12 ms·

CrossFit's Dirty Little Secret

356 points by gms 13y ago

rangibaby 13y ago
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!
- joyeuse6701 13y ago
  So very true.
- dkarl 13y ago
  Overtraining is a phenomenon that is universally recognized from from football to marathon running to bodybuilding to gymnastics. Crossfit's stated philosophy is about developing fitness to support one's enjoyment of life, but like competitive sports, they fetishize results. Everything is measured and counted, and they encourage people to record and track their progress. Some people miss the point and end up fetishizing pain and effort instead, but to do that they have to overlook both the stated philosophy and the day-to-day focus on improvement.
- Fourplealis 13y ago
  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-startup-and-some-p90x-led-to-a-week-long-stay-in-the-hospital-with-rhabdomyolysis http://collegespun.com/features/how-the-stress-of-running-a-...
- nicholassmith 13y ago
  My uncles gave the same advice, if you overtrain you're not helping your development but increasing your recovery time.
moccajoghurt 13y ago
It should be mentioned that it normally only occurs when well trained people stop working out for a couple of weeks and then get into it again at full speed. If you are used to working out hard, you won't get rhabdomyolysis. So if you're pretty fit but stopped working out for a while, get into it with moderation! To everyone else: don't be scared of rhabdomyolysis and work out!
- kiba 13y ago
  Well, that's nice and all. But how fit people and everyone else are supposed to remember that?
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Well, there you have it folks - the story in the article is obviously the fault of the very fit physical therapist having no idea and just carelessly blowing up her own arms. Can't possibly happen to you!
- MortenK 13y ago
  To everyone else: Work out, but listen to your body rather than some guy on the internet.
- glimmung 13y ago
  Since the article is not about working out in general but CrossFit specifically, and not about restarting exercise after a break, and particularly since the takeaway of the article is that it is hard to recognise this syndrome, I'll take that with a pinch of salt - best not to be complacent. I agree re. working out in general - but this is about something more specific.
pcorsaro 13y ago
I hate reading articles like this because it's trying to tell you that CrossFit culture is all about pushing yourself until you've practically killed yourself doing all sorts of crazy and whacky weight lifting. 99% of the time, the problem isn't CrossFit, it's the coaches. If you're at a good gym (or box as it's called), the coaches know how to scale workouts for the athletes so they won't get hurt, and they're programming workouts so that people aren't killing themselves constantly. Where CrossFit is to blame is its low barrier to entry to becoming a coach/affiliate owner. All you need is a weekend of your time, $1000, a passing score on a super simple test, and you get to call yourself an "L1 CrossFit Trainer." They don't advise you to immediately go start training people, but there are plenty of boxes that will let you jump in and start coaching classes. It's gotten so popular now that there are bad affiliates popping up out there that have horrible programming that hurt people, and then articles like this get written, and then everyone thinks that's all CrossFit is. When you take the L1 CrossFit Trainer course, they have a whole section about "Uncle Rhabdo." It's a very rare thing that occurs when you do a whole lot of isometric exercises (like strict pull ups where you come down real slow) when you're not used to them. It's not a rabid thing that is 100% going to happen if you do CrossFit.
- abuehrle 13y ago
  Well put. Evaluating "CrossFit" is difficult by design---HQ wants boxes to be almost completely autonomous. The best statement of CrossFit's philosophy is Greg Glassman's "World-Class Fitness in 100 Words"[1]. There's nothing there about doing lots of poor quality reps as quickly as possible. I began my CrossFit career at San Francisco CrossFit and thought it was the best thing ever. Part of each session focused on mobility. Bad reps were not tolerated. It was like a daily seminar on how to maintain, tune, and fix the human machine. The skills I learned will benefit me greatly as I age. Then I had to move, and I saw the dark side of CrossFit. Inept trainers with poor attitudes, encouraging speed and weight with no concern for proper body mechanics. I work out on my own now, practicing skills I learned at SFCF. Bottom line: it's the box that matters. [1] "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. " -- http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-how.html http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-how.html
callmeed 13y ago
This article seems a little sensationalist. Just because a journal had an article about it with a cartoon attached doesn't mean they've adopted as a "mascot" or make light of the condition. My wife has been doing crossfit full-force for almost a year (including some competitions [1]). Along with previous standard workouts and diet changes, she's lost 60+ lbs over the past 2 years. And she's getting pretty buff. She's never heard of rhabdomyolysis. Every exercise/activity has some risks. If anything, I'd say crossfit puts you at risk for other injuries (back, joints, heat exhaustion at competitions, etc.). [1] My wife at a recent competition. A male competitor here fainted and had to go to the ER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQ8ZDSmg70 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQ8ZDSmg70
- Dewie 13y ago
  Competing is one thing - in that kind of game, winning is often more important than health. But if you just want to get fit, an unfaltering belief in no pain no gain seems to be less than beneficial. > Every exercise/activity has some risks. If anything, I'd say crossfit puts you at risk for other injuries (back, joints, heat exhaustion at competitions, etc.). One of the benefits of team sports (the few that I like to play, anyway) to me is that they are fun. One of the downsides is that, since you're engaging in a dynamic environment with other people, injury is more likely. What's great about lifting weights is that, with proper precautions, the chance of injury is very small. It's just you and the weights. Just your own form. The most advanced and ballistic move might be an olympic lift, but you don't need to get involved with those. Personally, I'm not willing to take up a solo exercise routine where the culture is so hardcore/idiotic that I am at risk of permanently damaging myself through sheer force of will, without even having any playing objects or tackling opponents involved.
  - scott_s 13y ago
    I lift regularly, with a focus on powerlifting. I would not say that the risk of injury is "very small."
    - thesz 13y ago
dkarl 13y ago
Rehash from five years ago? Doesn't this guy know that the new scandal is high-rep box jumps? The "dirty secret" of Crossfit is that they don't do much to actively ensure the quality of local affiliates, and therefore the brand doesn't always mean much. My personal experiences have all been great, and my coaches have always been extremely safety-conscious, but in light of the nasty things I read on the internet, I wouldn't encourage anyone to blindly trust whatever local Crossfit affiliate happens to pop up down the block. Rather than thinking of Crossfit as a guarantee of a certain standard of quality, think of it as an approach to fitness that is interpreted in various ways by coaches of varying competence. Also keep in mind that the coach can't always see when you need to ease up or stop. Sometimes they can, but they can only see what is apparent on the outside; they can't feel what you feel.
- adamnemecek 13y ago
  Re: Quality assurance, this was on reddit couple days ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8up6A4QesU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8up6A4QesU
  - kareemm 13y ago
