All,

I have heard all the stories and seen the results from Crossfit. My question is to those who have attended the Level 1 Certification. I am getting back into shape to cross-train to CCT and would like to know the validity of the certification.

I know the programs are good but what about going through the 2 days. I dont mind the $800 or the time. I want to know if it will help will better. Any thoughts, comments or concerns would be great. Thanks.

The Vest

Its all depends there are couple of threads on here about crossfit and the pipeline. Any exercise to get you shape is good but crossfit isnt sport specific but all around. With pipeline you want to be very well conditioned and good at the specific events.

CF Level One certs are a lot of fun but how much you learn depends on how much you already know. I had a great trainer before I went so I didn't really learn much technique there. I learned that my trainer was better than 90% of the trainers out there but then, he is a fellow CCT.
CF certs are a blast because you are with a bunch of hard core CFers (anybody shelling out $800 is serious about it). If you have a good trainer, you won't benefit much. If you are working out on your own or wish to do your own programming in the future, do the cert.

I went to a CF Endurance cert and it pretty good. I did learn some new things and they look at your technique and go over drills...For the basic CF cert (from what I understand), you learn 8 or so of the basic movements and you learn to teach them. All of this is great, but ultimately the information is out there on the internet if you look enough. You do get "certified," but how much does that mean to you? It's not likely you're going to work at a CF gym, unless you pursue it by racking up a bunch of certifications or you're going to open your own gym... Also, everyone at my CFE cert already knew a bunch of things, so the trainer makes the assumption you know it too and skims over certain things.

If you do want to be able to say you are certified and want to pursue teaching this stuff, then by all means go for it. However, if you're just trying to be the best you can be in CF then use that money for membership at a good CF gym. They're going to teach you those movements anyways and hopefully they learned a lot at their certs to teach you. And you get to go to a gym built for these WODs as opposed to a globo gym that is not conducive to crossfit.

Just my thoughts.

Like Guard MC said, if you have a good trainer then you probably don't need the cert. But if you are CrossFitting alone (without a trainer), I'd do the cert. Trust me, it will be worth your time.

Just wanted to do an update. This class was well worth the 800 and then some. 2 days straight of good stuff. Sore for a few days afterwards but still great. Would recommend this to anyone.