Similarities Between CrossFit and Bodybuilding

When I first found CrossFit in 2008, there was a palpable stigma against bodybuilders and the routines they used. Over the years, that mild to sometimes extreme condescension has taken the form of the following jabs:

• They do isolation work on machines, not functional movements
• They’re only interested in aesthetics
• They only build useless sarcoplasmic hypertrophy rather than myofibrilar hypertrophy, so they’re not very strong
• They’re roided out freaks
• They’re not very fit or well conditioned

Let me first say that I agree that the superheavyweight, non drug tested bodybuilders are pretty disgusting to me. I have huge respect for the amount of work they put in at the gym and in the kitchen, but their physique is over the top and I can’t get on board with all the drugs they have to take to be competitive. So I’ll focus on guys who train and compete drug free.

When I got caught up in the initial CrossFit fervor, I bought in to ALL of those above bullet points. After all, I had done ‘bodybuilding style’ workouts prior to CrossFit and hadn’t seen fantastic results. On the CrossFit message boards, there were many more anecdotal stories like mine of people coming to CrossFit and making gains in their lifts and conditioning that they had never experienced in their lives while bodybuilding at commercial gyms. Well here’s the real secret about why I and all the other people made so much more progress with CrossFit: We flat out were not working very hard in the gym prior to CrossFit.

What Characterizes CrossFit Workouts?

CrossFit prides itself on being high intensity, constantly varied exercise consisting of functional movements. The point of the program is to build capacity across a broad spectrum of energy systems and variety of exercises in order to make someone more prepared for the ‘unknown and unknowable’ in life. Though the workout framework changes from day to day, a typical workout of the day usually involves performing a set number of reps of multiple exercises in the shortest time possible while still maintaining form and range of motion. The exercises in these circuits can run the spectrum from bodyweight movements to dumbbell and barbell work to pure conditioning work like running and rowing. Other, less volume intensive days, are devoted to strength training 1 or 2 barbell lifts with a set rep scheme that calls for adding weight in each subsequent set. These strength sessions can be highly variable based on your interpretation of how to best implement strength training for CrossFit. Some gym owners take a more traditional and less varied approach by combining the strength and conditioning into the same workout to get best results from each. This would involve 1 or 2 heavy lifts in the first part of the training session followed by a short, timed circuit to round out the session, which they would do 4-5 times per week.

What Characterizes GOOD Bodybuilding Workouts?

Bodybuilding in a nutshell is all about hypertrophy and fat loss. Bodybuilders are looking to maximize their muscle gain while keeping body fat at manageable levels so they can cut down for competitions while easily retaining muscle mass. It’s also important they stay in relatively good condition in the off season so their bodies remain in a better hormonal state to build muscle. Getting overly fat can make it very difficult to gain quality muscle that will be retained after cutting down during competition season. For an example of what determined natural (edit: Skola is using some androgenic enhancement, but not excessive) bodybuilders with good genetics can accomplish, take a look at the before and after shots of Blake Skola. Those are the results of hard training and dieting for 4 years straight. While CrossFitters may not be impressed by aesthetic changes since they’re all about performance, let’s take a look at a sample of Skola’s recent back and chest/shoulder workouts.

Back

Warmup - 2 mile run with my dogs

Warmup Circuit – 2 sets of 12 pullups, 25 dips, 25 decline situps

1.  Rack Deadlifts (knee level)
225 x 10
315 x 10
405 x 10
315 x 15
-alternating with-
1.  Decline Situps
4 sets of 25

2.  Barbell Shrugs
225 x 20
315 x 15
315 x 15
315 x 15
225 x 25
-alternating with-
2.  HS Iso Rows
180 x 15/15
270 x 15/15
360 x 12/12
450 x 10/10
270 x 20/20
-alternating with-
2.  BW Chins
5 sets of 15

3.  Wide Grip Machine Pulldowns
3 sets of 12-15 reps
-alternating with-
3.  Machine Rows
3 sets of 12-15 reps

4.  Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns
3 sets of 15 reps
-alternating with-
4.  Hypers
BW x 20
+25 x 15
+25 x 15

Chest/Shoulders

Warmup Circuit – 2 sets of 15 pullups, 25 dips, 20 HLRs

1.  Incline BB Bench Press
135 x 20
185 x 15
225 x 12
275 x 6
250 x 10
225 x 20
-alternating with-
1.  Hanging Leg Raises
5 sets of 20

2.  DB Shoulder Press (80 degrees)
50′s x 15
60′s x 12
70′s x 12
80′s x 10
90′s x 10
100′s x 8
75′s x 15
-alternating with-
2.  Machine Dips
6 sets of 12-20 reps

3.  Machine Chest Press
4 sets of 10-15 reps
-alternating with-
3.  Front BB Raises
4 sets of 12-20 reps

4.  Machine Chest Flys -ss- w/ Dips (25 reps)
4 sets of 10-15 reps
-alternating with-
4.  DB Lateral Raises -ss- w/ Pullups (15 reps)
4 sets of 12-20 reps

It should be noted that he gets each of these workouts done in under 80 minutes each, which is impressive considering the weight he’s using in the core exercises. That’s 40-60 sets per workout in 75 or 80 minutes. You’d be hard pressed to find one honest CrossFitter who would question Skola’s fitness capacity in that back workout. Super setting heavy rack pulls with decline sit ups for 5 sets then following that up with a 5 set triplet of BB shrugs, rows, and 15 rep strict chins is one hell of a demonstration of strength endurance and overall work capacity when you consider how little rest he is taking between exercises. I’m betting there are a few top CrossFitters who would struggle to keep up with his pace, reps, and weight in those training sessions. When you look at Skola’s training log, you can see that he varies his workouts and is constantly trying to gain muscle while staying as fit and lean as possible. He said of his lower body training, “[it's] based around lower body workouts consisting of squats, deadlifts, and power cleans. My goal is to be able to increase my frequency, use fewer, better quality compound exercises (for the most part), and decrease my time spent in the gym to under an hour for each workout.” Sounds a lot like the goals of many CrossFitters.