    Interestingly enough this video was posted to the FB group of the CrossFit gym I go to... a gym I chose because of the quality of programming and emphasis on technique and mobility. There's no bravado there. Here was one coach's response: "Haha, this video is infamous! It's the "proof" that critics of CrossFit use to try and show that the entire sport is dangerous and that we don't know what we're doing. There are definitely examples in the video of athletes losing their midline, and going heavier than they safely should, but the point that is completely overlooked is that these athletes are trying classic strongman lifts for probably the very first time. The lift they're practicing is called the continental clean and, believe it or not, they're doing it more right than wrong. It's an awkward lift that's used for cleaning axle bars that are too fat to grip and clean conventionally. Anyone trying that for the first time will look similarly awkward. It's part of learning something new. Whoever originally shot and posted this video never meant for it to be taken as a typical crossfit class full of elite athletes. It's just a video of a group of people who aren't afraid to try something new, regardless of where are on the learning curve they had to start."
tlrobinson 13y ago
Wow, I thought they were kidding about the clown cartoon, but no: (pdf) http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf
- chris_wot 13y ago
  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.
iopq 13y ago
Oh really? Overexertion is bad? Tell me more! There are a ton of things wrong with crossfit like their insistence of doing skill lifts for time. But training too much? That's actually your choice.
raverbashing 13y ago
"Any" exercise done in excess can trigger this. I suppose Crossfit's characteristics make it easier for it to happen "You’re supposed to push yourself to the limit, but when you hit the limit and pay the price, you’re the idiot who went too far." Isn't it? There are several "coaches" that only know how to push people but have no regards for personal limits Diet can also cause rhabdomyolysis http://www.ergo-log.com/vegerhabdo.html http://www.ergo-log.com/vegerhabdo.html (in this case, because of lack of protein - not necessarily because of vegetarianism)
xjtian 13y ago
The vast majority of Crossfitters are not at a level of physical fitness and mental toughness that would put them at risk of rhabdo after a WOD. They'd throw in the towel long before "meeting Uncle Rhabdo" under most normal circumstances. However, certain external factors can affect the risk - high humidity, heat, improper hydration, and poor nutrition can significantly increase the chance of catching rhabdo from a workout. It sounds like the subject of this post got caught up in the competitiveness of the workout, turned a deaf ear to what her body was telling her that day, and paid the price for it. It's a mistake that many inexperienced athletes make when thrust into a competitive setting, and most of the time only ends with "meeting Pukey" or some really bad DOMS the next morning, but the specifics of this circumstance (pushup-overhead couplet sounds like a stupidly dangerous WOD, plus a "warm Texas evening") lead to a significantly worse outcome.
- debacle 13y ago
  Don't underestimate the power of peer pressure when it comes to physical activities. It's one of the main draws of Crossfit, and probably the strongest force for these people when they push themselves too far. When you're working out with someone who you barely know, or may have just met, who doesn't know what to expect and doesn't know their own limits, and is trying to keep up with everyone around them, you have a recipe for someone pushing themselves too far to a dangerous extent, whether the outcome is rhabdo, a tear, or some other injury. Most desk jockies (myself included sometimes) don't take the proper care that you need when you try and start moving a body that sits idle for 8-10 hours a day.
Whitespace 13y ago
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 commute. I always wanted to go back, so in June 2012 I started up again, taking the two-week beginner course (I wasn't in the best shape and I wanted to ease into it). During the first day back, we went through a lot of basic movements and listened to the instructor talk about what crossfit was like. In the hour-long class, we spent the last ten minutes talking about rhabdomyolysis; what it is, the symptoms, the danger, common ways to get it, etc. The workout of the day was tabata squats (20 seconds of as many BW reps, then 10 seconds of rest, repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes and 2:40 of exercising), tabata pushups, and tabata situps. The squats were the one that got me. The next morning, I couldn't walk, but that was expected since it was my first day back. I pushed myself quite hard (knowing what crossfit was like), but I wasn't competing with the people in my class, I was competing with myself. I took it easy and rested. The day after that, I couldn't really bend my legs because of the extreme soreness, and walking down the stairs was neigh impossible. It took a while, but I took the subway to the office where there's a gym with a stationary bike, as slow biking was the only thing that would ease the soreness in my quads. After 6 hours at work, periodically biking and reading online, I noticed my urine was coca-cola colored, and that it was the telltale sign of rhabdo. I knew that because the crossfit instructor drilled it into my head two days earlier. I looked online for a hospital that my insurance covered, took a cab, checked myself in saying I had rhabdo, and I began a 5-day stay where I received lots of saline solution (1000ml 6x a day, IIRC) to help flush the myoglobin out of my body. Luckily for me, the hospital saw a lot of cases of rhabdo from not crossfit members, but prisoners. They have little else to do than workout extremely hard, and the hospital saw dozens of prisoners a year. My creatine kinase was almost 100,000 (excess myoglobin is the problem, but high creatine kinase is a proxy for high myoglobin, and CPK levels are commonly checked). TFA is right in that the normal is < 100. IIRC, the doctors estimated I dissolved 5 lbs of muscle tissue into my bloodstream to get a CPK that high. I was bored in the hospital so I charted my CPK to determine when they'd release me: http://imgur.com/18HYKNr http://imgur.com/18HYKNr ============================== Many tests afterwards showed my kidneys are fine, and I haven't noticed (or read about) what the TFA describes as "flabbiness" or some sort of water retention in my legs. I also haven't noticed that my legs are weak; on the contrary, after lots of biking over bridges my legs are stronger than my squat days (at least when it comes to endurance, not power). TFA is being a bit sensationalist and anecdotal about rhabdo being crossfit's "dirty little secret." To add another anecdote into the fire, everyone I know that does crossfit knows what rhabdo is, and rhabdo is mentioned in beginner classes multiple times; not only what it is, but the symptoms, what to do when you get it, and how, if left untreated, myoglobinuria can lead to acute renal failure and death. I haven't been to crossfit in over a year, but TBH I'm itching to go back. I'm the kind of personality that will really push myself hard – probably harder than most – but now I know a little better and will hold back a tiny bit, especially when doing high reps of low weight. ============================== Update: My first crossfit experience was at Crossfit Virtuosity in Brooklyn, NY and I got rhabdo at The Black Box in NYC. Also, my memory isn't so great as I thought. I took the class on a Friday and, that same night, moved into a new apartment. The combination of crossfit and carrying lots of boxes/furniture on the same day was probably the cause.
mightybyte 13y ago
The title of this article is one of the most misleading I've ever seen. It implies that rhabdomyolysis is little known and covered up. But later the author admits that it's not little known. "How, I wondered, is it possible that the layperson exercise instructor is on a first-name basis with a serious, yet rare medical condition?" Why does he do this? Because being sensationalist draws clicks. This article is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with mainstream media. It takes something quite rare and spins a narrative designed to incite fear, making you think that these horrible things are happening much more frequently than they actually are. I'm no stranger to intense exercise. As a competitive swimmer at a young age, I knew what it meant to push myself to the limit. It wasn't until 2007 when I started CrossFit that I was ever educated about rhabdomyolysis. But I'd much rather be educated than ignorant. Everything in life has risk. And strangely enough, things that are more worthwhile seem to typically involve more risk. Is exercise risky? Of course. But not exercising carries its own set of risks. As for me, I'll stick with exercise. And for that, CrossFit makes more sense than anything else I've ever seen.
