Why powerlifting is better than CrossFit

Powerlifting is better than Crossfit when you want to build raw strength. This might come at the expense of mobility and agility. It all depends on your personal goals.

What is your why

Before we go into the details of why powerlifting is better than CrossFit, let me ask you a couple of questions:

Why do you want to do powerlifting
Why do you want to change your body
What happens when you do
What happens if you don’t

These questions are essential to drive your personal success. Research shows that people who write down their goals and reflect on them are more likely to succeed. When was the last time you did this? Many people go about their lives like this:

What do I want
How do I get it
Why do I want it

This is a great way to make yourself miserable. Putting what you want at the center of attention will leave you confused and powerless. What you want changes hundreds of times a day dem ding on whom you are with, where you are and what you do. Focusing on this will spread your resources thin and scatter your time between too many activities. If you chase all rabbits at once you will catch none. Something interesting happens when you flip the order of these questions on their head:

Why do you want something
How do you get it
What needs to be done

This how your innermost and most impactful goals will take center stage. Your thoughts and actions will become more connected and success more likely. If you want to know how this works on a psychological level read Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. Simon Sinek's TED talk on the golden circle will change your life.

It all starts with being deliberate with your time. The best way of doing this for me is to keep a journal. The best journal I found is the self journal from best self. Since I use it my marriage has improved dramatically and my salary increased by 30%. Check it out via this link.

What are your fitness goals

Before you can decide whether powerlifting, CrossFit or any fitness regime is better for you personally you need clarity on your fitness goals. Some questions which will help with this are:

How much time do I want to spend on exercising a week?
Do I like competing or not?
Do I like to workout in a group or by myself?
What results do I expect from my fitness regimen?
How good are my motor skills?
Am I willing to pay for proper instructions?
Do I like to push myself to the very limit?
Do I like lifting a barbell
Do I want to be outdoors or indoors

Answering these questions early will already narrow it down between powerlifting and CrossFit. It might even ditch both sports altogether. If you don't like lifting a barbell none of the two is for you.

A good start is to define whether you want to lose weight or increase your performance. Losing weight is usually a function of diet And not of exercise. Performance is a function of mastering the movement and then improving and hearing your body towards it. A strict diet can show results in a month. Performance for a specific sport takes years to be mastered.

CrossFit

CrossFit was the great revival of interval and circuit training. A more modern term would be high-intensity interval training or short HIIT. Even though most serious coaches would argue that you have misunderstood the concept of Interval training if you have to remind people that it is supposed to be high intensity. Another form of this is Tabata.

What CrossFit fundamentally changed is to go to the extreme across many disciplines while heavily using barbells. This was good for Rogue fitness who built an empire on selling the necessary equipment for the newest workouts of the day to Crossfitters.

The core of CrossFit is the WOD or workout if the day. These are usually 20-minute bursts of exercise where you either try to accumulate a certain number of repetitions and stop them for time or get a certain amount of time to establish as many reps as possible. This is what you will be doing most in a CrossFit gym.

In competition, most events are geared to race against your competitors which are stopped for time. There are some exceptions but this is generally how it goes.

The permutations of WODs are endless and vary in intensity by either putting a weighted vest on or increasing the weight on the barbell or distance you have to travel. The earliest standardized WODs are the ladies. Just look them up to get a feeling what you are letting yourself in for.

What CrossFit is good for

CrossFit is great to keep you hungry to win and compete with others. Many fans also describe a great sense of camaraderie in CrossFit boxes. The fan base is solid and looks out for each other.

In terms of results, CrossFit will exceptionally excel at bringing up your recovery rate. I found that when I did CrossFit I did not necessarily was my fastest or strongest self but definitely the most unstoppable. I would recover from anything you would physically throw at me in a matter of minutes. This is why CrossFit has a big fan base in the military.

The downside of CrossFit is that it is intense. Even though CrossFit tries to appeal to beginners and Pears down their message a little to appeal to the masses the heart of CrossFit beats to the drum “if you can’t do it, you are too weak”. That is not for everyone. The injury risk is also higher compared to other sports as you are exposed too so many new movements with the added pressure that you do not do on a regular basis. If you live in your basement and train all day that is ok. If you only train two days per week and skip the occasional one altogether this is an injury waiting to happen.

Powerlifting

Powerlifting is the sport of the total. Your total consists of three lifts. These lifts are the bench press, squat, and deadlift. For each lift, you get three attempts. The best attempt for each lift will be counted towards your total. Based on your total you get ranked against your other competitors.

What is different from lifting in the gym is that you will get judged. Three referees will watch your lifts from different angles. They decide whether they have been performed according to the standard of the federation you are competing in. Two out of three have to agree for the lift to qualify. You need a qualifying attempt for each lift to be ranked on the leaderboard.

Your total usually splits 40/40/20. The squat and deadlift contribute roughly 40% each to your total while the bench press adds 20%.

Powerlifting focuses on strength on relatively simple movements. It can be done by yourself as you are mainly looking at the numbers, not at others to succeed.

What powerlifting is good for

Powerlifting is great to build a strong mind and strong body. You have to focus and stick to it for a long time to get better. You can not just swap to other exercises when you get stuck at a certain plateau.

Compared to my marathon running and CrossFit training I also find powerlifting to be great to stay in shape with the least amount of effort. I don’t have to run around until my heart jumps out if my chest to see results. I train hard and work up to sweat and improve over time. As simple as that.

What powerlifting won’t do for you as make you agile. If you want to be able to do backflips, turn a corner quickly without being seen or jump over a car, powerlifting will not get you there. In that sense, powerlifting is uncool compared to other sports unless you obsess about lifting heavy stuff. It will also do next to nothing for your eye to hand coordination or reaction times. Still more effective than slouching in the coach, but only slightly.

What is your personality

Generalizing leaves you open to being specifically wrong unlimited amounts of times, however, I have done both sports and would say:

If you are more of an extrovert, like to compete in the open and eye to eye with others CrossFit is more for you. It will push and break your body especially on endurance and willpower. You will be exposed to things you have never done before and won’t like, but your icy is ready for it if you push. It is also great to get into shape for your wedding in no time if you can take the intensity. Always do it with others and under instruction. Otherwise, the injury risk is very high.

If you don’t like people that much and rather compete with yourself powerlifting might be for you. The movements are simple and predictable and turn into something I impressive when you put enough time in. There Is less of a social aspect to it as in the end it is only you and the barbell. Sometimes the weight wins and other times you win.