I count myself lucky that my section commander on basic was a grenadier guard. Hard as nails, taught me how to polish boots to a mirror shine and drilled the platoon like a monster. One of the best blokes I ever worked under. I can understand that most territorials haven't got the fitness of the regs. I've always prided myself on my fitness and was shocked at the low levels of a lot of the guys who were in my platoon.
I'm sure many of my fellow Marines would agree; Physical training in the Marine Corps is terribly inefficient in regards to muscle growth/development. What it does teach you, and very well I might add, is the mental component to push to succeed. Failure is not an option, and the horizon is not the finish line! I love crossfit because it incorporates both!
Crossfit, as much as I have had mixed feelings about it for a while, has come a long ways since it's beginnings and they have massively upgraded the quality of a lot of their coaches. There are some excellent coaches that I respect quite a bit who have become associated with Crossfit. The two things I don't like about Crossfit: (1) a high number of people who do it are annoying as fuck; and (2) there is a huge amount of variance in the level of instruction -- you might get a top coach who was well-established before associating with CF, or you can get a guy who took a weekend certification course and paid the $2-3k and now calls himself a CF instructor.