- jusben1369 13y ago
  I think you might have missed the point. To the general public and other sports/activities it's little known. Yet here is a Johnny guy lay person Xfit instructor who knows what is ailing the person before she even tells him. Why would a guy guess right on something so rare?
  - mightybyte 13y ago
    Because "Johnny guy lay person" was educated. If it was a secret that CrossFit was trying to cover up, then he wouldn't have known.
    - jusben1369 13y ago
      The "Dirty Little Secret" is they know their users are vulnerable to this otherwise very rare condition.
skizm 13y ago
Crossfit charges 1000 bucks to certify that you understand the movements and general philosophy and 3000 bucks a year to use the "Crossfit" name. That's it. Each gym is only as bad as the trainers and/or person writing the programming. People got rhabdo before Crossfit and they'll get it when the fad dies down. The only thing I hate more than fanatical crossfiters is (are?) fanatical crossfit haters.
yalogin 13y ago
Unrelated to the actual post, I have seen that with pages on medium the images load first and then after about 4seconds the text loads. Its a rather long wait for the text to load. Did any one else see that?
- kalleboo 13y ago
  That's the typical behavior of pages that use Web Fonts. The text doesn't show until the font has downloaded.
  - yalogin 13y ago
    Thanks! Did not know that.
ok_craig 13y ago
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?
- freshhawk 13y ago
  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 who like competition enjoy tough and normally dull workouts and also leads to bad form and overtraining.
  - jaredmcateer 13y ago
    Olympic lifting, running, rowing, swimming, and more are all sports in which the main for of training is doing the sport.
- gknoy 13y ago
  My crossfit experiences mix the challenges of lifting with the constant encouragement of peers, or perhaps a dojo? I find that having a guided workout and others doing the same thing with me helps me to actually __do__ it. On my own, I have never been able to work out with the focus OR intensity needed to do it properly. My coaches are always careful to talk about how safety is important, and help weaker people modify in ways that are safe but still excercise similar muscle groups. They've told me to stop a workout when they felt I was pushing too hard. They (and the other athletes at my box) have been extremely supportive of my personal focus on doing the form correctly, even if that means I am slow, or rest between reps. Sure, our box has athletes who can whip out dozens of pullups in a row. (I'll be thrilled when I can do one.) But we also have people who have sat there after their workout is done and helped me count my last reps, or even actually done burpees with me. The encouragement is a huge high. It's what hooked me. I can very much understand how, if one is not careful, one might push oneself Too Far. I don't think I am physically capable of doing that yet, so I'm grateful for reading this reminder to be careful. Also, box jumps. Screw those things, and I'm glad that stepping down from them rather than jumping is the way to go. ;)
AlexanderDhoore 13y ago
Every single article I read on medium is near worthless.
lnanek2 13y ago
Pretty impressive that most diets fail and it is so easy to go the gym and not do much, this is pretty much one of the few stand out exceptions that can motivate people to the point of hurting themselves. Seems like a success if a little more precautions were added to avoid this one issue.
zobzu 13y ago
10 pages to say: if you over train, it's dangerous for your health. Crossfit mentality pushes for over training, over exhaustion. thanks.
fingerprinter 13y ago
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 know that ALL the athletes that competed at the Crossfit games do not use crossfit.com WODs as the base of their programming? It's true. Go and check it out. What does this tell you? That crossfit, the programming, is all bullshit. The elite athletes use strength training as the basis of their programming and complement that with met cons as they get closer to the games. There is also a culture that promotes things like rips (ripping your hands, say during a deadlift), or rope burns or other types of stupid things as badges of honor. You can't go a few days on /r/crossfit without seeing someone mention their ripped hands with pride. This is dumb and promotes the wrong things. And beyond that, frankly, high-rep olympic lifts, high-rep box jumps (DON'T JUMP DOWN! Seriously, trust me on this), and general bad form is ok in the name of better times. These are begging for injuries. TL;DR - Crossfit is dumb.
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  on box jumps: athletic coaches know not to have their athletes do drop jumps until they can squat at least 1.5x body weight, to make sure the tendons and ligaments of the leg (especially knee) can take it. Even then it is used in moderation. Jumping down from a box and immediately jumping again is REALLY REALLY stressful on your joints.
- Whitespace 13y ago
  Ok, let's verify: Go to: http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard Click on #1 person: http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/11435 http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/11435 HOW I TRAIN I workout mostly at a CrossFit Affiliate I workout mostly at home, work, or a traditional gym I incorporate CrossFit.com workouts I write my own programming Stop looking as counter-example was found.
  - nazgulnarsil 13y ago
jusben1369 13y ago
This reminds me a little of the "Ban PitBulls" argument. If we got rid of all PitBulls then wanna be gangsta's would go to Rottweilers then Dobermans then German Shepards etc. CrossFit is tapping into and flourishing with a certain mindset of folks for whom this extreme form of punishment is desirable. Probably better to understand that and help folks dial it back a little vs thinking getting rid of CrossFit would solve the problem.
- PKop 13y ago
  Problem for whom? If people enjoy it, and don't agree with your assessment of the program as punishment, then what's the issue?
Raphmedia 13y ago
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...
- revelation 13y ago
  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.
  - smsm42 13y ago
    Implying for profit things are all bad?
- cgag 13y ago
  I don't get it either, it's impossible to not lookup real workouts and find stuff like starting strength and good basic lifting routines. Maybe it's less intimidating or something since there are classes for it.
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  Crossfit excels at providing an inviting on-ramp for people who were never into sports. Crossfit gyms tend to have a supportive social environment. There is, or was, a sense of being in on a Big Secret -- secrets are like catnip to brains. It has also, and this deserves credit, been much better at achieving a healthy gender ratio than most other sports.
badclient 13y ago
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 resulted in being put in a stretcher as I screamed my ass off. It took a lot of morphine to find any relief and dialysis to fully recover.
- Whitespace 13y ago
  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 dialysis, since your kidneys have shut down. In any case, that sounds absolutely frightening in the worst way imaginable. Any long-lasting side effects?
  - badclient 13y ago
    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.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
adamzerner 13y ago
Most people don't come nearly close enough to working so hard they damage themselves. Since the overwhelming majority of people don't work hard enough, the fact that CrossFit pushes people is a good thing.
cdjk 13y ago
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.
robbiep 13y ago
Not a crossfitter but if they actively warn about the risk of rhabdo and have a cartoon (however poor taste some people may find it) then how is that a 'dirty little secret'?
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  It isn't, but it makes for great link-bait.
westoque 13y ago
I don't get why this is on the top of hacker news. I'm getting this impression that most hackers are ripped crossfit dudes/gals.
karl11 13y ago