Layne Norton – one of the top natural pro bodybuilders in the world

Another great example of the strength and capacity of natural bodybuilders is a routine from Layne Norton, an IFPA natural pro bodybuilder. He combines power training with hypertrophy to create splits like the following:

Upper Power -5×5 or 3×5 for all lifts

• Barbell Bench Press
• Barbell Rows
• Military Press
• Pull-ups
• Heavy dips
• Barbell Shrugs

Hypertrophy Chest/Arms

• DB Incline Bech 3×8-12
• Barbell Close Grip Bench 3×8-12
• DB Flat Bench 2×8-12
• (Preacher Curls 3×8-12 super setted with
• Bench French Press 3×8-12)
• (Push Downs 3×8-12 super setted with
• DB Hammer Curls 3×8-12)
• (Machine Curl 3×8-12 supersetted with
• Machine Dips 3×8-12)
• Cable Crossovers 3×8-12
• Pullovers 3×8-12

These are done on separate days about 3-4 days apart, with leg and back training done in between. The structure is similar for the lower body, which involves core exercises like squats and RDL’s being done for sets of 5 on the power day and sets of 10-15 of leg press, extension, and curls done on the hypertrophy day. While the exercise selection may be slightly different, this workout routine is similar to the typical CrossFit workouts I described above. Like CrossFit, there are days that focus on pure power and strength training in the core lifts and other days that involve higher rep, short rest superset or circuit training to promote hypertrophy (like the traditional CrossFit ‘met con’).

CrossFit and Bodybuilding: The Common Bonds

There really are a lot more commonalities between CrossFit and good bodybuilding than CrossFitters would like to acknowledge. You can see from Skola’s training history that he’s identified certain factors that contribute to hypertrophy: increasing strength by pushing heavier weight, training in mid to high rep ranges, shortening rest periods, staying in very good condition in order to get in as much work as possible in the gym, and constantly adjusting training in order to force the muscles to continually adapt. These are all things that CrossFitters do in their workouts whether they realize it or not. Without much thought, you could put together a CrossFit workout like the following that would be similar in nature to bodybuilding:

For time, complete 6 rounds of the following:

• 200lb Front Squat, 12 reps
• 15 strict pullups
• 20 bar dips
• 15 hanging leg raises

Doing this with correct form and full range of motion would necessitate a bit of rest between exercises that would probably be a bit shorter than bodybuilders take, but not by much. The big difference here is that bodybuilders typically run body part splits and would not do a full body circuit like that. To take it a step further, you could create a split workout phrased in CrossFit language:

For time, complete the following without breaking up any of the sets:

• 6 rounds of
  • 175lb push press, 12 reps
  • Weighted pullups, 10 reps
• 5 rounds of
  • 50lb dumbbell press, 15 reps
  • Horizontal ring rows, 12 reps
• 4 rounds of
  • Bar Dips, 15 reps
  • Hanging Leg Raises, 15 reps

This is a push/pull bodybuilding split with typical CrossFit exercises subbed in for some of the isolation stuff that bodybuilders would do at the end. A fit and strong guy could probably do this in about an hour. If this was on the whiteboard in any CrossFit affiliate around the world, it certainly wouldn’t be questioned. If anything, a lot of people would probably gasp at the volume and difficulty of the workout when in fact it’s typical fare for high level bodybuilders. The fact of the matter is that the top natural guys like Skola, Norton, and Doug Miller are absolute animals. Take a quick read of Doug’s training page to get a sense of his mentality and approach . They’re strong, lean, have huge work capacity, and are very committed to nutrition and training. They all squat, press, and deadlift because they realize building strength in core movements is a big piece of the puzzle.

Lesson: Don’t Be An Elitist

The point is that anyone who completely shuts out a certain group in the fitness community is probably going to miss out on some quality ideas and inspiration. Just because you think it’s weird that guys paint themselves brown and get up on stage to pose doesn’t mean you can’t learn a ton from their training methodology. In the end, a lot of it just comes down to how hard you’re willing to work regardless of the way you train. I’ll say it again that the reason people say CrossFit works so much better for them than bodybuilding did is that they weren’t working hard enough. I know I wasn’t. And in all my years at commercial gyms, I hardly saw anyone putting in the kind of work that Skola and the others put in every day. Bodybuilding programs work if you have the intensity and dedication to match. With CrossFit, that intensity is built into the system due to the competitive class atmosphere and the hands on approach of the trainers. The fact that the program can get more out of people than they could get out of themselves is why CrossFit has been so hugely successful. Don’t chalk it up to the programming being better than bodybuilding because it’s not, it’s actually more similar than most people think.