Strongman = CrossFit (More or Less)

Training Powerlifting
1

CrossFit = here is the work: here is the clock.
Strongman = here is the work: here is the clock.

CrossFit = here is the time limit: how much work can you complete
Strongman = here is the time limit: how much work can you complete

-Now you say: CrossFit is using 95lbs, and Strongmen are pulling Locomotives.

-And I say: CrossFitters can use whatever load they want including locomotives.

As far as breakdown of form in CrossFit, ever watch the ridculous hitching in the car deadlift events on WSM? Do they start out that way or does that happen after they have nothing left and they are still going.

In strongman events you have to be ready for anything. Crossfit: same.

I Know I just opened a can of worms but I look forward to some responses from ACTUAL strongman competitors.

2

Jesus was put on earth to save our souls.
Crossfit was created to save our souls.

I have no personal opinion of crossfit, but I think it is time for the mods to consider giving them their own section for these “debates”. It’s getting kinda friggin old.

3

There’s a big difference between competition and training. Do strongman competitors train crossfit? No.

4

Crossfit = here’s a bunch of random shit to do today

Strongman = here’s a bunch of specific events that you have trained for using planned routines

5

Crossfit = doing X amount of reps and timing yourself, attempting to beat that time next time

Strongman= as many reps as possible in X amount of time.

right?

6

[quote]wfifer wrote:
There’s a big difference between competition and training. Do strongman competitors train crossfit? No. [/quote]

Wrong.

7

[quote]Alex L. wrote:
Crossfit = doing X amount of reps and timing yourself, attempting to beat that time next time

Strongman= as many reps as possible in X amount of time.

right?[/quote]

In CrossFit there are several events or WOD’s as we call them. I want to improve my “Fran” time every time I do it. Just like I want to improve my tire flip, stone load, farmers medley every time I do it.

There are several types of Strongman events, some are for time, some are max reps in an alloted time, some are max weight for 1 rep. CrossFit = Same.

8

[quote]slimjim wrote:
Crossfit = here’s a bunch of random shit to do today

Strongman = here’s a bunch of specific events that you have trained for using planned routines[/quote]

Wrong.

Every event in CrossFit has to learned and trained to improve on. Strongman = Same.
I have competed in Strongman contests, and done well, and I do CrossFit.

9

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
Jesus was put on earth to save our souls.
Crossfit was created to save our souls.
[/quote]
I don’t believe either one of those statements.

10

First off, I compete in strongman and train at a crossfit, so I have a fair bit of experience with both.

Secondly, you are only right in principle. Crossfit is like strongman just like physical therapy is like powerlifting.

Physical therapy uses exercises to strengthen particular muscles and movements.
Powerlifting uses exercises to strengthen particular movements and muscles.

See the deal. They are the same on principle, but not on magnitude. Its the difference between sprinting and running a marathon.

Sprinting: race against the clock to cover a particular distance.
Marathon: race against the clock to cover a particular distance.

That said, most of my training is high intensity olympic and powerlifting, with events trained on the weekends. However, high intensity work doesn’t always have the best carryover to keeping my conditioning up, so as a contest approaches, I might add in prowler pushes, KB work, and even (gasp!) “Fran”. I’m not going to do 100bodyweight squats followed by 100 jumps and rowing 400 meters, but there are parts of it, just like anything else, that have carryover for me.

11

[quote]fattymcfatso wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
Jesus was put on earth to save our souls.
Crossfit was created to save our souls.

I don’t believe either one of those statements.[/quote]

Then please explain to me the purpose of this thread. You are comparing apples and oranges. Sure, both are fruit. But, which one a person prefers is purely individual tastes.

These threads turn into a pointless argument along the lines of raw vs equipped, clean vs dirty diets, tits vs ass.

12

The problem I have with Crossfit is that the majority of practitioners (and note I say majority, there are a few freaks that practice crossfit) are mediocre at…everything. No crossfitter has ever won an olympic medal or a world championship.

I’m not saying Crossfit is bad, I’m saying that if your goal is to be the best in the world at certain things (powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, gymnastics), doing crossfit makes no sense.

Therefore, if you want to be a competitive, elite strength sportsman, crossfit is not for you.

In relation to my above statement, it’d be great if the Crossfitters would stop starting these crossfit debates. You must understand that the vast majority of the members of this forum aspire to be competitive elite strength sportsman, and therefore, crossfit has no place with us.

13

[quote]threewhitelights wrote:
First off, I compete in strongman and train at a crossfit, so I have a fair bit of experience with both.

Secondly, you are only right in principle. Crossfit is like strongman just like physical therapy is like powerlifting.

Physical therapy uses exercises to strengthen particular muscles and movements.
Powerlifting uses exercises to strengthen particular movements and muscles.

See the deal. They are the same on principle, but not on magnitude. Its the difference between sprinting and running a marathon.

Sprinting: race against the clock to cover a particular distance.
Marathon: race against the clock to cover a particular distance.

That said, most of my training is high intensity olympic and powerlifting, with events trained on the weekends. However, high intensity work doesn’t always have the best carryover to keeping my conditioning up, so as a contest approaches, I might add in prowler pushes, KB work, and even (gasp!) “Fran”. I’m not going to do 100bodyweight squats followed by 100 jumps and rowing 400 meters, but there are parts of it, just like anything else, that have carryover for me.[/quote]

I know that Strongman and CrossFit Differ in alot of ways. But my point is out of all the strength sports, strongman is most closely related to CrossFit and vise versa. In no other strength sport that I can think of is the clock as important as in Strongman, same as CrossFit. And as I stated before, in CrossFit, as you know the load is scalable up or down.