Lots of smart people here and no one is looking for real data, including the author of this article. My bet is that rhabo:crossfit is similar to crashes:airplanes - you don't hear about all the people that do crossfit and simply get into shape without serious injury (most everyone who does crossfit). Do more people get rhabdo doing crossfit than concussions playing football or torn ACLs playing basketball? Doubt it.
rayiner 13y ago
Reading about CrossFit makes me a little queasy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFit#Body_weight_exercises http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFit#Body_weight_exercises. A lot of these things don't seem very good for you. I feel like this stuff is going to come back to bite you in the ass in 20-30 years... I personally would stick to basic weightlifting. You can get an intense 30-45 minute workout, don't put tons of pressure on your knees, and most importantly the long-term effects are very well-studied.
kayoone 13y ago
The biggest problem with Crossfit is that it promotes excessive amount of exercises under time pressure, which really is a dangerous combination. People die in competetive sports all the time. Its very rare but still, there are people dieing doing marathons, thriathlons, crossfit, biking and even less taxing endurance sports like football(soccer). Its rarer than rhabdo but excessive stress on your cardiovascular system can kill you (cardiac arrest, heart attack etc) especially if your heart isnt 100% healthy (and most young people have never made a check on their heart). No reason to panic though, its very very rare, but it happens and thus it should be noted that excessive excersise (in whatever shape or form) just isnt risk free.
jacques_chester 13y ago
As an Olympic-style Weightlifter and coach, I hold the usual reservations about Crossfit. The insensible use of the competition lifts for high repetitions, the bonkers programming, the creepy culture, the pack of drongoes at HQ, the deliberate absence of quality control. However, it has two positive features, in my eyes: 1. It gets lots of people up off their backsides and working hard. A lot of folk don't realise how much they can really do if they want to do it. The flipside of Crossfit's sometimes overblown culture is that it forms a strong social environment for most trainees to motivate them to keep it up. 2. It has introduced millions of people to Weightlifting and a lot of those people defect to the sport proper. In the English-speaking world Crossfit has been a massive shot in the arm for Weightlifting and Powerlifting. They've gone from being struggling niche sports 10 years ago to seeing an unparalleled period of growth. The current generation of Crossfitters won't make much of an impact on the elite levels of Weightlifting. But their children might. In the long run, and despite the butchering of the lifts that goes on in many gyms, Crossfit might be the best thing that ever happened to my sport.
wdewind 13y ago
Ignoring the fact that there is no true definition of what crossfit is (which is a problem in and of itself), this isn't even the biggest issue with crossfit. The biggest issue is that the training philosophy is not ground in any kind of science whatsoever (ie: that mixing conditioning and strength training in one workout somehow combines for an increased effect on both). CrossfitHQ also promotes a concept of "all around fitness" which is, quite frankly, bullshit. A marathon runner and a powerlifter are both very fit, but for different things. Having a training program that does not start with explicit goals and work towards those goals is idiotic. And for most people, who want to be somewhat cardiovascularly conditioned and aesthetically toned, crossfit is far from the quickest or safest way to get to those goals. Even the "good gyms" that emphasize form still seem to have completely nonsensical programming. Finally, you can be sure that crossfitHQ in particular is bullshit because they have a motto of "forging elite athletes" and yet not a single elite athlete from a single sport follows crossfitHQ's WODs. The only acceptable reason to do it is because it can be fun, and if that's what you're into more power to you. But it's not an effective or safe form of training no matter how you cut it.
- pbreit 13y ago
  I don't see that as a big problem. Just getting folks to actually workout is 99% of the battle. CrossFit seems very good at that.
  - wdewind 13y ago
    You're getting downvoted but I think that's a fair point. I think I addressed it though: that fits into the fun aspect. Unfortunately if you get folks to workout and then they injure themselves, as frequently happens in crossfit, you have other problems too.
- fingerprinter 13y ago
  > Finally, you can be sure that crossfitHQ in particular is bullshit because they have a motto of "forging elite athletes" and yet not a single elite athlete from a single sport follows crossfitHQ's WODs. I've said this repeatedly, find me an athlete at the Crossfit games that has used Crossfit WODs as the core of their training program. You can't do it. There is literally no athlete at the games that does this. I find this amazing. So, in the end, the Crossfit athletes at the Crossfit games do not follow Crossfit[1]. [1] - Remember, folks, crossfit.com is the official crossfit workouts. Anything else is somebody else's training program be it Outlaw, Competitors WOD, CF Football or whatever just as Starting Strength is Rippetoe's and Westside is Louie's
programminggeek 13y ago
This apparently happens in p90x as well. The culture of mostly unathletic people trying to do extremely athletic things without any training beforehand is foolish and stupid. The one thing p90x gets more right than apparently Crossfit does is the videos tell you to take breaks and go at your own pace. If you cant do 50 pushups in 90 seconds, do what you can. "do your best, forget the rest." is the refrain Tony uses, which is a lot smarter than telling people to push beyond their limits no matter what their body tells them.
jasonlingx 13y ago
From the article: "It’s so rare that one study reported the overall annual incidence of rhabdomyolysis to be 0.06%" Crossfit reports only 5 cases up till May 2005: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf I wonder how the numbers stack up after taking into account only the population that does some form of exercise.
physcab 13y ago
Good lord, what is with all the Crossfit hate? I've been an avid crossfiter for over 3 years and I've never once had an injury. As with all workouts, you need to listen to your body. It doesn't matter who prescribes them - whether it be Crossfit, Men's Health or GQ Magazine, your general practitioner, Tony Robbins, or your best friend BodyBuilder Bob. Listen to your body. If something hurts, stop. If you're too sore to move, rest. If you're hungry, eat. All this talk about Crossfit being the problem is b.s. You have a choice.
akurilin 13y ago
When in doubt, just do regular time-tested strength training and you'll be fine. Works 100% of the time, 0 bull.
moocowduckquack 13y ago
I wonder if I could get office workers to shift rubble for me in the evenings and get them to pay for the privilege as a fitness craze. I have never really understood paying to lift things, you might as well do an evening shift doing order picking at a warehouse.
nivals 13y ago
Veterans to CrossFit are not immune, nor are good movers/fit athletes in general. I've been doing CrossFit for six years, this past December during a 'holiday' WOD I got nailed by acute rhabdo in my right arm. It took many months of rehab and different body work techniques to get things back to normal. Very, very, painful process. Honestly, the workout wasn't out of whack with a tougher than normal day. It was for me, however something that put me out of commission for five months. Lesson learned.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
awould 13y ago
Same thing here. Got it in 2007 on my 2nd day w/ a physical trainer after being a lazy slob for several years. Physical trainer said his method was "push to failure" and it was the proper way to learn my limits and establish a routine. My CK was over 110,000 and I spent a week in the hospital. It was painful and no fun at all. Doctors were surprised I left the hospital with both kidneys. Long term effect, for me, was nothing. Got a rough education though and now approach my physical fitness with a lot of caution.
rachaelwriter 13y ago
hi there i'm a journalist in the Uk and looking for someone who'd be willing to be interviewed about this? If anyone is up for it please email me rachael.woolston@gmail.com

