Why we shouldn’t use mirrors when working-out

Devin Glage — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:39:08 +0000

This post is a excerpt from a response I wrote on the RAW CrossFit site to the question of “Why aren’t there mirrors in your gym?” I thought I would share it with my nutrition readers as well, as body image is usually important to people searching for nutrition information.

Shiny reflective surfaces a.k.a mirrors, will only be present in the washrooms.

At CrossFit we teach you how to move your body with proper bio-mechanical form. Becoming proficient at this requires you to FEEL the movements, not SEE them in the mirror. Mirrors have caused the frontal domination that goes on in most gyms. People want to improve what they see in the mirror, so they tend to focus on exercises that target the chest, arms and abs. This focus on the front of the body contributes to many injuries due to the over-development of chest muscles**, with a general neglect of the back muscles, or the posterior-chain. As with many things in life, proper body composition and posture is all about balance. At CrossFit we teach functional movements, in other words, movements that allow you to move large loads, long distances, and quickly. Because functional movements tend to recruit many large muscle groups at once, the tendency for over domination of one group is drastically reduced.

Another reason we don’t like mirrors in our gym is that CrossFit is practiced for application in real life. We prepare for the unknown, and the unknowable. The majority of the average person’s daily life is lived without mirrors. If you needed to look in a mirror every time something needed to be lifted off the floor, your productivity would be greatly reduced. Thus we emphasize FEELING the movements, getting to know how your body moves through balance development, and coordination. We want to teach you to know where your body is in space, not where it is in a mirror.

Furthermore, our end goal in CrossFit is ultimate fitness. We train to generate power from the human body by developing our proficiency in 10 General Physical Skills: Cardio/Respiratory Response, Stamina, Flexibility, Strength, Speed, Power, Balance, Agility, Accuracy, and Coordination. We care most about our performance, and conditioning a “general state of readiness” that will allow us to effectively face any physical challenge that life may throw our way. That being said, looking good in the mirror tends to be a nice side-effect of CrossFit training. In this case, form follows function.

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Why we shouldn’t use mirrors when working-out

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