Here’s Your Answer Samurai: Orange Theory vs CrossFit
Speaking with Samurai is always a pleasure because she has a knack for asking insightful, thought provoking questions and I believe in questioning everything. A few weeks ago she asked me to settle an argument between her and her colleagues regarding the relative benefits of CrossFit versus Orange Theory.
Obviously, I have a strong bias, but before I get into it, let me say that I have nothing against Orange Theory or any other fitness methodology. The best fitness program is the one that you actually do so, if OrangeTheory gets you to the gym, keep at it! Sedentarism is the enemy. Anything that gets you off the couch and into action is a step in the right direction. Moreover, there are several things that I think Orange Theory does very well so if that is your thing, I am all in favour.
Why is CrossFit better?
There is a subtle but very meaningful distinction between CrossFit and every other fitness modality that most people lack the ability to grasp. CrossFit isn’t a defined style of training, there is nothing proprietary or fixed about CrossFit programming. CrossFit is an ever evolving, open source, results based program whose only goal is optimizing fitness outcomes.
Most of you just read that paragraph and completely missed how profoundly important it is. Let me break it down for you:
Our goal is optimizing fitness outcomes. We care about results, not method. If Orange Theory produced better fitness outcomes, we would simply copy what they are doing. Nothing in CrossFit is proprietary, CrossFit borrows from gymnastics, powerlifting, weightlifting, track and field, rowing, combat sports, etc. As we get more and better data on what produces elite level fitness, the CrossFit programming adapts to incorporate the new information. Over the past two decades CrossFit has evolved dramatically and with it, our fitness results. Show us a better way and we will adopt it. CrossFit is committed to results, not method.
But doesn’t Orange Theory prioritize fitness outcomes?
No. I know someone who owns several CrossFit, F45 and Orange Theories. He says that his F45 and Orange Theory gyms generate about 10x more per square foot than his CrossFit gyms. And that is by design. Franchise gyms prioritize profit. They use a fixed layout design that maximizes group class capacity. More people per class equals more money. This immediately eliminates movements like snatches and rope climbs and even double unders. The layout of CrossFit gyms is not fixed but open so that we can adapt the space to accommodate the workout of the day which could include anything, even swimming, because in a world that is over seventy percent water, the ability to swim is certainly a measure of fitness.
F45, Orange Theory and any other commercial fitness programs are nothing more than a subset of CrossFit. At CrossFit we train everything that they do and more. Our program is infinite. Theirs, finite. They do some of what we do but leave out pieces that don’t fit into the profit maximizing layout. These missing pieces represent the gap in their fitness program.
Prove it
Every fitness program claims to be the most effective. One of my favourite quotes is “Before CrossFit the fitness industry was a dick measuring contest with the raincoats closed. All CrossFit did was bring out a measuring stick and challenge everyone to open their coats.”
Where did you think the CrossFit Games came from? It is simply a test of who is producing the best fitness results. Open source fitness model: Measure, copy, repeat.
There is prize money for the winners. Have you ever seen any athlete from any other sport or fitness program claim that prize money? Maybe you believe the CrossFit Games events are programmed to the advantage of CrossFit athletes. Go check out season one and two of Netflix’s Korean show Physical 100. The show, which is not associated with CrossFit in any way, takes 100 top athletes (including Olympians and professional athletes), fitness gurus and influencers and puts them through a gruelling array of fitness tests whittling away contestants until only one remains. Spoiler alert: CrossFitters win both seasons. BTW, neither of the winners are top level CrossFitters.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. CrossFit training is specifically designed to produce a broad fitness base allowing you to meet any and all of life’s challenges. CrossFit specializes in not specializing. No other training program does this.
What’s Missing?
Definitions matter. How you define fitness, determines how you are going to train. Orange Theory defines fitness as cardiovascular respiratory endurance and we can all agree that this is an important measure of fitness. Orange Theory delivers on its promise of improving cardiovascular respiratory fitness and they measure outcomes too so they pass the raincoat and ruler test and by their definition of fitness, are successful.
F45 considers body composition a measure of physical fitness and they too have the integrity to measure outcomes using the InBody scanner to prove their program efficacy. Another successful and credible program.
CrossFit’s definition of fitness however is significantly broader. Our definition of fitness is increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. Exploring the elegance of this definition could be a blog post all on its own.
