Hooper was in great position to make a comparison.
In the present strongman pantheon, a star probably doesn’t shine any brighter than Mitchell Hooper. The Canadian athlete is the reigning World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion and has firmly established his overall dominance atop the game of strongman. As a flexible athlete, Hooper is clearly also willing to flex his fitness knowledge. He posted this sooner or later after the conclusion of the 2023 CrossFit Games.
On August 7, 2023, Hooper posted a video to his YouTube channel where he performed a mixture of strongman and CrossFit exercises. It appears to be a round-up of clips from previous videos which have appeared on Hooper’s channel. In the method, the athlete discussed the distinction between the 2 different athletic disciplines. The video is overlayed with Hooper walking in an undisclosed neighborhood, narrating his included workouts while sharing his thoughts. The narrated conversation takes place throughout the clip.
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Over the course of his various workout clips, Hooper seemingly leaves no stone unturned. Highlights included him performing variations of high-rep log presses, clean & jerks, muscle-ups on a pull-up bar, jump rope, running on a treadmill, and classic back squats.
Ultimately, Hooper used a well-recognized argument against strongman’s effects on one’s health because it pertains to CrossFit. Hooper particularly highlighted the unique tests of elite competition.
“The large challenge with CrossFit is that you just take what the professionals do, and it’s type of the identical argument as, ‘Strongman’s not good in your health,’ which, in fact it’s not … since you’re pushing your body past what it’s able to and, ultimately, sometimes that causes you to interrupt down. And CrossFit’s the identical way.
If you take a look at how CrossFit Games are planned, often times once you’re coping with the perfect on the planet, you’re going to program things in a way that make it particularly difficult on the body. Let’s say you do a squat right into a deadlift right into a clean. That’s massively difficult on the posterior chain and your back goes to explode. But that’s the goal. If you’re at a contest and also you’re on the skilled level, that’s what you ought to be doing.”
On the local, non-professional level, Hooper condensed his argument in a way more accessible for less experienced athletes and recreational lifters who don’t plan to shine on the Games. How athletes use CrossFit to get fit can vary greatly from individual to individual, with everyone having different goals and desires.
“The largest difficulty [at the local level] is that each CrossFit box is type of as much as the one who runs it. Do you desire to follow that type of programming? Do you desire to follow it more holistic? And ultimately, CrossFit has an entire bunch of fundamental movement patterns that they imagine are fundamental skills, that they imagine encompass fitness.
I feel the one time you get right into a challenge, and why people often hate on CrossFit and call it ‘silly,’ is once you do something like a high-rep clean & jerk with someone who’s not proficient at doing the clean & jerk in the primary place … that becomes really dangerous because your strength level and skill level have such a discrepancy.”
It’s that discrepancy that Hooper says creates a conflict for CrossFitters of all experience levels. Per Hooper, it’s here that a coach should grow to be a big priority.
“So, that’s what happens with CrossFit. Even in case you’re not particularly strong, that zero skill goes to must be balanced out with some type of strength. So that you’re mechanically stronger than your skill permits you to be. And that’s where a extremely smart and really good coach goes to assist you to get there.”
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Perhaps few other people could explain the challenges and downsides of CrossFit as eloquently as Hooper. His rationale as an elite strength sports athlete is sensible and is one any prospective CrossFitter should heed.
Featured image: Mitchell Hooper on YouTube