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I love Crossfit and am a certified instructor. There are amazing philosophies and it truly has amazing results. But there are some definite issues. Crossfit boxes (gyms) are all affiliates which means they are independently owned, operated and ruled. They just license the Crossfit name. It takes $1,000 and 2 days to be a certified instructor and open a box.

This means that coaches may or may not actually be good so quality varies from box to box. Some boxes do have high rates of injury because they don't focus on the right things (they want to add weight over form). This is NOT the Crossfit philosophy.

All that to say, that is depends on the program you are at. I have been at two boxes. The first box was absolutely amazing with a coach who knew what he was doing and I loved him. The second was run by a physical therapist and was decent. Form was important but they had some issues with scaling appropriately.

You have to take responsibility for yourself at a Crossfit box. This means that if you aren't comfortable doing something DON'T DO IT.

My husband is extremely into crossfit, and I tried it out for a couple months. As it can be quite competitive, you have to know your limits yourself. A lot of times you push for that one more rep, that extra 5 pounds, etc. It's important that you are focusing on form and position and not how many you can do. ( In my opinion. ) I think injuries come from losing proper body position to try and get that extra rep or weight. Good boxes have great coaches that will catch you when you start to slid and remind you to refocus your position. However, like PP said, it's a 2 day course that costs $1000 to take.. so there are a lot of coaches out there that might not have the best training. There's a lot of boxes out there, so it's important to research the one you go to, see what experience the coaches have, what kind of class sizes do they have per coach - you want to know that there is someone that will be looking out for your form.

I don't do Crossfit, but I do traditional strength training with a trainer. I would be worried about doing any kind of lifting where the focus was on doing a lot of reps quickly. My trainer watches my form the whole time I'm lifting and makes me stop the second I start compromising my form.

Plus, the numbers of reps I hear about Crossfitters performing just don't seem necessary. I do say 3 sets of 5-10 deadlifts on my lower body days and I've gotten amazing results.

I do think the group setting is effective for a lot of people, but you have to be willing to hold yourself back when necessary. My husband tried Crossfit, but had to stop because he got rhabdomyolysis from pushing himself too hard.

I did Crossfit for 3 years, up to my due date. I loved it like no exercise ever before. It has had (what I believe will be) a permanent impact on how I view my physical abilities, confidence and how I play with my daughter. I am a different person because of it.

I don't recommend Crossfit to super competitive people. If you are the type that would be willing to injure yourself to beat someone in a workout then it's not a good place for you. I watched a new guy so eager to prove himself break his collar bone on his first day doing a sprint. Also, as previous posters have mentioned the quality of instruction varies greatly. My box had excellent trainers but it was opened very early on.