356 points by gms 13y ago

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!

joyeuse6701 13y ago
So very true.
dkarl 13y ago
Overtraining is a phenomenon that is universally recognized from from football to marathon running to bodybuilding to gymnastics. Crossfit's stated philosophy is about developing fitness to support one's enjoyment of life, but like competitive sports, they fetishize results. Everything is measured and counted, and they encourage people to record and track their progress. Some people miss the point and end up fetishizing pain and effort instead, but to do that they have to overlook both the stated philosophy and the day-to-day focus on improvement.
Fourplealis 13y ago
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-startup-and-some-p90x-led-to-a-week-long-stay-in-the-hospital-with-rhabdomyolysis http://collegespun.com/features/how-the-stress-of-running-a-...
nicholassmith 13y ago
My uncles gave the same advice, if you overtrain you're not helping your development but increasing your recovery time.

moccajoghurt 13y ago

It should be mentioned that it normally only occurs when well trained people stop working out for a couple of weeks and then get into it again at full speed. If you are used to working out hard, you won't get rhabdomyolysis. So if you're pretty fit but stopped working out for a while, get into it with moderation! To everyone else: don't be scared of rhabdomyolysis and work out!

kiba 13y ago
Well, that's nice and all. But how fit people and everyone else are supposed to remember that?
anigbrowl 13y ago
Well, there you have it folks - the story in the article is obviously the fault of the very fit physical therapist having no idea and just carelessly blowing up her own arms. Can't possibly happen to you!
MortenK 13y ago
To everyone else: Work out, but listen to your body rather than some guy on the internet.
glimmung 13y ago
Since the article is not about working out in general but CrossFit specifically, and not about restarting exercise after a break, and particularly since the takeaway of the article is that it is hard to recognise this syndrome, I'll take that with a pinch of salt - best not to be complacent. I agree re. working out in general - but this is about something more specific.

pcorsaro 13y ago

I hate reading articles like this because it's trying to tell you that CrossFit culture is all about pushing yourself until you've practically killed yourself doing all sorts of crazy and whacky weight lifting. 99% of the time, the problem isn't CrossFit, it's the coaches. If you're at a good gym (or box as it's called), the coaches know how to scale workouts for the athletes so they won't get hurt, and they're programming workouts so that people aren't killing themselves constantly. Where CrossFit is to blame is its low barrier to entry to becoming a coach/affiliate owner. All you need is a weekend of your time, $1000, a passing score on a super simple test, and you get to call yourself an "L1 CrossFit Trainer." They don't advise you to immediately go start training people, but there are plenty of boxes that will let you jump in and start coaching classes. It's gotten so popular now that there are bad affiliates popping up out there that have horrible programming that hurt people, and then articles like this get written, and then everyone thinks that's all CrossFit is. When you take the L1 CrossFit Trainer course, they have a whole section about "Uncle Rhabdo." It's a very rare thing that occurs when you do a whole lot of isometric exercises (like strict pull ups where you come down real slow) when you're not used to them. It's not a rabid thing that is 100% going to happen if you do CrossFit.

abuehrle 13y ago
Well put. Evaluating "CrossFit" is difficult by design---HQ wants boxes to be almost completely autonomous. The best statement of CrossFit's philosophy is Greg Glassman's "World-Class Fitness in 100 Words"[1]. There's nothing there about doing lots of poor quality reps as quickly as possible. I began my CrossFit career at San Francisco CrossFit and thought it was the best thing ever. Part of each session focused on mobility. Bad reps were not tolerated. It was like a daily seminar on how to maintain, tune, and fix the human machine. The skills I learned will benefit me greatly as I age. Then I had to move, and I saw the dark side of CrossFit. Inept trainers with poor attitudes, encouraging speed and weight with no concern for proper body mechanics. I work out on my own now, practicing skills I learned at SFCF. Bottom line: it's the box that matters. [1] "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. " -- http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-how.html http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/start-how.html

callmeed 13y ago

This article seems a little sensationalist. Just because a journal had an article about it with a cartoon attached doesn't mean they've adopted as a "mascot" or make light of the condition. My wife has been doing crossfit full-force for almost a year (including some competitions [1]). Along with previous standard workouts and diet changes, she's lost 60+ lbs over the past 2 years. And she's getting pretty buff. She's never heard of rhabdomyolysis. Every exercise/activity has some risks. If anything, I'd say crossfit puts you at risk for other injuries (back, joints, heat exhaustion at competitions, etc.). [1] My wife at a recent competition. A male competitor here fainted and had to go to the ER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQ8ZDSmg70 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQ8ZDSmg70

Dewie 13y ago
Competing is one thing - in that kind of game, winning is often more important than health. But if you just want to get fit, an unfaltering belief in no pain no gain seems to be less than beneficial. > Every exercise/activity has some risks. If anything, I'd say crossfit puts you at risk for other injuries (back, joints, heat exhaustion at competitions, etc.). One of the benefits of team sports (the few that I like to play, anyway) to me is that they are fun. One of the downsides is that, since you're engaging in a dynamic environment with other people, injury is more likely. What's great about lifting weights is that, with proper precautions, the chance of injury is very small. It's just you and the weights. Just your own form. The most advanced and ballistic move might be an olympic lift, but you don't need to get involved with those. Personally, I'm not willing to take up a solo exercise routine where the culture is so hardcore/idiotic that I am at risk of permanently damaging myself through sheer force of will, without even having any playing objects or tackling opponents involved.
- scott_s 13y ago
  I lift regularly, with a focus on powerlifting. I would not say that the risk of injury is "very small."
  - thesz 13y ago

dkarl 13y ago

Rehash from five years ago? Doesn't this guy know that the new scandal is high-rep box jumps? The "dirty secret" of Crossfit is that they don't do much to actively ensure the quality of local affiliates, and therefore the brand doesn't always mean much. My personal experiences have all been great, and my coaches have always been extremely safety-conscious, but in light of the nasty things I read on the internet, I wouldn't encourage anyone to blindly trust whatever local Crossfit affiliate happens to pop up down the block. Rather than thinking of Crossfit as a guarantee of a certain standard of quality, think of it as an approach to fitness that is interpreted in various ways by coaches of varying competence. Also keep in mind that the coach can't always see when you need to ease up or stop. Sometimes they can, but they can only see what is apparent on the outside; they can't feel what you feel.

