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CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

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Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#91

Post by mchughj »

enraged_camel wrote: post #43
dkarl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the years I have contemplated joining Crossfit (mostly for the comradery aspect), but the insane level of cult mentality has made me shy away from it every time. That's a good reason to shun a particular location or instructor, but I and a lot of other people have had completely opposite experiences. If the workouts interest you, I encourage you to give it a try and see what the instructors are like. Maybe ask J…

>>That's a good reason to shun a particular location or instructor, but I and a lot of other people have had completely opposite experiences. Before I posted that, I knew that a Crossfitter would respond and defend Crossfit. That is the level of cult-like irrationality I am talking about: looking at statistics (such as the ones about much higher incidence of Rhambo in Crossfitters) and responding with anecdotal evide…

I think that you should go back and read the prior response and then think a little bit about whether or not it represents a "cult-like irrationality".

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#92

Post by scott_s »

enraged_camel wrote: post #29
Whitespace wrote: post #20

TL;DR: I got rhabdo from crossfit last year. My CPK was 100,000 and I spent 5 days in the hospital. I wasn't overweight but I wasn't fit when I got it, and I got it during the first day of a beginner course. Ask me anything. ============================== I did crossfit for a couple of months in 2010 and loved it, but I had to stop since I moved to a new apartment and the gym times wouldn't work with the longer commu…

That's scary. Thanks for sharing. I'm an amateur bodybuilder and I workout alone. Over the years I have contemplated joining Crossfit (mostly for the comradery aspect), but the insane level of cult mentality has made me shy away from it every time. Articles like this just drive home the point. My friend Jane, who is a physical therapist, specializes in exercise injuries. She once confided in me that local Crossfitter…

I don't do Crossfit, but I think it's a good system in general. I do powerlifting style strength training and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The attitude you're talking about - patch me up so I can get back to training, until my next injury - is common to all sports and physical activities.

Now, it's possible injuries are more common in Crossfit than in other sports, but that's a question for the data.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#94

Post by chris_wot »

tlrobinson wrote: post #12

Wow, I thought they were kidding about the clown cartoon, but no: (pdf) http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf

Not to mention the highly casual way the talk about the condition and how they caused it!

Someone needs to sue them. For a lot of money. Maybe they'll get it through their thick skulls that it's not cool, or funny.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#95

Post by x0x0 »

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,…

crossfit is a scam. People go to crossfit to become more fit. Since they are presumably novices, how exactly are they supposed to evaluate the instruction they receive? Crossfit, as implicitly admitted in your post, is perfectly willing to allow poor and dangerous instruction to be sold with their name, as long as the cash keeps on coming.

and this:

   If you go to a gym (CrossFit or not) that programs things that expose you to 
   to any kind of injury, then you should absolutely leave.
when you later call those people dumb is really amazing. Yes, they are dumb for trusting people like you who sell dangerous coaching with the crossfit brand. You're willing to associate with crossfit and turn a blind eye to how other crossfit coaches hurt people who trust them.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#96

Post by thesz »

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…

Regarding the reps and high weight.

Westside Barbell changes program structure from 3 sets of 5 repetitions into 5 sets of 3 repetitions (or even 8 sets of 2 repetitions) precisely because it allows athlete to control form of exercise. The volume is the same, the breakdown is different. As Westside Barbell is trying to keep traumas low, it is a good example why you should not perform complex lifts in long series.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#97

Post by dobbsbob »

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…

Timely article, I just walked past a Crossfit place that opened today and saw it was full of people doing ridiculous interval exhaustion excersizes.

If you want the ultra lean, chiseled pro fighter look it's all about what you eat not overtraining yourself to death. Building muscle and strength training means you should be doing slow, careful and correct weight lifting not jerking motions especially to exhaustion where you make mistakes.

Plenty of videos out there on how professional athletes train to minimize injuries. Go on youtube and look up NHL training or even MLB training you will never see them jumping off things or doing high reps, or anything that isn't completely controlled at all times considering if they get injured the team is out millions.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#98

Post by cdjk »

I am thankful for crossfit because it introduced me to powerlifting. But I quickly realized I liked the strength portions a lot more than the AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) and other timed workouts.

The official line is "you're only competing with yourself," but in practice that's not the case. Especially when there's a whiteboard and everyone knows what the various times/number of reps are. Trying to force anything with a strong technique component (like olympic lifts) into a time based or number of reps based competition just seems like a bad idea.

Also, with the wide variety of WODs, it's hard to track progress. Yeah, the workouts repeat, but if you only do something a couple times a year it's hard to keep track of progress.

I ended up doing Starting Strength instead. I got my squat from about 80lbs to 245, and then 295 with some intermediate programming. I almost never got sore - only a little sore after the first couple workouts, or if I missed a week or two. I'm currently trying to figure out how to integrate cardio and lifting, which is one thing that crossfit has going for it, but I liked powerlifting workouts a lot more than crossfit.

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#99

Post by [deleted] »

PanTardovski wrote: post #82
mightybyte wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>I don't think form breaks down after a few reps nearly as much as you say. Then you don't know much about training the Olympic lifts or power movements in general. Take a look at this graph -- http://i.imgur.com/vFP0D58.png -- from Practical Programming for Strength Training (Rippetoe, Kilgore, & Pendlay, pg. 131). "Figure 5-3. Electromyogram (EMG) and force production tracings from a high-rep set. Note that the mus…

[deleted]

Re: CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

#100

Post by cdjk »

busterarm wrote: post #79
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 thought the whole magic behind olympic lifts was 1RM. What is this stupidity?

I think there is some value in multiple-rep olympic lifts, but technique still has to be the most important thing. Rippetoe's starting strength program is 3x5 for all the lifts except power cleans, which are 5x3. Going much over a set of 3 or 5 with heavy weight is not a particularly good idea.
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