One of the hockey teams I play on has several people who do CrossFit and I assumed they'd be in amazing shape but they're gassed like rookie season Kakko after every shift, I play center and basically just stay on while the wingers change so I'm on the ice for about 2/3 of the game so that others don't have to play tired, and I often play back to back games in different leagues an hour or two apart. I know some chick who does CrossFit too and she's kinda fat. I have absolutely no idea what CrossFit is but from my experience the people who do it aren't in phenomenal shape lmao
I wasn't working out at all aside from playing lots of hockey, then I injured my knee and now I got some adjustable dumbbells and a peloton to rehab and get in shape before returning to hockey. A lot of people hate working out, I think team sports are the best form of cardio for the majority of people
Well hockey cardio is a different beast. When I was scoring 100 on my military PT Test and running my 1.5 mile in under 9 minutes, I was still gassed on the ice if I hadn’t been playing regularly. I agree hockey is the best form of regular cardio for me, when I play 4-5 days a week, but snowblind asked about putting on mass, so cardio (and CrossFit) won’t do much there.
CrossFit is a commercial idea. It’s just taking high intensity “functional” exercise routines and restructuring it into friendly/competitive group sessions and charging an ungodly amount for it. I can “do CrossFit” in my gym all by myself. I can go set up a bar with 135lbs for cleans, grab myself a 25lb med ball, a 65lb kettlebell and do 5 rounds of 10 cleans, 15 KB swings, 20 ball slams and 25 push-ups and time myself. That’s “CrossFit”. Except it’s not because it’s not in a group setting and I’m not a member of a CrossFit gym. So instead it’s just called metabolic conditioning/functional fitness/circuit training, etc.
So you can be in or out of shape and “do CrossFit”. It depends on the weights you choose, how hard you push yourself, etc. You can choose challenging weights, push a challenging tempo for the entire workout, push yourself to do each workout faster than the last time you did it and get in pretty good shape. Or you can choose weights that aren’t challenged enough, go at a pace that isn’t truly pushing you, take breaks, skip reps and basically see no changes. Plus you won’t out train a really bad diet. If you’re naturally thin no matter what you eat, that doesn’t apply but for anyone else, if your diet is trash you’re not going to see much results. So CrossFit people can be in exceptional shape or be completely average. It completely depends on how much they put into it and how disciplined they are. And of course, a really good/serious CrossFit athlete will do Olympic or powerlifting on the side and be significantly stronger and more skilled in the lifts they’re doing than someone who only does CrossFit.
If you can squat 405x10, deadlift 600+, clean 315+, etc. you’re going to be a much better CrossFit athlete than if you can barely squat 225 for reps and don’t know how to really perform a clean properly, let alone with significant weight on the bar.