Improved body composition is a happy side effect of increased work capacity so we consider it not a measure of fitness but an outcome of fitness. In addition to Orange Theory’s cardiovascular respiratory endurance, the fitness attributes that CrossFit programming develops include: stamina (muscular endurance), strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination, accuracy, agility and balance.
Stamina
I’ll allow that Orange Theory does train some muscular endurance but their work capacity is so low that it pales in comparison to CrossFit athletes. This is calculable as load times distance. There are no athletes anywhere training the work capacity that you see in CrossFit gyms.
Flexibility
Want a simple test of flexibility? Ask your friend at Orange Theory to perform an overhead squat. Most fitness programs include some stretching in the warm up or cool down but very few actually challenge athletes’ range of motion under load the way CrossFit does.
Speed
This is like your hundred metre sprint. Outside track and field very few training modalities address speed.
Power
This is load times distance divided by time. The power snatch is an expression of power as is the shot put. Power and speed are the hallmark attributes required to be considered athletic and yet very few programs train these attributes.
Coordination, Accuracy, Agility, Balance
These neurological skills are left out of most training programs though they will very much determine the quality of your life in your later years. These show up in more complex movement patterns like the thruster, double under, kipping pull up, squat snatch, clean and jerk, sumo deadlift high pull, wall balls or basically everywhere in CrossFit. They show up very rarely in non-CrossFit training programs.
Strength
Strength is the most foundational fitness skill because without it, no other training is possible. And yet you do not see strength training in Orange Theory or F45. Oh, they claim to have strength training because they use some loads in their workouts but while those light loads do develop stamina (muscular endurance) they are insufficient for developing strength. And remember, along with VO2 Max, strength is the other attribute most closely correlated to a reduction in all cause mortality. Orange Theory may address the VO2 Max half of the equation but they are missing out the other critical component.
Ask an Orange Theory athlete if they are able to deadlift or back squat their body weight. Can they do a push up? How about a pull up? A ring dip? Seriously, these programs purporting to deliver strength and conditioning usually get a big fail on the strength portion. Actually, they are just conditioning programs. Their athletes are weak and that’s why their work capacity is so abysmally low.
What does strength training look like? It looks a lot like Monday’s CrossFit Total. We are lifting heavy. I saw The Touch do a quick, forty minute CrossFit Total between group classes Sunday morning with no warm up. He back squatted over 335lbs, shoulder pressed 165lbs and deadlift over 450lbs. That’s what strength looks like.
Standards
One last comment on fitness industry standards. Ask a group of people who train at F45 or Orange Theory to show you their air squat or push up or pull up and see what you get. See if they are capable of moving through a full range of motion or know how to set their hands or feet correctly for proper mechanical execution. They do not know the difference between correct and incorrect movement patterns. Because movement patterns performed incorrectly repeatedly over time produce mechanical breakdown in the joints, as a coach, I see this as a big fail.
But your friends at OrangeTheory don’t even know what they don’t know. Neither, I suspect, do their trainers. Because outside of CrossFit movement standards are just not taught. They don’t even know why this is important. In essence, you have a whole lot of people who know next to nothing about fitness trying to argue about which program is better and why without even having the tools necessary to make the assessment.
Conclusion
I started my judo athletic journey in 1980 and started training strength and conditioning in commercial gyms at the age of 15. I was running a judo dojo and working in the staffing industry when I discovered CrossFit in 2005. Given my training and background I was very sceptical of CrossFit's bold claims but it took my fitness to levels I hadn’t dreamed possible. I started Empower because I was passionate about helping empower other people in their quest for fitness.
The fitness industry is filled with slickly marketed programs promising results but CrossFit actually delivers. Any fitness program is better than nothing but no fitness program has matched the results produced by CrossFit and even if they did, we would just copy what they were doing and call it CrossFit anyway. The error people make is in believing that fitness is some subjective quality that can’t be measured. Fitness is a quantifiable attribute and at CrossFit we measure it daily.
Reading Resources:
What is Fitness?
Foundations
What is CrossFit?
Monday
Get in early, do your pre warm up. We will start back squatting at the top of the hour!
CrossFit Total
1 rep max Back Squat
1 rep max Shoulder Press
1 rep max Deadlift
Score = sum of heaviest back squat + heaviest shoulder press + heaviest deadlift
