I'm not a huge fan of Crossfit, but this is extremely rare and can happen with any type of intense physical activity. Like any physical activity, some risk is involved, especially if a person is too stupid to listen to his or her body's own warning signals.
Like the articles mention, the trainers are often not properly educated, and when people get hurt, they get the blame! Kind of like every other stupid cult, like AA, when you do well it's cause you followed the program, when you do badly it's your own fault... no this is not helping things.
Crossfit is here to stay and I know many people who have benefitted from it.
Like religion?
Like I said, I'm not a huge fan and it's not how I prefer to get my exercise, but that doesn't mean it's worthless.
Whoa who made the claim it is worthless? I said it's
stupid, and dangerous.
Here's a list of the Navl SEAL guy's criticisms, someone who only looks at peer-reviewed information from the top journals in order to educate the most fit humans on the planet...
• Illogical combinations of exercises (such as pre-fatiguing exercises before heavy dead lifts)
• Prescribing the same workouts (including the same weight) for everybody regardless of personal history of training or injury
• Arbitrary goals (such as using 50 or 100 reps for multiple exercises)
• Prescription of exercises that require specialized skills and baseline conditioning and are not appropriate for beginners under high-intensity conditions (Olympic lifts, kettle bells)
• Use of exercises of questionable safety if done rapidly or while fatigued (glute-ham sit-ups, muscle ups, Turkish get-ups)
• Exclusion of useful exercises (such as leg curls or biceps curls) as being “nonfunctional”
• Formats that reward poor technique, such as shortening the ROM to get more reps in less time (despite the lip service Crossfit gives to technique, it is rarely observed in practice)
• Too many formats that blend strength and endurance activities such that the effectiveness of both are diluted (better to perform strength and endurance activities independently most of the time)
The people in Crossfit who get this condition have mainly been those who are in very good physical condition but are just starting with Crossfit and are therefore capable of pushing themselves to extremes that they are unaccustomed to, whereas the average new Crossfit gymgoer cannot push themselves to that extent.
The authors of that the military study I mentioned would disagree with this.
It's not a "stupid and dangerous cult." Any organization can attract people who behave in a cultish manner toward it, but that doesn't make it a cult.
Their behavior in the face of criticism and injuries doesn't strike you as odd at all?
If I'm not mistaken, it's a franchise, so as with any franchise you will encounter locations of varying quality. You can find plenty of regular gyms full of diehard "no guts no glory" types.
Which is part of why it is dangerous, if there is no standard, and no accountability to a higher authority, then things WILL get out of control. Like with christianity, or alcoholics anonymous. It's actually a common feature of large cults.
Anyways, Crossfit acknowledges this risk and warns against it.
But denies the evidence that it is dangerous, and that injuries are injuries! Yeah I'll stick with the peer-reviewed stuff myself.
I'm sure it's helpful to many people, but the facts are they do lots of stupid stuff that has no evidence for it, employ people who aren't qualified and act like they are being persecuted when people who have more scientific qualifications and evidence than them criticize them.
