GabrielCox's Journal, 07 May 2014

I lift weights according to musclehack.com plans and have just (temporarily) added 2 sessions per week of 10 minute HIIT cardio. That seems to be enough to keep the fat coming off while adding muscle. Too much cardio/crossfit/long distance/high rep activities waste away muscle. You want muscle so that you burn more calories resting than when you had less muscle.  

Thanks for the comment.  

My son is a certified personal trainer. Remember that fitness is an industry. They are always looking for something new to sell you. I think that most cardio based routines these days (zumba, crossfit, insanity, etc.) are based more on packaging designed to sell training programs than solid science about the most efficient methods of muscle building and fat loss. Just my 2 cents. When you watch a group you see that they are running, squatting, and doing pushups. Same stuff you can do for free with a thousand routines from the Internet. Stringing them together and calling it crossfit doesn't make it more effective or warrant $100. :-) 

Appreciate the insight, but as you alluded to with crossfit, being a certified trainer just means he's selling his personal expertise too. You are right though, I have no interest in paying a gym any amount of money to join, especially the 100-200 crossfit boxes want. I plan on building a garage box and following the WOD's online, as I am doing those semi modified now. I was an athlete in high school and college and power lifted through college until I was injured in an auto accident and for years I've used that as an excuse to allow myself to get out of shape. I've gotten over that hump now. My questions about crossfit were addressed to people's personal experiences, I'm not exactly interested in opinions of those who haven't tried it. That may sound harsh, but I don't mean it to. Not my intent at all. I am merely interested in the impressions folks have with doing the crossfit workouts, whether in box or at home. Thanks again for your comments. This site seems like a great resource for tracking progress but the social tools seem underused. I appreciate you sharing information with me.  

Crossfit has its place. I don't do it but know people who do. Its great for functional strength and overall fitness. I bodybuild, but once I reach the amount of lean muscle mass I desire I may start incorporating some crossfit to make my strength more functional. 

CrossFit is good for core muscle groups and its very fun for the people who do it, and that is always important but most of crossfit is mostly anaerobic exercise, so you really won’t get much aerobic benefit from doing it. So comparing a anaerobic exercise with an aerobic is very hard as they both do different things.  

I'm a Certified Personal Trainer. Nothing beats straight up lifting for fat loss and muscle definition. You don't *need* to do Crossfit or any other program. I turned my formal dining room into a home gym complete with a power rack, deadlift platform and bumper plates.