Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 216 posts

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#71

Post by graeme »

mightybyte wrote: post #60
enraged_camel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever came up with the idea of high-rep olympic lifts needs to be shot. Seriously, it's incredibly dangerous. Olympic lifts are very complex mechanical movements and it takes real Olympic athletes months if not years to master the form. There's a reason for that: if the form is not correct, you open yourself to significant risk of potentially-permanent injury. The problem with doing them with high repetition (and u…

I don't think there's much evidence to demonstrate that high-rep olympic lifts done by a trained person are any more dangerous then low-rep lifts at high weight. Yes, if you don't have good technique you're asking for trouble, but that's not what we're talking about here. I don't think form breaks down after a few reps nearly as much as you say. There's probably a point at which it will, but there's a lot of room for…

You're heavily underestimating group pressure. Have you never been in a 'chug, chug, chug, chug!' type of situation?

Peer pressure makes people do LOTS of things they wouldn't otherwise do.

In a certain sense, they're responsible for their actions. But it's silly to ignore the role that group persuasion has. If Crossfit creates pressure for harmful actions, then they share responsibility.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#72

Post by theboss »

kylered wrote: post #65
fingerprinter wrote: post #40

To be honest, Crossfit has quite a few dark secrets. This one, though, can kill you. What are crossfit's dark secrets? First and foremost, well, it's terrible. The programming coming from HQ is just plain awful. There are many programs out there now (Outlaw, Competitors WOD, CF Football etc) that fill the gap and actually give decent programming, but the programming from crossfit.com is really, really bad. Did you kn…

I've been CrossFitting for over 6 years, owned an affiliate for 4 years, and founded the largest independent CrossFit-style competition series in the country (as far as I know). This author hasn't been to a well-managed gym or worked with more experienced coaches. The same is likely true of those who get rhabdo. They have exposed themselves to more than their body can handle physically, as a result of poor coaching,…

Won't good coaches be the exception with cross fit? It only takes a weekend class....how can any have the experience to coach high skill movements like CnJ (with bad programming on top of that... high rep clean and jerks.....) When it only takes a couple weekends to become a xfit coach.

The whole thing is one injury prone circlejerk.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#73

Post by revelation »

Raphmedia wrote: post #53

I have a lot of coworkers that injured themselves doing CrossFit. I don't understand why CrossFit is such a trend in the tech industry. It seems like an easy way to hurt yourself. Simply go to the gym and do your own workout...

The popularity in tech could certainly explain the large number of people embarrassing themselves here with their boneheaded defense of what is just another for profit company.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#74

Post by badclient »

Whitespace wrote: post #69
badclient wrote: post #63

I had rhabdomyolysis in high school after an intense afternoon of running around in the cold. Let me describe the pain: * everytime I breathe in or down I felt like screaming * moving almost any part of my body even an inch made me scream * my urine was dark red All my life I've had above normal pain tolerance from another chronic illness but it took rhabdomyolysis to really break me--quite literally. Ultimately it r…

My experience with rhabdo involved no pain (outside of really sore muscles). I am not a doctor, but I think what you experienced was what rhabdo leads to if untreated: myoglobinuria (kidneys poisoned due to excess myoglobin) which then leads to acute renal failure (kidneys fail). The normal treatment for rhabdo is intravenous saline (I had 5 days of saline), whereas myoglobinuria or acute renal failure require dialys…

That sounds about right. Mine had gotten much worse by the time we took action, mostly because we confused it for my other illness during the early stages.

And thank you for crediting saline. I became a saline "addict" myself. We were told to get home health to give IV at any sign of red urine.

This was almost exactly 10 years ago. I've been well since.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#75

Post by Fourplealis »

rangibaby wrote: post #2

When I first started doing weights, my father and his brother both drilled one piece of advice into my head: training too much is worse than not training at all. After reading this article, I'm grateful for it!

Yes any overtraining can be dangerous, there was an article about how one guy running startup got rhabdo while doing p90x: http://collegespun.com/features/how-the-stress-of-running-a-...

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#76

Post by dalke »

mightybyte wrote: post #60
enraged_camel wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever came up with the idea of high-rep olympic lifts needs to be shot. Seriously, it's incredibly dangerous. Olympic lifts are very complex mechanical movements and it takes real Olympic athletes months if not years to master the form. There's a reason for that: if the form is not correct, you open yourself to significant risk of potentially-permanent injury. The problem with doing them with high repetition (and u…

I don't think there's much evidence to demonstrate that high-rep olympic lifts done by a trained person are any more dangerous then low-rep lifts at high weight. Yes, if you don't have good technique you're asking for trouble, but that's not what we're talking about here. I don't think form breaks down after a few reps nearly as much as you say. There's probably a point at which it will, but there's a lot of room for…

> Hogwash. Each person is responsible for their own actions.

