Cross Fit for Bowhunters

[jmc334]

Crossfit is designed so you do NOT become specific in any one area. You work all 10 areas of fitness on a program that does not concentrate on hypertrophy but strength and fitness. The excercises are compound/functional movements that have many benefits in life. I have yet to find myself forced to do a bicep curl in the woods so why do them in the gym? It can be used alone or as intended to supplement your sport-specific excercises.

Also, many MMA fighters do Crossfit as was stated. All you have to is check their websites and you will see many from BJ Penn to Chuck Lidell.

[Dmaxshawn]

Originally posted by jmc334:
Also, many MMA fighters do Crossfit as was stated. All you have to is check their websites and you will see many from BJ Penn to Chuck Lidell.

I just love it when FGB (fight gone bad) named after BJ Penn comes up.  He said the work out was like a fight that had gone bad so there you have it.

[BMG]

last time I checked Chuck Liddell was running up and down hills with 350lbs in a wheelbarrow.  You do this in Xfit?  

Whats good for a MMA fighter is good for an elk hunter?  NOT IMHO

[B. Butz]

For anyone interested in function strength, another site to check out is that of Ross Enamait.  His book "Never Gymless" is all about body weight exercises.  He also knows his shinola when it comes sled dragging, sledge hammer training, and rope climbing.

[et]

I certainly would not bash X-fit...BUT over the last 3 years I have followed it twice and ended up with overuse injuries each time.(probably a mix of old injuries coming back to haunt me) As some one said before, go for it if your a young buck otherwise work yourself into it very gently. I never figured out the right way to scale it for me. Scaling and Going all out didn't leave much room for error. First injury was to my right shoulder and last June I injured my hamstring. I felt it tear but of course just going for it I finished the 20 over head squats. Neither injury did much for my archery performance.
I am 44, so you guys 20 years younger it may work just fine but be careful. Now I just do cardio, squats, dead lifts, standing press and cleans. Totally focus on form and build the weight up slowly. I still love to pull 2x body weight off the floor but I am trying to acknowledge that I can't pound out the reps and recover like I used to.

et

[JockC]

et has a great point.  I'm 52, tore an ACL for the first time in my life a month before elk season, and I was a cranky boy all fall.  Actually, still am.

I think the best schools of functional weightlifting (think Mark Rippetoe and Eric Cressey), p90x, Enamait's bodyweight and other books, as well as x-fit and later high-intensity blended schools (Gym Jones and Caveman) all have a lot to offer--probably in roughly ascending order for most of us, but with all being worth a great deal.  It makes sense to mix it up, but maybe on a more periodic basis than x-fit--in that it takes a while to get and stay skilled at the movements, and more than one specialist thinks he began to drop back after initial gains with x-fit (and that's what started the whole Gym Jones splintering off from CrossFit, which, along with its role in the movie 300, led to a lot of controversy.

Much of that is what I've read or heard, but I do know that the most intensive schools are on a whole different level in terms of mental fitness, and that as you age you have to experiment.  Clarence Bass, old weightlifter extraordinaire, has the best (if longwinded) stuff I've seen on aging, experimenting, and changing approaches.

One thing--even if you don't agree with anything else I've said, check out Eric Cressey's stuff on soft tissue warmup work for injury prevention on his website or his excellent book "Maximum Strength".  Your muscles improve faster than your joints--and that should give anyone over a certain age pause.

[Duckbutt]

Ran into a guy at the gym today who had on a Crossfit t-shirt.  Turns out he is certified and has a crossfit gym in another town.  He helped me with some technique issues and made a believer out of me in terms of proper form.  While I don't have a xfit gym that is close enough to join, I think I may go take a fundamentals course to get the form down on some of the foriegn to me exercises.

[jmc334]

That is great. If you have the $$$ you can put one together at home. I do most of mine at home. I actually mix it up between Ross, Crossfit, Gym Jones and my own thing depending on the day.

I think the wheelbarrel up the hill is a lot more beneficial to Elk hunting than you might think. Anaerobic fitness is the least worked cardio by all (because it hurts).

Core Performance has some great warm-up and stretching routines also.

Nagging injuries? Only go to mechanical failure on your sets and that will help a ton. You can add another set if you feel cheated but stop at machanical failure (when your form is lost).

Good Luck.

[JockC]

Crossfitters--
If you use a Crossfit gym, what does it cost?  The one here is $100/mo!

[TheFatboy]

Crossfit is great, if you wish to lose fat and get in shape. But as for strength and muscle mass, there are better ways. Crossfit emphasizes on 'functional' exercises, mostly with high reps, intervals and no rest between exercises. Which is, as I stated, great for getting in shape and dropping fat.

Training Crossfit will gear you for other physichal performances, but you must not mistake it for the Holy Grail of fitness training, since it will "only" make you mediocre at a whole lot of variable exercises.

[Kyle Lancaster]

Love Crossfit. I've been doing it for 5 weeks. My instructor is an ex-SEAL, which is where he learned Crossfit so that is some kind of endorsement.  I've been working out for 30 yrs doing, bodybuilding, powerlifting, body weight...just about everything. I was doing P90X, which is good, but Cross fit gives you variation and the workouts are constantly varying so that your body is challenged and must adapt. It's a very intense workout, by far the most intense that I've ever done, as you do each workout for time and try to beat your previous time and/or weight. Their speciality is "not specializing". The workouts range from lifting heavy in power lifts and Olympic lifts (unlike what was stated above)in order to build strength to , cardo, flexibility, and endurance/stamina. You may do a workout that covers all that I mentioned to one of pure strength movements.  You will get in shape. I am.

Kyle

[Bear Heart]

It's all about the W.O.D.. For an added challenge try incorporating the crossfit endurance workouts for the high altitude hunts.  2 a days are tough but better than failing at the moment of truth.