One of my favorite CrossFit workouts is a 110kg stoneload, 80kg Push Press, and pullup workout. Will you find that on the main site ever? No way. Is it CrossFit? Yes.

You are probably the first strongman competitor to comment on this thread and you do some CrossFit in your training. Makes sense to me.

14

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
fattymcfatso wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
Jesus was put on earth to save our souls.
Crossfit was created to save our souls.

I don’t believe either one of those statements.

Then please explain to me the purpose of this thread. You are comparing apples and oranges. Sure, both are fruit. But, which one a person prefers is purely individual tastes.

These threads turn into a pointless argument along the lines of raw vs equipped, clean vs dirty diets, tits vs ass.

[/quote]

I prefer Strongman and CrossFit, and I integrate the two because of how closley they are related. I know alot of the people on T-Nation like to bag on CrossFit. But I am about 85% maybe 87% sure that most of the guys who bag on it have never actually done a REAL balls out CrossFit workout, and most of them could probably not even complete some of the tougher ones.

15

[quote]fattymcfatso wrote:
wfifer wrote:
There’s a big difference between competition and training. Do strongman competitors train crossfit? No.

Wrong.
[/quote]

Which part do you have an issue with? Strongman training isn’t just specific event training. So comparing crossfit to the actual competition is pointless.

Furthermore, doing crossfit workouts for GPP is not the same as training crossfit.

16

[quote]Invictica wrote:
The problem I have with Crossfit is that the majority of practitioners (and note I say majority, there are a few freaks that practice crossfit) are mediocre at…everything. No crossfitter has ever won an olympic medal or a world championship.

I’m not saying Crossfit is bad, I’m saying that if your goal is to be the best in the world at certain things (powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, gymnastics), doing crossfit makes no sense.

Therefore, if you want to be a competitive, elite strength sportsman, crossfit is not for you.

In relation to my above statement, it’d be great if the Crossfitters would stop starting these crossfit debates. You must understand that the vast majority of the members of this forum aspire to be competitive elite strength sportsman, and therefore, crossfit has no place with us.[/quote]

Are you headed for the Olympics? Are you going to be the best in the world? Do you train hard anyway?
Plenty of Olympic Champions do and have done CrossFit.
I am a CrossFitter and a Strongman competitor and a former 3x junior USPF nationals powerlifting winner. Who cares besides me?

Do you think you are that different from me? Do you think I don’t want to be good at specific things? Aren’t you wasting your time arguing online with strangers about things that interst/ piss you off, just like me?

17

[quote]fattymcfatso wrote:

You are probably the first strongman competitor to comment on this thread and you do some CrossFit in your training. Makes sense to me.
[/quote]

I wouldn’t say I DO crossfit, but yea, I take the principles just like I do from anything else. I come in occasionally for no reason other than to push the prowler. Crossfit has a workout that is nothing but pushing the prowler. If that means I’m “doing crossfit” then I guess I am, but then I guess that some guy that comes in to bench press is “doing powerlifting”.

However, I’m not under some illusion that crossfit is going to bring up my max log press or help me load a 400lb stone. It will bring my conditioning up so that I can complete a medley or finish an event for reps to the end, but that is something that doesn’t need to be prioritized as much as it is in crossfit.

Really, the problem is that many people see crossfit as an entirely different entity. Now that I’ve been around it for a while, I realize that it’s just a PROGRAM. If this PROGRAM isn’t for you, then don’t do it. If there are parts that you like, then take those and add them to YOUR PROGRAM. If you like it but think you should modify it for your goals, then do that. The only difference is the coaching and that there are facilities dedicated to this particular PROGRAM.

For the record, I am not the only SM competitor I know of that does “crossfit” workouts for conditioning, but you won’t here us call them that.

18

[quote]fattymcfatso wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
fattymcfatso wrote:
undesired08 wrote:

I prefer Strongman and CrossFit, and I integrate the two because of how closley they are related. I know alot of the people on T-Nation like to bag on CrossFit. But I am about 85% maybe 87% sure that most of the guys who bag on it have never actually done a REAL balls out CrossFit workout, and most of them could probably not even complete some of the tougher ones.
[/quote]

There is logic to that combination, with more emphasis on the Strongman side for the strength and Crossfit for the stamina. But, that would put it more into a GPP usage for the “serious” competitor, unless they were elite Strongmen.

19

[quote]threewhitelights wrote:
fattymcfatso wrote:

You are probably the first strongman competitor to comment on this thread and you do some CrossFit in your training. Makes sense to me.

I wouldn’t say I DO crossfit, but yea, I take the principles just like I do from anything else. I come in occasionally for no reason other than to push the prowler. Crossfit has a workout that is nothing but pushing the prowler. If that means I’m “doing crossfit” then I guess I am, but then I guess that some guy that comes in to bench press is “doing powerlifting”.

However, I’m not under some illusion that crossfit is going to bring up my max log press or help me load a 400lb stone. It will bring my conditioning up so that I can complete a medley or finish an event for reps to the end, but that is something that doesn’t need to be prioritized as much as it is in crossfit.

Really, the problem is that many people see crossfit as an entirely different entity. Now that I’ve been around it for a while, I realize that it’s just a PROGRAM. If this PROGRAM isn’t for you, then don’t do it. If there are parts that you like, then take those and add them to YOUR PROGRAM. If you like it but think you should modify it for your goals, then do that. The only difference is the coaching and that there are facilities dedicated to this particular PROGRAM.

For the record, I am not the only SM competitor I know of that does “crossfit” workouts for conditioning, but you won’t here us call them that. [/quote]

Well said.

20

[quote]undesired08 wrote:
fattymcfatso wrote:
undesired08 wrote:
tits vs ass.

[/quote]

Who’s arguing about that? That is pointless. :wink: