Why Everyone Hates CrossFit

if you've heard of crossfit your first impression probably wasn't positive whether that's because of its floppy prolops zero zero zero it's seemingly dangerous nature or the fact the community is often referred to as a cult what if someone led a call and they didn't know they were i mean that would be messed up right there's three main reasons crossfit became so hated and how these came about is concerning here we go a bit of fitness here as he does some sort of washing machine type of pull up here this is a workout craze with no

signs of slowing down it's a workout program that's unpredictable uncompromising and raw but critics say crossfit is dangerous and people are getting hurt despite going from zero to over four billion dollars in 20 years crossfit is probably the most controversial fitness brand in the world dangerous maybe to the rest of the industry i think we are a threat but uh not to people's well-being so how did it become so popular yet so hated [Music] crossfit has formed in the year 2000 in santa cruz california by greg glassman he believed that the traditional metrics of fitness

and intensity kinda suck for the body builders intensity comes down to how how red your face gets and how big of a scene you make and how much you grow like wow that's intense but the endurance community's metric for intensity heart rate was just as bad his new methodology was to create the fittest people on earth with constantly changing workouts to prepare people for the unexpected in which the aim was to not only lift heavy weight for reps but to do it quickly hey we're really doing this so we can go outside and survive better

the athletes would all train together in classes as a tribe everyone believed in crossfit's vision and they'd throw stones at traditional fitness you can sit there in gold's gym for hours i've done it for years and go days at a time without seeing functional movement except for the people coming in setting their bags down and as soon as they start working out i get this the brands were seen as a rebellious underdog in the fitness industry and because it was seen as this new ultimate sport for fitness crossfit's growth was rapid by 2005 crossfit had

expanded to 13 gyms by 2016 it reached 13 000 gyms and then by 2020 over 15 000 gyms so what could possibly be to hate about a fitness brand growing like a fast food chain getting millions into fitness surely this is an amazing concept crossfit specialty is being extremely unspecialized in a workout you might be doing this this or this as the creator wanted to focus on functional fitness with the aim of improving in all of these areas crossfit includes a large number of technical movements which can require much more skill than other sports to

learn especially considering movements are done for reps catalyzed by competitive environment where speed's important as a result form breakdown is of high risk which is partially why we see so many crossfit fail videos in fact the creator's always been clear on the potentially dangerous nature of crossfit stating that i can actually kill you this edgy nature initially seemed to attract people to it with one of their unofficial mascots being pukey the clown a stereotype of how often people at crossfit train to vomiting i haven't met pukey multiple times multiple times but then again you're doing

this for competition so you kind of have to have to go there but perhaps more concerning is that mascot uncle raptor a clown dying from rhabdomyolysis his guts are falling to the floor due to a condition which can be caused by training so hard that your muscles break down entering the blood which can then cause organ damage and death a syndrome which turns urine a disturbing colour crossover has been criticized for glorifying this condition or at least not taking it seriously with some gems bragging about it and people posing in hospital with the condition as

if it's a badge of honor in response the crossfit creator stated we introduce rhabdo because we're honest and believe that full disclosure of risk is the only ethical thing to do regardless many dislike crossfit for the prioritization of intensity over form a commonly mentioned fitness horror story is that of crossfit athlete kevin ogre who severed his spine during a fitness competition and while it's used to scare people away from crossfit it's important to remember extreme injuries can happen in any sports not to mention it was actually a weightlifting competition where the injury happened if we

look at the injury rates it would actually be unfair to call crossfit much more dangerous than weightlifting or powerlifting however considering the weights used in crossfit are usually lighter with the movements done in supervised classes it's still unnecessarily high the data's likely positively skewed meaning the crossfit injury rate is massively inflated by bad gems and make no mistake there are some awful crossfit gyms out there if you're over the age of 18 you could open your very own crossfit gym as a qualified instructor after just two days of training so although crossfit done right is

a very safe sport due to these factors it could be unnecessarily dangerous and unfortunately it's the extreme fails and stupidity which tend to make sensational stories and go viral but it's not just the concern for people's well-being that makes people hate crossfit it's often the fact crossfitters don't seem to shut up about crossfit a common stereotype is that once you start crossfit it becomes your personality and pretty much all you care about crossfit is a lifestyle it starts in the gym and it ends on your facebook it's not uncommon for the media to refer to

it as a cult i'll hail the cult tour of crossfit with many deeming it the scientology of fitness and from the outside it may seem to have a lot of cultish attributes for example the stereotype of crossfitters almost worshipping crossfit do you know that crossfit is the only way to work out how they try and recruit new members best fit's not just an exercise it's a cult i mean way of life and all think the same way dammit i knew i knew this felt called life well it's definitely the minority that's actually like this a

valid concern in this tribal group environment is the likelihood of group think a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people's common sense this is particularly dangerous considering some crossfit gyms are run by massively underqualified people it may explain why we see some gyms proudly displaying rhabdo boards people selling merch like this and why some crossfitters can be so extreme painting a bad picture for the rest of the sport fish oil pill i do password when you consider the likelihood of group thing and the fact crossfit was created to be the superior

sport it's not surprising why people make fun of its elitist nature what's this anyone ever done that on a job site is it essential to raising children as if this is going to help you raise a child that is doing absolutely nothing to improve your balance all you're doing is building really big chest muscles that won't help you at all the next time you have to fight off a grizzly bear while i personally think crossfit's community aspect is his biggest benefit and having a strong community doesn't make it an evil sect it's not surprising why

crossfitters get stereotyped for belonging to an annoying elitist cult by far the most common criticism of crossfit is the fact to look stupid i think most would agree some of these movements are definitely questionable instead of doing things with strict form crossfitters have found ways to cheat to get through workouts quicker for example the crossfit rules for a pull-up only state you must get your chin over the bar so people started kipping many experts claim these unnecessarily technical and dangerous and shouldn't be called prolapse considering it's more of a swing a similar thing is seen

in powerlifting where people arch their backs to create an almost non-existent range of motion but because kipping is so humorous to watch crossfit is a frequently made fun of and he's basically dead as the woman jumps in a different direction crossfit has revolutionized fitness by teaching the correct way to do an incorrect pull-up while good gyms focus on the basics and sensible programming unfortunately others get a little too creative with their movements all in the name of functional training do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head now whenever

someone does something which looks dumb in the gym it tends to get labelled as crossfit only strengthening the stereotype but you see a lot of dislike does come from this understanding while many do crossfit to become better all-round athletes others do it simply to get better at crossfit and not to gain muscle optimally in good crossfit gyms workouts include mostly basic movements with most of the odd looking exercises only being done by the advanced often as training to compete in the crossfit games which is its own sport in fact to become the first ever australian

ninja warrior ben polson trained with butterfly prolapse and i think you can see how they may have been useful here allowing him to take the trophy along with the 400 000 cash prize i thank crossfit a lot so even something as ridiculous and universally hated as the crossfit prolapse can have a use there's no answers to everything still the criticisms around the dangers of crossfit are valid crossfitters can be impressively annoying and it can look odd although crossfit kind of asks to get bullied it was a great idea just with terrible execution the brand became

hated due to its dangerous perception and elitist stance all the while incorporating unusual movements with many gems completely forgetting what functional training actually is and you can't really blame them considering a two-day course is all they needed to open unfortunately each of these points are enhanced by stereotypes whether or not crossfit is bad largely depends on the gym you go to crossfit with a good coach is probably just what some who may find the gym boring need in a world where most people are sedentary with companies selling 2 600 calorie drinks any physical activity done

safely should be respected and the best workout is the one you actually do long term