve mobility), then focus on that, without other things. It is HARD. Though it may not be as cardiovascularly taxing as you have been used to, it will build strength and you will be too tired to also do something else. 2. Bodyweight is generally pretty stable if you keep other variables constant. There is some research indicating a bodyweight "set point."

 

On the point about CrossFit and injuries. CrossFit is no more likely to create injuries than any other high intensity activity (how many people got hurt playing even high school sports? how many recreational marathoners get injured?). LIKE ANY SPORT OR EXERCISE PROGRAM injury risk depends on the participant him or herself (do they push themselves instead of listening to their bodies? do they take irrational risks?) , the quality of the coaching (which in CrossFit JUST LIKE ANY OTHER COACH OR PERSONAL TRAINER varies), and the quality of the programming (again -- JUST LIKE ANY OTHER varies). Many states require NO licensure to become a personal trainer and many personal training certifications offer far less education than the CrossFit weekend long seminars. Personal trainers can ask clients to do dumb things that will get them injured, just as CF coaches could. There is nothing inherent in CrossFit's philosophy that increases injury risk.

While I personally have gotten injured at CrossFit, I had my worst injury playing soccer, my only concussion as a cheerleader, and even got a stress fracture training GB this summer. It is ME as an athlete, not the program.

[Coach Sommer]

Hi Anne,

Welcome.  I am pleased to hear that you enjoyed your time training at my GB affiliate in Denver so much.

We will need to agree to disagree regarding injuries and crossfit.  The emphasis on high intensity and forcing full R.O.M. (range of motion) is exactly why many beginners get injured.  No doubt there are good crossfit gyms which utilize proper onramp programs, but this is certainly not a CF affiliate requirement or a constant in the crossfit universe.

Anytime someone with compromised mobility, low basic strength and poor technical execution attempts to race through their workouts, seeking more reps or a higher load or a faster time, in a competitive environment, their incidence of injury will go up.  Dramatically.  

All my years as a US National Team Coach have taught me this, intensity has no place in a beginner's conditioning program.  Especially with adults.  And especially in the first 6-8 months.  They would be much better served focusing on repairing their mobility deficits and save the high octane work for later when they are better prepared for it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Tanya Hill]

Anne we miss you. Seeing @Grace Rockwell show up on your bike everyday is great at least you left a piece of you here until you return. 

[Nicholas Drizen]

Having done crossfit and GST, the level of strength that I had in crossfit seems superficial to that of GST strength. To do an l sit hold or some of the stretching progressions like table tops takes a long time to achieve for me.Now I have much better muscles personally than I ever did under crossfit and I like the challenge of always being able to aim that little bit higher of being more mobile and doing a more complex manoeuvre.

With crossfit my impressions is that very little time is spent on proper technique and you see guys snatching heavy weights in closed shoulders and dropping them then on the floor. It looks horrible to me and isn't something that I want to be like now.  Like Coach said above, I was always scared of injuring myself as I have compromised shoulder mobility myself. So working to open my shoulders appeals to me. 

I've seen lots of crossfiters who are fat, many more than in GST. I'm slightly overweight too, but that's because my diet is not spot on. I'm loving the Thrive program and would highly recommend that. 

[Suzanna McGee]

@Jose Valdivia You say you are doing CF/HIIT 4–5 days a week, staying at a current bodyweight (at 25%BF)… with all the respect to your efforts and will to train, it looks like it is not working for you so well (not getting lower in your body fat while training so intensely). I think your best approach would be to focus on GST's Foundation and Stretching… as @Coach Sommer says, the mobility is so important for us, and even more so when you start doing high intensity training. Without great mobility, and carrying a lot of dead weight (body fat), and doing HIIT/CF, you are asking for future problems. In the Foundation exercises, you will use your bodyweight and you will see... the body is so smart, it doesn't want to drag and lift  a "dead weight" so you will lean out as time goes. And all that while getting stronger and more flexible/mobile… you cannot find anything better than that… And if you still feel like you need some extra training to burn calories (which I don't think you will), go for a walk or bike ride, or a swim…  Also, you mention that you try to eat clean 5 days a week. Why not 7 days a week? Think about your food as nourishment for your body, not means to weight loss. Do it for you health and energy. If you think that way, then there is no way that you want to eat unclean. It will become a lifestyle and you will feel great. You can do it!!!!! :-)