Minimum effective dose

On the way to work this morning, I was listening to episode 166 of The Paleo Solution Podcast by Robb Wolf and Greg Everett. They were doing an interview with Eva Twardokens, a former US Olympian and founding Crossfit member (actually, the person who encouraged Greg Glassman to start his own business).

She was talking about Minimum Effective Dose and the de-evolution of the Crossfit training modality (in some circles, at least). Now, I was first exposed to Crossfit training modalities in about 2005/2006 and, at that time, there were no affiliates in Cairns and only two in QLD (to the best of my knowledge). I remember even then that WODs posted on the mainsite were never more than a 10 minute 'max effort' ... We used to joke about how people would slog away at the gym for hours to get the same results that we got in 15min, including warmups!

Listening to Eva, my own feelings about 'modern' Crossfit were confirmed; it seems to be more about how wrecked you are at the end of every session than it is about what's effective. Now, when I say "modern Crossfit" I am talking about post 2011 ESPN coverage ripped and buff Crossfit with shiny posters and sponsorship deals. The 'sport of fitness' is certainly elite, but it seems to have gone away from what made it great in the first place; maximum efficacy through minimum effective dose.

Now, I have certainly bought into the macho chest beating kill yourself ideology (much to the frustration of my coaches who were trying to tell me to slow down and get technique right) ... but I've turned the corner and I'm really looking to make sure that my exercise supports and improves my life, not dominates it.

Obviously, I'm going to be sore after hard exercise, but I don't want to be part of the "I smoked myself so hard I can't sit on the toilet" crowd anymore. I am not looking to be critical - I love Crossfit - it's just that there seems to be a 'go until you blow' mentality circulating the scene. Now, I realse that much of this testosterone frenzy is an Internet based phenomenon, rather than the real culture of Crossfit gyms, but it still worries me somewhat ... those new to the sport will spend hours trolling through the Fitspiration Pintrest boards and geeking out on videos of Rich and Annie, throw in the HUGE number of pop-up boxes we're seeing; gyms trying to milk the golden goose (mixed metaphor intended) and, unless someone takes the time to change these newbies mental attitude, I can only see injuries in their future and a bad rap in the media for the sport in general.

Is it time that Crossfit grew up to match it's shiny new corporate image? Does there need to be tighter policing of affiliates? Stricter coaching standards with regular assessment of competence? Does the sport need to be less about randomised workouts and more about logical periodised progressions across a broad domain of modalities?

Maybe ... or maybe, to paraphrase Greg Glassman in the lead-up to the infamous 'Black Box Summit', The cream will always rise; athletes will vote with their feet and bad boxes won't survive.