Rethinking Bodybuilding for CrossFit
In Part 1 of this series, we will go over:
1. Detail the two most popular styles of bodybuilding in the CF Performance market (isolation / functional)
2. Introduce Integrated Bodybuilding and explain why it’s a better method for helping CF athletes.
3. Provide a framework for periodizing each type of BB’ing into a season
Bodybuilding in CrossFit
History
During the early days of CrossFit, there was a heated debate between bodybuilders and CrossFit coaches based on their respective methods. The bodybuilding camp criticized CrossFitters for the perceived lack of focus on technique, prioritizing intensity and volume over quality movement. The CrossFit camp criticized bodybuilders for their focus on aesthetics over functionality, pointing out that traditional bodybuilding training was less effective for improving athletic performance and overall health. This war was summed up succinctly in the early CrossFit slogan “your workout is our warm-up”.
While these arguments have some validity, the reality is that both training methods can provide benefits for either goal. CrossFit training can be structured in a way to prioritize hypertrophy in a safe and effective manner in the same way that bodybuilding training can be designed to improve performance. The original debate mainly revolved around strawman attacks where each side misrepresented the intentions behind the other’s training methods. Bodybuilders never made the claim that doing bicep curls was an effective way to improve sprint performance and CrossFit never made the claim that it was the most effective method for building muscle mass.
In the end, the animosity created between the two communities stifled the exchange of ideas and led to a decade of CrossFit coaches avoiding the use of bodybuilding methods, likely to the detriment of their athletes. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a resurgence of bodybuilding methods in the CrossFit training space. Nearly all of the major camps include accessory work, isolation training, or “pump sessions” in their weekly training programs.
What experienced coaches have realized is that training muscles in isolation can improve performance in CrossFit specific movements. For example, training biceps can provide benefits to an athlete's legless rope climbs or ring muscle-ups, assuming they’re competent in the skill already. The added benefit of bodybuilding style training is that it provides a lower intensity way to develop weak movements. There are only so many rope climbs that someone can perform safely without dramatically increasing the risk of injury. Effectively designed bodybuilding training can be a work-around to trying to solve every training problem with more volume.
In the remainder of this blog, we are going to explore the bodybuilding methods currently popular in the training market and introduce a new structure for performance-based bodybuilding known as Integrated Bodybuilding.
Current Bodybuilding
Currently there are two popular systems to guide bodybuilding programming in the CrossFit market: traditional bodybuilding isolation training and functional bodybuilding. These two systems differ greatly in their intention, application, and target population. We will explore the details of each of them further.
Traditional Bodybuilding: Isolation Training
For most people, bodybuilding is performed in an isolated manner where the end goal is muscle hypertrophy. This muscle growth occurs by stimulating local muscle fiber fatigue leading to increased mechanical tension and subsequent cellular signaling that eventually results in an increased muscle cross sectional area.
In order to maximize hypertrophy, we need to choose stable, isolation based movements as these allow for the greatest local muscle fiber fatigue and stimulus for growth. Increasing stability is necessary because it allows for maximizing fiber fatigue by reducing neural inhibition that occurs when our brain senses instability in a joint. Isolation exercises allow for increased mechanical tension and control of the movement’s range of motion. Building training programs that follow these two principles maximize hypertrophy potential.
In a CrossFit or sports performance setting, isolation bodybuilding has some potential application including:
Developing lagging muscle groups. For example, if your athlete has weak pressing, then you can isolate the delts and triceps to improve pressing strength. If your athlete has weak hinging, dedicate training to develop the glutes and hamstrings to provide assistance to the hinge pattern.
As rehabilitation and prehab. Bodybuilding training can be effectively used to rebuild muscle size and strength after injury. In addition you can incorporate bodybuilding training to maintain antagonist muscle strength. For example the deep squat commonly used in CrossFit training does not result in high degrees of hamstring muscle recruitment. Therefore in squat biased training programs the hamstrings need specific knee-flexion assistance to maintain strength and knee health.
Off-season training for undersized athletes. Athletes who struggle with building muscle mass or tend to be undersized for the sport can use bodybuilding as part of their base strength training during the off-season. Bodybuilding training is also an effective tool to use in place of conditioning for weaker, more enduring athletes who often have an almost pathological need for training volume.
Functional Bodybuilding: Unstable Functional Movements
Functional Bodybuilding on the other hand is intended to reduce injury risk and uses planned variance to decrease burnout. While Functional Bodybuilding can lead to some hypertrophy, it is less effective relative to traditional isolation based bodybuilding for building muscle mass for a number of reasons we’ll explore below.
In contrast with traditional bodybuilding training, Functional Bodybuilding uses compound movements with a focus on instability. A functional movement in this context is defined as being based on “real world situational biomechanics”. In other words, they are movement patterns, like a lunge, that are commonly seen in human movement. Functional Bodybuilding tends to use unilateral or single-limb movements and incorporate equipment with uneven loading that isn’t traditionally used in bodybuilding. For example, it is common to see implements like: kettlebells, sandbags, and landmines in Functional Bodybuilding training. Because the movements are less stable, they do not allow for the same degree of local muscle fiber fatigue and are not as effective at stimulating hypertrophy as traditional bodybuilding isolation training. However, the focus on instability does have one major benefit: it challenges muscles’ role in stabilizing joint actions, which can get neglected in traditional bodybuilding programs.
Another hallmark of Functional Bodybuilding programs is a reliance on tempo training to increase time under tension, which is also commonly found in isolation bodybuilding programs. Tempo training where you manipulate the speed of the eccentric, concentric, or adding pauses to the top or bottom of movements can be an effective way to build strength in specific aspects of a range of motion.
Like traditional bodybuilding, Functional Bodybuilding also has some potential application for CrossFit or sports performance including:
Off-season variance / decrease intensity. Functional Bodybuilding can be used during off-season to provide variance and decrease intensity in training. This allows athletes to keep touches on movements similar to CrossFit while avoiding burnout from repetitive movement patterns or overtraining.
Rehab / Prehab. The focus on instability and unilateral movement patterns in Functional Bodybuilding, can over time create long-term joint stability. In addition, the unilateral emphasis can help build structural balance between limbs. You can learn more about structural balance here: How Strong Do You Need to Be?
A more sport-specific choice. For CrossFit athletes, Functional Bodybuilding is more sport-specific than isolation bodybuilding. The reliance on compound, multi-joint exercises share similar patterns to many movements in the sport of CrossFit, especially when compared to traditional isolation style bodybuilding.
One potential drawback to Functional Bodybuilding is that it can be similar enough to “sport” movements to create overuse injury, but not similar enough to maximize strength transfer to sport performance.
Intention Matters
Both styles of bodybuilding training are effective for their intended purpose. If you want to maximize muscle growth without concern for functionality, your best choice would be isolation bodybuilding. If on the other hand you want more variance in your training with an associated focus on joint health, then Functional Bodybuilding is your best choice. However, neither style of bodybuilding is particularly effective for optimizing performance in the dynamic coordinated movements found in sport. This is where Integrated Bodybuilding comes into play. Integrated Bodybuilding is a training structure that focuses on teaching athletes how to use muscles as part of a whole-body system while providing the opportunity for creating the fiber fatigue necessary for hypertrophy and adequate variance to minimize injury risk.
In Part 2 of this blog, we will explore Integrated Bodybuilding in depth including example exercises, training sessions, periodization, and how to choose the appropriate type of bodybuilding training for your client.