I have observed that hazing exists, including among adults. People die in hazing events, or are subjected to physical harm, coerced sexual activity, and emotionally abusive behaviors.

As you say, "Each person is responsible for their own actions." Using only that logic as a guide, then everyone who dies in a hazing event - in those cases where it's voluntary to join the organization which practices hazing - is solely responsible for their own death.

I do not take so narrow a view of that. We also have a responsibility for others as well. It isn't only the hazee who is responsible but also those who were involved or knew about the hazing but did nothing to stop it.

Similarly, while I agree that people are responsible for their own well-being in training, I use my same reasoning to say that they are also partially responsible for the well-being of others.

If you see someone else using equipment in a dangerous and fool-hardy way, with a high-likelihood that they will be seriously hurt, will you do nothing?

If you notice that week after week people doing a specific exercise end up with twisted backs, will you do nothing?

Or will you encourage people to work at it and try harder? Does culpability ever exist?

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#77

Post by jaredmcateer »

lmg643 wrote: post #50
fingerprinter wrote: post #40

To be honest, Crossfit has quite a few dark secrets. This one, though, can kill you. What are crossfit's dark secrets? First and foremost, well, it's terrible. The programming coming from HQ is just plain awful. There are many programs out there now (Outlaw, Competitors WOD, CF Football etc) that fill the gap and actually give decent programming, but the programming from crossfit.com is really, really bad. Did you kn…

another dark secret: form is not the #1 priority. youtube is full of videos of people doing crossfit with horrific form and the instructors seem more focused on getting folks to "do" the exercise rather than "do it right". it seems like crossfit doesn't quite appreciate how easy it is to destroy a knee, or your back, from improper deadlift or squat form. done properly, they are fantastic exercises. improperly, they a…

>> another dark secret: form is not the #1 priority.

Depends on your gym, at my gym if you have bad form during a workout, you will be stopped, corrected and if necessary scaled down until you can get it right. Of course my gym doesn't routinely post videos to youtube.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#78

Post by jaredmcateer »

freshhawk wrote: post #54
ok_craig wrote: post #33

What's different about CrossFit from regular exercise? It doesn't give a summary of what it is or how it's different. That makes me scared that all exercise has this risk, especially lifting weights, which I enjoy. Is that true?

The main difference I see is that CrossFit is presented as a sport in and of itself, rather than a way to train for other sports. Your second point is not true if you follow the most basic guidelines for making sure you have good form and don't overtrain. It's the culture of competing against others to finish a set workout quickly that distinguishes crossfit, that both motivates people to train harder, makes people w…

Olympic lifting, running, rowing, swimming, and more are all sports in which the main for of training is doing the sport.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#79

Post by busterarm »

enraged_camel wrote: post #48
fingerprinter wrote: post #40

To be honest, Crossfit has quite a few dark secrets. This one, though, can kill you. What are crossfit's dark secrets? First and foremost, well, it's terrible. The programming coming from HQ is just plain awful. There are many programs out there now (Outlaw, Competitors WOD, CF Football etc) that fill the gap and actually give decent programming, but the programming from crossfit.com is really, really bad. Did you kn…

Whoever came up with the idea of high-rep olympic lifts needs to be shot. Seriously, it's incredibly dangerous. Olympic lifts are very complex mechanical movements and it takes real Olympic athletes months if not years to master the form. There's a reason for that: if the form is not correct, you open yourself to significant risk of potentially-permanent injury. The problem with doing them with high repetition (and u…

I thought the whole magic behind olympic lifts was 1RM.

What is this stupidity?

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#80

Post by oostevo »

stevenwei wrote: post #64
oostevo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not ensuring affiliate quality isn't really a dirty secret. They're pretty open about it. From conversations I've had with higher-ups at Crossfit Headquarters, they're _terrified_ of a court finding them to have a franchise model, because that would open them up to all sorts of liability each time one of their affiliates does something dumb. Per their legal interpretation, they become a franchisor if they do things l…

Wait, they're not a franchise model? What is required for someone to open up a gym using the Crossfit name?

They're under an affiliate rather than franchise model. I don't know enough about the differences to describe the differences other than to say that it seems to make Headquarters think they're unable to enforce standards once someone opens a gym.

I haven't done it myself, but to open an affiliate you need to:

(1) Write an essay.

(2) Pass their Level 1 certification class

(3) Have a website with a link to the Crossfit Journal

(4) Pay them $3000 (annually)

From: http://www.crossfit.com/how-to-affiliate

Post reply on HN