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CrossFit or the gym (or HYROX)? An honest comparison

CrossFit Wilanów

You have had a gym membership for two years and have been doing the same plan for six months. You know something should change, but not what, because nobody there is watching you. A friend mentioned CrossFit, and what you picture is people lying on the floor. Someone else talks about HYROX. Here is a comparison without the digs: the gym is a good place for many people, and we want the choice to be yours and to work for you.

How the hour differs

The simplest way to show it is a table. It describes group CrossFit classes as they run at our box, and a typical commercial gym. Your gym may be different.

CrossFit class Gym
Who writes the plan the coach, a different workout every day for the whole group you (or an app, or last year’s plan)
Who watches your technique the coach for the whole hour, at most 12 people nobody, unless you pay for a personal trainer
How long 55-60 minutes, from warm-up to stretch as long as you last or have time for
Who you train with the same group at the same time on your own
When by the timetable: first class at 6:00, last in the evening whenever you like, often 24 hours a day
When you do not know what to do you ask the coach standing next to you you look it up on your phone
Equipment barbells, rings, rowers, jump ropes, kettlebells machines and free weights

One line in that table matters more than the rest: someone is watching. At a gym you get access to equipment. In a class you get an hour of work with a coach who sees your squat and tells you what to fix.

What the research says

Honestly: studies comparing CrossFit with the gym are few and small. Claudino and colleagues (2018) reviewed 31 papers on CrossFit and found that only two had a high level of evidence with a low risk of bias, and the meta-analysis found no significant results for any variable. Early data suggest a stronger sense of community, satisfaction and motivation, and that is all. So we do not claim CrossFit is “better”. We show what is known about a few of the elements our hour is made of.

A coach watching. Mazzetti and colleagues (2000) split 20 moderately trained men into two groups who did an identical strength programme for 12 weeks: one directly supervised by a coach, the other on their own. The supervised group increased their loads faster and after 12 weeks had significantly greater maximal strength in the squat and the bench press. Dias and colleagues (2017) looked at the weights already-trained people choose for themselves: with a trainer beside them they chose 12 to 27% more than alone, still at safe percentages of their maximum. In other words, most people without supervision train lighter than they can.

Wanting to come back. Heinrich and colleagues (2014) randomly assigned 23 inactive, overweight adults to 8 weeks of training: either CrossFit-style classes or moderate aerobic plus strength training. The CrossFit group spent significantly less time training, kept enjoying it and were more likely to say they would carry on training the same way. Attendance was similar in both groups, and body composition did not change in either. That is a study of 23 people, so treat it as a pointer, not proof.

Community. Whiteman-Sandland and colleagues (2018) compared members of a CrossFit box and an ordinary gym: in the box, the sense of community and social capital were significantly higher. But neither community nor the type of club on its own predicted whether people kept coming. Community helps; it does not make the decision for you.

When the gym is the better choice

We do not recommend CrossFit to everyone. The gym will suit you better if:

  • You want to build your physique muscle group by muscle group. A bodybuilding plan, chest day, back day, isolation work: you will not get that in a group class, because we train movements, not muscles.
  • You train at 23:00 or at 5:00. Our classes follow a timetable, the first at 6:00, the last in the evening. If your day cannot fit that, a 24-hour gym wins.
  • You want to train alone. For some people an hour with headphones on is rest. We respect that. At our box you train next to other people, even if everyone does their own version.
  • A benefit card matters to you. We do not accept sports benefit cards. The only benefits we honour at the club are the ones that come from training under a professional’s eye. If the card is a must, the gym next door will take it.
  • You have your own plan and stick to it. If you have trained on your own for years, keep making progress and know why you walk into the gym, you do not need us.

And HYROX?

HYROX is a race: 8 km of running split into 8 laps of 1 km, with 8 workout stations in between, such as rowing, sled pushes, lunges and wall balls. It is a specific race format with its own brand and its own events. We are not a HYROX partner and we do not run separate “HYROX classes”. Not because we do not like it, but because we do not need to.

CrossFit is a general physical preparedness programme, GPP for short: it builds strength, endurance, power and movement skill at the same time, not for one sport. In our view there is no better GPP programme to prepare for a race like that, because all 8 HYROX stations are movements we do in class every week, and the running in between needs exactly the endurance the WOD trains. We see it in our members: when one of them decides to race, they do not start a separate programme. They go, enjoy the race and do very well. If you want to sharpen your time, add a few longer runs in the weeks before, but the base is already there.

If you have no plans to race and simply want to be fit, “CrossFit or HYROX?” is not a real question: HYROX is a race, CrossFit is the training that prepares you for it.

Three questions to ask yourself

  1. Do you know what to do in the gym, and do you do it? If the answer is “not really” or “the same thing for six months”, you need someone who writes the plan and watches. That is what you get in a class.
  2. Do you keep coming back? Count your sessions in the last month. If the membership card stays in your wallet, the problem is not the equipment; it is that nobody is expecting you. A regular group at a regular time solves that for many people, though the research shows not for everyone.
  3. What is your goal? Physique: the gym. A HYROX start or another race: training for that race, with or without a base from a box. “I want to be fit, climb the stairs without getting out of breath and not worry about lifting a suitcase”: that is ours.

How it works at our box

Classes last 55-60 minutes and have a fixed shape: warm-up, technique, the workout, stretch. There are at most 12 people in the room. The first class is at 6:00 and fills up; the most free places are at 8:00 and 9:00, after the school run. Classes are in Polish, and when someone in the room does not speak Polish, the coach runs the class in English. You park underground in ALTO, 1.5 hours free, and reception validates your ticket.

The workout of the day is the same for everyone, with different versions and weights. Someone in their fifth year trains next to someone on day one. If you want to see exactly what the hour looks like, read about your first CrossFit class or have a look at our classes.

If you already train and just want to find out whether this hour is for you, buy one class and pick a time from the timetable. No commitment, and if you choose OPEN on the same day, the cost of that class comes off your first instalment.

Sources

Buy your first class

One class to find out whether we suit each other. No commitment. If you decide on OPEN on the day of your first class, we deduct the cost of that class.

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