adamnemecek 13y ago
Re: Quality assurance, this was on reddit couple days ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8up6A4QesU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8up6A4QesU
- kareemm 13y ago
  Interestingly enough this video was posted to the FB group of the CrossFit gym I go to... a gym I chose because of the quality of programming and emphasis on technique and mobility. There's no bravado there. Here was one coach's response: "Haha, this video is infamous! It's the "proof" that critics of CrossFit use to try and show that the entire sport is dangerous and that we don't know what we're doing. There are definitely examples in the video of athletes losing their midline, and going heavier than they safely should, but the point that is completely overlooked is that these athletes are trying classic strongman lifts for probably the very first time. The lift they're practicing is called the continental clean and, believe it or not, they're doing it more right than wrong. It's an awkward lift that's used for cleaning axle bars that are too fat to grip and clean conventionally. Anyone trying that for the first time will look similarly awkward. It's part of learning something new. Whoever originally shot and posted this video never meant for it to be taken as a typical crossfit class full of elite athletes. It's just a video of a group of people who aren't afraid to try something new, regardless of where are on the learning curve they had to start."

tlrobinson 13y ago

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

chris_wot 13y ago
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.

iopq 13y ago

Oh really? Overexertion is bad? Tell me more! There are a ton of things wrong with crossfit like their insistence of doing skill lifts for time. But training too much? That's actually your choice.

raverbashing 13y ago

"Any" exercise done in excess can trigger this. I suppose Crossfit's characteristics make it easier for it to happen "You’re supposed to push yourself to the limit, but when you hit the limit and pay the price, you’re the idiot who went too far." Isn't it? There are several "coaches" that only know how to push people but have no regards for personal limits Diet can also cause rhabdomyolysis http://www.ergo-log.com/vegerhabdo.html http://www.ergo-log.com/vegerhabdo.html (in this case, because of lack of protein - not necessarily because of vegetarianism)

xjtian 13y ago

The vast majority of Crossfitters are not at a level of physical fitness and mental toughness that would put them at risk of rhabdo after a WOD. They'd throw in the towel long before "meeting Uncle Rhabdo" under most normal circumstances. However, certain external factors can affect the risk - high humidity, heat, improper hydration, and poor nutrition can significantly increase the chance of catching rhabdo from a workout. It sounds like the subject of this post got caught up in the competitiveness of the workout, turned a deaf ear to what her body was telling her that day, and paid the price for it. It's a mistake that many inexperienced athletes make when thrust into a competitive setting, and most of the time only ends with "meeting Pukey" or some really bad DOMS the next morning, but the specifics of this circumstance (pushup-overhead couplet sounds like a stupidly dangerous WOD, plus a "warm Texas evening") lead to a significantly worse outcome.

debacle 13y ago
Don't underestimate the power of peer pressure when it comes to physical activities. It's one of the main draws of Crossfit, and probably the strongest force for these people when they push themselves too far. When you're working out with someone who you barely know, or may have just met, who doesn't know what to expect and doesn't know their own limits, and is trying to keep up with everyone around them, you have a recipe for someone pushing themselves too far to a dangerous extent, whether the outcome is rhabdo, a tear, or some other injury. Most desk jockies (myself included sometimes) don't take the proper care that you need when you try and start moving a body that sits idle for 8-10 hours a day.

Whitespace 13y ago

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 commute. I always wanted to go back, so in June 2012 I started up again, taking the two-week beginner course (I wasn't in the best shape and I wanted to ease into it). During the first day back, we went through a lot of basic movements and listened to the instructor talk about what crossfit was like. In the hour-long class, we spent the last ten minutes talking about rhabdomyolysis; what it is, the symptoms, the danger, common ways to get it, etc. The workout of the day was tabata squats (20 seconds of as many BW reps, then 10 seconds of rest, repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes and 2:40 of exercising), tabata pushups, and tabata situps. The squats were the one that got me. The next morning, I couldn't walk, but that was expected since it was my first day back. I pushed myself quite hard (knowing what crossfit was like), but I wasn't competing with the people in my class, I was competing with myself. I took it easy and rested. The day after that, I couldn't really bend my legs because of the extreme soreness, and walking down the stairs was neigh impossible. It took a while, but I took the subway to the office where there's a gym with a stationary bike, as slow biking was the only thing that would ease the soreness in my quads. After 6 hours at work, periodically biking and reading online, I noticed my urine was coca-cola colored, and that it was the telltale sign of rhabdo. I knew that because the crossfit instructor drilled it into my head two days earlier. I looked online for a hospital that my insurance covered, took a cab, checked myself in saying I had rhabdo, and I began a 5-day stay where I received lots of saline solution (1000ml 6x a day, IIRC) to help flush the myoglobin out of my body. Luckily for me, the hospital saw a lot of cases of rhabdo from not crossfit members, but prisoners. They have little else to do than workout extremely hard, and the hospital saw dozens of prisoners a year. My creatine kinase was almost 100,000 (excess myoglobin is the problem, but high creatine kinase is a proxy for high myoglobin, and CPK levels are commonly checked). TFA is right in that the normal is < 100. IIRC, the doctors estimated I dissolved 5 lbs of muscle tissue into my bloodstream to get a CPK that high. I was bored in the hospital so I charted my CPK to determine when they'd release me: http://imgur.com/18HYKNr http://imgur.com/18HYKNr ============================== Many tests afterwards showed my kidneys are fine, and I haven't noticed (or read about) what the TFA describes as "flabbiness" or some sort of water retention in my legs. I also haven't noticed that my legs are weak; on the contrary, after lots of biking over bridges my legs are stronger than my squat days (at least when it comes to endurance, not power). TFA is being a bit sensationalist and anecdotal about rhabdo being crossfit's "dirty little secret." To add another anecdote into the fire, everyone I know that does crossfit knows what rhabdo is, and rhabdo is mentioned in beginner classes multiple times; not only what it is, but the symptoms, what to do when you get it, and how, if left untreated, myoglobinuria can lead to acute renal failure and death. I haven't been to crossfit in over a year, but TBH I'm itching to go back. I'm the kind of personality that will really push myself hard – probably harder than most – but now I know a little better and will hold back a tiny bit, especially when doing high reps of low weight. ============================== Update: My first crossfit experience was at Crossfit Virtuosity in Brooklyn, NY and I got rhabdo at The Black Box in NYC. Also, my memory isn't so great as I thought. I took the class on a Friday and, that same night, moved into a new apartment. The combination of crossfit and carrying lots of boxes/furniture on the same day was probably the cause.

mightybyte 13y ago

The title of this article is one of the most misleading I've ever seen. It implies that rhabdomyolysis is little known and covered up. But later the author admits that it's not little known. "How, I wondered, is it possible that the layperson exercise instructor is on a first-name basis with a serious, yet rare medical condition?" Why does he do this? Because being sensationalist draws clicks. This article is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with mainstream media. It takes something quite rare and spins a narrative designed to incite fear, making you think that these horrible things are happening much more frequently than they actually are. I'm no stranger to intense exercise. As a competitive swimmer at a young age, I knew what it meant to push myself to the limit. It wasn't until 2007 when I started CrossFit that I was ever educated about rhabdomyolysis. But I'd much rather be educated than ignorant. Everything in life has risk. And strangely enough, things that are more worthwhile seem to typically involve more risk. Is exercise risky? Of course. But not exercising carries its own set of risks. As for me, I'll stick with exercise. And for that, CrossFit makes more sense than anything else I've ever seen.

jusben1369 13y ago
I think you might have missed the point. To the general public and other sports/activities it's little known. Yet here is a Johnny guy lay person Xfit instructor who knows what is ailing the person before she even tells him. Why would a guy guess right on something so rare?
- mightybyte 13y ago
  Because "Johnny guy lay person" was educated. If it was a secret that CrossFit was trying to cover up, then he wouldn't have known.
  - jusben1369 13y ago
    The "Dirty Little Secret" is they know their users are vulnerable to this otherwise very rare condition.

skizm 13y ago

Crossfit charges 1000 bucks to certify that you understand the movements and general philosophy and 3000 bucks a year to use the "Crossfit" name. That's it. Each gym is only as bad as the trainers and/or person writing the programming. People got rhabdo before Crossfit and they'll get it when the fad dies down. The only thing I hate more than fanatical crossfiters is (are?) fanatical crossfit haters.

yalogin 13y ago

Unrelated to the actual post, I have seen that with pages on medium the images load first and then after about 4seconds the text loads. Its a rather long wait for the text to load. Did any one else see that?

kalleboo 13y ago
That's the typical behavior of pages that use Web Fonts. The text doesn't show until the font has downloaded.
- yalogin 13y ago
  Thanks! Did not know that.

ok_craig 13y ago

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?

freshhawk 13y ago
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 who like competition enjoy tough and normally dull workouts and also leads to bad form and overtraining.
- jaredmcateer 13y ago
  Olympic lifting, running, rowing, swimming, and more are all sports in which the main for of training is doing the sport.
gknoy 13y ago
My crossfit experiences mix the challenges of lifting with the constant encouragement of peers, or perhaps a dojo? I find that having a guided workout and others doing the same thing with me helps me to actually __do__ it. On my own, I have never been able to work out with the focus OR intensity needed to do it properly. My coaches are always careful to talk about how safety is important, and help weaker people modify in ways that are safe but still excercise similar muscle groups. They've told me to stop a workout when they felt I was pushing too hard. They (and the other athletes at my box) have been extremely supportive of my personal focus on doing the form correctly, even if that means I am slow, or rest between reps. Sure, our box has athletes who can whip out dozens of pullups in a row. (I'll be thrilled when I can do one.) But we also have people who have sat there after their workout is done and helped me count my last reps, or even actually done burpees with me. The encouragement is a huge high. It's what hooked me. I can very much understand how, if one is not careful, one might push oneself Too Far. I don't think I am physically capable of doing that yet, so I'm grateful for reading this reminder to be careful. Also, box jumps. Screw those things, and I'm glad that stepping down from them rather than jumping is the way to go. ;)

AlexanderDhoore 13y ago

Every single article I read on medium is near worthless.

lnanek2 13y ago

Pretty impressive that most diets fail and it is so easy to go the gym and not do much, this is pretty much one of the few stand out exceptions that can motivate people to the point of hurting themselves. Seems like a success if a little more precautions were added to avoid this one issue.

zobzu 13y ago

10 pages to say: if you over train, it's dangerous for your health. Crossfit mentality pushes for over training, over exhaustion. thanks.

fingerprinter 13y ago

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 know that ALL the athletes that competed at the Crossfit games do not use crossfit.com WODs as the base of their programming? It's true. Go and check it out. What does this tell you? That crossfit, the programming, is all bullshit. The elite athletes use strength training as the basis of their programming and complement that with met cons as they get closer to the games. There is also a culture that promotes things like rips (ripping your hands, say during a deadlift), or rope burns or other types of stupid things as badges of honor. You can't go a few days on /r/crossfit without seeing someone mention their ripped hands with pride. This is dumb and promotes the wrong things. And beyond that, frankly, high-rep olympic lifts, high-rep box jumps (DON'T JUMP DOWN! Seriously, trust me on this), and general bad form is ok in the name of better times. These are begging for injuries. TL;DR - Crossfit is dumb.

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
on box jumps: athletic coaches know not to have their athletes do drop jumps until they can squat at least 1.5x body weight, to make sure the tendons and ligaments of the leg (especially knee) can take it. Even then it is used in moderation. Jumping down from a box and immediately jumping again is REALLY REALLY stressful on your joints.
Whitespace 13y ago
Ok, let's verify: Go to: http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard http://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard Click on #1 person: http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/11435 http://games.crossfit.com/athlete/11435 HOW I TRAIN I workout mostly at a CrossFit Affiliate I workout mostly at home, work, or a traditional gym I incorporate CrossFit.com workouts I write my own programming Stop looking as counter-example was found.
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago

jusben1369 13y ago

This reminds me a little of the "Ban PitBulls" argument. If we got rid of all PitBulls then wanna be gangsta's would go to Rottweilers then Dobermans then German Shepards etc. CrossFit is tapping into and flourishing with a certain mindset of folks for whom this extreme form of punishment is desirable. Probably better to understand that and help folks dial it back a little vs thinking getting rid of CrossFit would solve the problem.

PKop 13y ago
Problem for whom? If people enjoy it, and don't agree with your assessment of the program as punishment, then what's the issue?

Raphmedia 13y ago

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...

revelation 13y ago
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.
- smsm42 13y ago
  Implying for profit things are all bad?
cgag 13y ago
I don't get it either, it's impossible to not lookup real workouts and find stuff like starting strength and good basic lifting routines. Maybe it's less intimidating or something since there are classes for it.
jacques_chester 13y ago
Crossfit excels at providing an inviting on-ramp for people who were never into sports. Crossfit gyms tend to have a supportive social environment. There is, or was, a sense of being in on a Big Secret -- secrets are like catnip to brains. It has also, and this deserves credit, been much better at achieving a healthy gender ratio than most other sports.

badclient 13y ago

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 resulted in being put in a stretcher as I screamed my ass off. It took a lot of morphine to find any relief and dialysis to fully recover.

Whitespace 13y ago
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 dialysis, since your kidneys have shut down. In any case, that sounds absolutely frightening in the worst way imaginable. Any long-lasting side effects?
- badclient 13y ago
  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.

deleted 13y ago

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adamzerner 13y ago

Most people don't come nearly close enough to working so hard they damage themselves. Since the overwhelming majority of people don't work hard enough, the fact that CrossFit pushes people is a good thing.

cdjk 13y ago

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.

robbiep 13y ago

Not a crossfitter but if they actively warn about the risk of rhabdo and have a cartoon (however poor taste some people may find it) then how is that a 'dirty little secret'?

jacques_chester 13y ago
It isn't, but it makes for great link-bait.

westoque 13y ago

I don't get why this is on the top of hacker news. I'm getting this impression that most hackers are ripped crossfit dudes/gals.

karl11 13y ago

Lots of smart people here and no one is looking for real data, including the author of this article. My bet is that rhabo:crossfit is similar to crashes:airplanes - you don't hear about all the people that do crossfit and simply get into shape without serious injury (most everyone who does crossfit). Do more people get rhabdo doing crossfit than concussions playing football or torn ACLs playing basketball? Doubt it.

