It's Time For
Bodybuilding And
CrossFit To Make
Peace
Hating on each other
stopped being cute a long time ago. It's time for all of the dominant fitness
paradigms to stop infighting and unite against a common enemy!
VITAL
STATS
Name: Cassie
Augustine
Location: Denver,
CO
Occupation: Writer,
partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Agency Zero advertising
Like
most people, my workout path has had many turns, bumps, ups, and downs. I'm not
even sure you could call it a path—more of a partially cleared trail, really.
Lots of valleys, occasional peaks, and more than a few long roads to
I'm-not-sure-where. I may never find the "perfect" fitness activity,
but it won't be for lack of looking.
I grew
up in a sports-crazed family, so being strong and fast was always in the front
of my mind. But in the '90s, the small town I grew up in didn't take girls'
sports seriously, so I never got much direction on how to "make
gains." The weight room was a place I primarily used to strut around in
short-shorts and talk to football boys. Even so, I learned enough to know that
I wanted to be a chick with muscles, not a weak one.
Since
then, I've been a basketball player, runner, yoga novice, beach volleyball
aficionado, HIIT freak, trail junkie, wanna-be cyclist, and Zumba-class dropout.
Most recently, I've been hanging around a bodybuilding gym.
Predictably, I've seen my body go through a broad range of shapes and sizes
with each activity and training style. I've been kinda pudgy to a little too
skinny, pathetically weak to surprisingly strong, a cardio beast to a sweaty
mess, flexible to inflexible and back to flexible again.
Right
now, I'm feeling pretty good. Just the other day, a guy told me my arms were
"too big." Since the peeps at my gym, Armbrust Pro, consider my
muscles to be newborns, I took this as a compliment of epic proportions!
THE AGE OF HATERS
Anyway,
throughout this detailed quest for athletic nirvana, I've been given a lot of
unsolicited fitness advice. To be clear, I'm not a great lover of advice. But
lately, it seems like it's becoming more common—and more judgmental. Everywhere
I go, someone is talking about the style of exercise that I should—or more
specifically, shouldn't—be doing for optimal results.
I'm
not talking about the "all exercise is good, but this is what works best
for me" person. I'm thinking more of the runner or CrossFitter who says
(in so many words), "Curls? Those are for vain bodybuilders. You might as
well start eating six meals a day." Or the bodybuilder who calls CrossFit
a cult that causes you to lose gains, forget proper form, and snap your spine
within minutes.
All
this talk set me to wondering: How come everyone seems to care so much how others
get fit? What's behind all the hate? Is it friendly competition, insecurity, or
some kind of particularly nasty groupthink? I want to know.
And,
for the record, I encountered this in person before I ever saw it online. But
once you glimpse how nasty and pervasive it is in forums and comments sections
across several popular fitness sites, it's hard to forget. And oddly, the two
camps that seem to be beefing the most are CrossFit enthusiasts and
bodybuilders.
Forgive
me, but I just don't get it. These two disciplines have far, far more in common
than they differ. For one thing, my CrossFit instructor and my bodybuilding
coach both think I suck at deadlifts—so that's one bit of common ground, right?
But the two camps—and all other strength sports—share plenty when it comes to
lifts, programming, and lifestyle. The difference is one of dialect, not
language.
And
even though no one following either methodology seems to want to admit it,
there are some pretty serious similarities between paleo-style eating and the
classic, "clean" bodybuilder diet. I've eaten both plans, and it's a
whole lotta protein and no Doritos either way.
HAVE YOUR WOD AND BIG ARMS, TOO
Of
course, I'm not the only one thinking about this. Check out this video where
professional physique competitor and Bodybuilding.com athlete Steve Cook takes
on CrossFit Games star Brooke Ence in a bodybuilding and CrossFit-style
workout:
PHYSIQUE MEETS FITNESS WITH STEVE COOK AND BROOKE ENCE
WATCH THE VIDEO -
12:15
These
two seem to be getting along pretty well, huh? Impressive. There are lines
being crossed all over the place, yet everyone involved is having fun getting
crushed and feeling strong. Just don't read the comments.Never...read...the
comments.
OK, I
admit I read the comments, both on that video and everywhere else. And what I
found was no surprise: 10 negatives for every positive. Hater A says Steve is a
traitor who joined the cult. Hater B says bodybuilders are human mannequins who
lack functional strength and agility. When the apocalypse comes, the zombies
will catch them easily and feast on them first. Hater A counters with his squat
PR, and says CrossFitters have no regard for form.
And so
on and so on, until both people log off and head back to the gym—to do more or
less the same thing.
THE REAL VILLAIN? THE COUCH
Instead
of losing sleep over the well-being of some of the fittest people on the
planet, let's talk about what we all should really be worrying
about: health. Yep, I'm going there. The Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation reports that 2.1 billion people—nearly 30 percent of the world's
population—are either obese or overweight. In the U.S. alone, Let's Move
estimates annual health-care costs of obesity-related illnesses at $190.2
billion—that's 21 percent of annual medical spending.
Those
stats are big, scary, and getting scarier. To me, they show that we're all on
the same team—and that we need to be helping as many people as possible to join
that team, rather than worrying which position they play.
Who
cares if you do your pull-ups fast or slow, when there is a global health
epidemic going down all around us? Stop hating, and start moving. It's that
simple.
HEY ARNOLD, WANNA SIT WITH ME AT THE
GAMES?
Instead
of spending our time tearing down our fellow athletes, we could put that
energy—and we have plenty of it, because we are fit as hell!—into an overall
movement toward healthier people everywhere. For the rest of this year, let's
give our fellow athletes a pass. Even better, let's become fans!
CrossFit-style
workouts are killer for burning fat and making you feel like you've seriously
accomplished something—because you have. We can all appreciate intense,
fat-incinerating cardio that doesn't require plodding away on a boring machine!
And clearly the majority of the CrossFit crew loves a heavy lift.
Know
what else they like, whether they'll admit it or not? Looking good, and looking
like they lift; feeling good, and feeling strong. We all like that—and we
should!
I
follow Christmas Abbot on Instagram. I follow Pauline Nordin, too. I can't decide whose feed
is more inspiring between those two, and the great thing is, I don't have to.
They approach fitness in very different ways, but in both cases, seeing their
results gets my ass off the couch every day. And that's what counts.
By 
