Hybrid VS CrossFit Training - What's best for You?

If you’re new to the channel, we’re Kristi and Patrick O’Connell. We’re the founders of IBEX Training, a fitness app and community built for those who take their training seriously. You might not know us yet, so here’s a timeline of some of the things we’ve done (that you can look up to verify).

How we got here…

2007-2011: Kristi was a D1 swimmer at the University of Louisville.
2010: Patrick qualified for the first-ever CrossFit Regionals and would go on to qualify six more times.
2010-2013: Kristi raced marathons, triathlons, and a half Ironman, running both the 2010 Boston and 2011 New York marathon.
2016: We moved to Columbus to run our own gym, the same year Kristi qualified for her first CrossFit Games. With Patrick as Her coach Kristi qualified for 7 consecutive CrossFit Games.
2019: We launched IBEX Training and built the IBEX Training app to deliver science-backed fitness programs and resources to help members achieve their goals.
2022: Kristi ran a 3:04 marathon while still maintaining high-level strength and conditioning.
2023: We have more than doubled the size of our gym since we took over with a thriving community.
2023: Kristi won the Houston Hyrox race (also her first Hyrox race)
2023: Kristi ran her first 50k ultra marathon, Patrick ran a 1/2 marathon trail race
2024: We have 8+ Years and 1,000s of coaching hours helping members reach their goals.
2024: Kristi ran the Columbus half marathon in 1:23, avg pace 6:22.
2024: Kristi won the Dallas mixed doubles race

Today: We spend 100% of our time writing fitness programs, and helping people of all fitness levels striving to become 1% better every day.

Let’s crush it together,
Kristi & Patrick

[brads]

Training for nothing, but ready for anything! LOVE this!

[ancientmage]

Whatever Fitness Influencers want to call it. It's a combo of weights, functional training, cardio, flexibility, etc. It's just that. Don't take everything you see or hear at heart and do what works for you.

[Bigredfitnessmoshe]

Hybrid training is just what we used to call “fitness “. So you lift weights and you do some cardio. … nowadays everything needs a special name.

[endurperformance]

Hybrid training is when you are training for 2 or more goals concurrently, like a power lifting total AND a marathon time, OR a 10k swim AND strengh training as an example, crossfit and hyrox are singular sports, you are training for the sport of crossfit/hyrox, hope that makes sense :D

[shawnj]

I love how you compare the two without bashing either! Well done 👍🏽

[thom]

To me, Hybrid training is about training a few things concurrently, but individually. Crossfit is about blending different modalities in one sport

[Simplyryanne]

Hi Kristi- I love hybrid training. I’ve been working out consistently for 17 years and I think it also helps prevent boredom in workouts. I’m still using and ordering LMNT because of you!

[MichaelLoweAttorney]

If you want to be good at something, you should focus on that. If you want to be a good runner, you should primarily run. Running is not cardio. Running is running. It’s a skill that demands the development of different muscle fibers and connective tissue. This type of development cannot happen in a CrossFit gym. It takes a lot of practice to get better at it.

I quit doing CrossFit so that I could get much better at running. I still do some strength work. But it doesn’t resemble CrossFit workouts in any way.

CrossFit and running are not complementary forms of training. One will reduce your proficiency at the other.

The research shows that concurrent training will reduce progress in each domain. A relatively small amount of aerobic training can improve strength training but the interference effect is real if you are doing significant endurance training and strength training. The interference effect goes both ways. It reduces running performance and strength gains.

If hybrid training doesn’t mean anything, then it’s best to not use the term. Training should be defined by the goal of training.

[bria]

Hybrid training is what I've chosen for myself due to both accessibility and my goals. I want to join the military in a couple years, and I ideally want to be doing some more "elite" (for lack of a better term) jobs in the military, so I need to be running, swimming, weightlifting, rucking etc. and so a hybrid approach where I can give each of those areas equal time and energy is better for me

[jaytracerr]

Love the video! I’ve been doing hybrid for over 15 years now, running, lifting and biking are my key ways of staying in shape. It’s also super fun to sign up for local races! Stay fit 💪🏼

[nathanyoder]

Enjoyed hearing your thought on Hybrid Training and Crossfit! Love your dog in the background!

[charliecarpenter]

I didn't realize that I was doing hybrid training already. I love Crossfit but the oly lifts are so challenging for me that I don't get enough stimulus and I absolutely love running but obviously don't get enough stimulus for that in a pure Crossfit program. I thought I was doing modified Crossfit but I guess I'm doing Hybrid training. Thanks! I enjoy your content and will check out your hybrid program.

[robws]

This was very helpful... although isn't the real difference between hybrid & Crossfit training about scaling & specificity?
Crossfit IS hybrid training, it's just that whoever designs the WODs decides what the focus is, whereas the hybrid athlete can decide what their goals are with their coach or coaches. You hit the nail on the head early in the video (around 1:35 onwards) where you made the point about having a specific goal: that Crossfit might not be the most effective way to train. In fact, if you really have a serious and specific goal, Crossfit training might actually get in the way.
The upside of Crossfit is the community element, for sure.
Many of us have always been "hybrid" athletes; anyone who did a sport where you had to train aerobic capacity, VO2 max, strength and flexibility (plus a sports-specific skill) all at the same time... it's really just a new buzzword. That's not meant to diminish it, but HYROX and DEKA and even NINJA and PARKOUR are simply outlets for the hybrid athlete to test themselves. What Crossfit did is try to make working-out, in and of itself, a sport... so it quickly "self selected" for the real "fire breather" types and it forgot to really scale its training, which resulted in a lot of frustration for people, certainly those who weren't "all in" to get on a competition track to the Open and the Crossfit Games, etc.. Anyone who has studied weight-training and run training knows that you program lifts based on % or 1RM and runs based on individual paces... so the cursory WOD weights for men & women was really not specific enough for people with smaller frames, less strength, slower run times, older athletes, etc. The lip-service paid to scaling was really ad hoc and singled-out people not doing the WOD "Rx".
Also, incorporating gymnastics and OL lifts seems kinda cool, but really just resulted in a lot of unnecessary injuries... and that's not even "going there" about the ridiculous kipping pull-ups and muscle-ups which just gave physiotherapists dollar signs for eyeballs.
What HYROX and DEKA are getting right is democratizing the competitions, so they don't prioritize a certain body type. Seriously, if the same athletes were winning the Crossfit Games year after year, then where is the supposed "constant variation"?
Perhaps the same athletes will be seen at the top of the leaderboards in HYROX and DEKA too, but at least the folks further down the board won't be made to feel "less than...", which was Crossfit's Achille's Heel that I hope these new formats avoid like the plague.

[sks]

I like the way you explain each in detail.

[Kevinc]

crossfit is a brand
Hibrid training is what a cossfiter will do

[HassanZargari]

Great video. I found that crossfit isn't for me. Oly lifts, gymnastics... it's just too complex. I was getting frustrated, and injured. I went back to traditional strength training and running, and I'm happier now.

[gilt]

Just not sure why we don't say cross train. Seems like we have to rebrand just to sound new.

[BluegillGreg]

Crossfit training is a type of hybrid training like tennis training is a type of racquet sport training. Simple.

[andrebxpritchard]

thanks for your consistently high quality content guys 👌🏽 always informative and helpful

[mj]

I just watched another video saying that hybrid training is not crossfit. That it’s more disciplined and focuses more on staying healthy. Not sure how true that is.