rayiner 13y ago

Reading about CrossFit makes me a little queasy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFit#Body_weight_exercises http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrossFit#Body_weight_exercises. A lot of these things don't seem very good for you. I feel like this stuff is going to come back to bite you in the ass in 20-30 years... I personally would stick to basic weightlifting. You can get an intense 30-45 minute workout, don't put tons of pressure on your knees, and most importantly the long-term effects are very well-studied.

kayoone 13y ago

The biggest problem with Crossfit is that it promotes excessive amount of exercises under time pressure, which really is a dangerous combination. People die in competetive sports all the time. Its very rare but still, there are people dieing doing marathons, thriathlons, crossfit, biking and even less taxing endurance sports like football(soccer). Its rarer than rhabdo but excessive stress on your cardiovascular system can kill you (cardiac arrest, heart attack etc) especially if your heart isnt 100% healthy (and most young people have never made a check on their heart). No reason to panic though, its very very rare, but it happens and thus it should be noted that excessive excersise (in whatever shape or form) just isnt risk free.

jacques_chester 13y ago

As an Olympic-style Weightlifter and coach, I hold the usual reservations about Crossfit. The insensible use of the competition lifts for high repetitions, the bonkers programming, the creepy culture, the pack of drongoes at HQ, the deliberate absence of quality control. However, it has two positive features, in my eyes: 1. It gets lots of people up off their backsides and working hard. A lot of folk don't realise how much they can really do if they want to do it. The flipside of Crossfit's sometimes overblown culture is that it forms a strong social environment for most trainees to motivate them to keep it up. 2. It has introduced millions of people to Weightlifting and a lot of those people defect to the sport proper. In the English-speaking world Crossfit has been a massive shot in the arm for Weightlifting and Powerlifting. They've gone from being struggling niche sports 10 years ago to seeing an unparalleled period of growth. The current generation of Crossfitters won't make much of an impact on the elite levels of Weightlifting. But their children might. In the long run, and despite the butchering of the lifts that goes on in many gyms, Crossfit might be the best thing that ever happened to my sport.

wdewind 13y ago

Ignoring the fact that there is no true definition of what crossfit is (which is a problem in and of itself), this isn't even the biggest issue with crossfit. The biggest issue is that the training philosophy is not ground in any kind of science whatsoever (ie: that mixing conditioning and strength training in one workout somehow combines for an increased effect on both). CrossfitHQ also promotes a concept of "all around fitness" which is, quite frankly, bullshit. A marathon runner and a powerlifter are both very fit, but for different things. Having a training program that does not start with explicit goals and work towards those goals is idiotic. And for most people, who want to be somewhat cardiovascularly conditioned and aesthetically toned, crossfit is far from the quickest or safest way to get to those goals. Even the "good gyms" that emphasize form still seem to have completely nonsensical programming. Finally, you can be sure that crossfitHQ in particular is bullshit because they have a motto of "forging elite athletes" and yet not a single elite athlete from a single sport follows crossfitHQ's WODs. The only acceptable reason to do it is because it can be fun, and if that's what you're into more power to you. But it's not an effective or safe form of training no matter how you cut it.

pbreit 13y ago
I don't see that as a big problem. Just getting folks to actually workout is 99% of the battle. CrossFit seems very good at that.
- wdewind 13y ago
  You're getting downvoted but I think that's a fair point. I think I addressed it though: that fits into the fun aspect. Unfortunately if you get folks to workout and then they injure themselves, as frequently happens in crossfit, you have other problems too.
fingerprinter 13y ago
> Finally, you can be sure that crossfitHQ in particular is bullshit because they have a motto of "forging elite athletes" and yet not a single elite athlete from a single sport follows crossfitHQ's WODs. I've said this repeatedly, find me an athlete at the Crossfit games that has used Crossfit WODs as the core of their training program. You can't do it. There is literally no athlete at the games that does this. I find this amazing. So, in the end, the Crossfit athletes at the Crossfit games do not follow Crossfit[1]. [1] - Remember, folks, crossfit.com is the official crossfit workouts. Anything else is somebody else's training program be it Outlaw, Competitors WOD, CF Football or whatever just as Starting Strength is Rippetoe's and Westside is Louie's

programminggeek 13y ago

This apparently happens in p90x as well. The culture of mostly unathletic people trying to do extremely athletic things without any training beforehand is foolish and stupid. The one thing p90x gets more right than apparently Crossfit does is the videos tell you to take breaks and go at your own pace. If you cant do 50 pushups in 90 seconds, do what you can. "do your best, forget the rest." is the refrain Tony uses, which is a lot smarter than telling people to push beyond their limits no matter what their body tells them.

jasonlingx 13y ago

From the article: "It’s so rare that one study reported the overall annual incidence of rhabdomyolysis to be 0.06%" Crossfit reports only 5 cases up till May 2005: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf I wonder how the numbers stack up after taking into account only the population that does some form of exercise.

physcab 13y ago

Good lord, what is with all the Crossfit hate? I've been an avid crossfiter for over 3 years and I've never once had an injury. As with all workouts, you need to listen to your body. It doesn't matter who prescribes them - whether it be Crossfit, Men's Health or GQ Magazine, your general practitioner, Tony Robbins, or your best friend BodyBuilder Bob. Listen to your body. If something hurts, stop. If you're too sore to move, rest. If you're hungry, eat. All this talk about Crossfit being the problem is b.s. You have a choice.

akurilin 13y ago

When in doubt, just do regular time-tested strength training and you'll be fine. Works 100% of the time, 0 bull.

moocowduckquack 13y ago

I wonder if I could get office workers to shift rubble for me in the evenings and get them to pay for the privilege as a fitness craze. I have never really understood paying to lift things, you might as well do an evening shift doing order picking at a warehouse.

nivals 13y ago

Veterans to CrossFit are not immune, nor are good movers/fit athletes in general. I've been doing CrossFit for six years, this past December during a 'holiday' WOD I got nailed by acute rhabdo in my right arm. It took many months of rehab and different body work techniques to get things back to normal. Very, very, painful process. Honestly, the workout wasn't out of whack with a tougher than normal day. It was for me, however something that put me out of commission for five months. Lesson learned.

deleted 13y ago

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awould 13y ago

Same thing here. Got it in 2007 on my 2nd day w/ a physical trainer after being a lazy slob for several years. Physical trainer said his method was "push to failure" and it was the proper way to learn my limits and establish a routine. My CK was over 110,000 and I spent a week in the hospital. It was painful and no fun at all. Doctors were surprised I left the hospital with both kidneys. Long term effect, for me, was nothing. Got a rough education though and now approach my physical fitness with a lot of caution.

rachaelwriter 13y ago

hi there i'm a journalist in the Uk and looking for someone who'd be willing to be interviewed about this? If anyone is up for it please email me rachael.woolston@gmail.com