Some Serious Controversy

This video was on Melissa Byers site so go check it out. It has definitely snowballed into some crazy stuff and now look at how long today's post is. This video scared the crap out of me because at first glance that lady could pass as my Mom, and if it was here I would be scared to say anything about it other than "umm, good job training" because she is a short freckled Irish woman that could probably beat the piss out of all of us.

Laugh at the video and then scroll down to the madness it spawned, and make sure not to forget that John comes home in 23 days



Crossfit and Controversy

Earlier I had some other stuff typed up but I decide to go right to the source of todays issues and break it apart for you. It would be great if I didn't have to give this guy any extra attention because he is pretty ignorant on social standards in addition to his comments on our training concepts but it will put things in context for you to see his site and the post he made in entirety. This all supports why I take safety and developing skills and proper technique/body mechanics so seriously, as well as why I scaled everything to as detailed a level as I can.
People that put up things like this are more or less attacking more than just something we are doing to workout because so much research and source finding goes into anything before I ever use it. Hours upon hours in most cases, and then whatever program or method passes the “bullsh*& meter” gets a trial period for effective results, which is performed on myself.
I am not sure if there is anything else that you could really do to make sure that people are getting the very best and professional product.
Wait there is...You could teach and indoctrinate them in both what you are doing and the scientific method that tried to disprove your philosophies in the first place. You could also get the hell out of the fitness industry if you have anything but the welfare and success of your clients foremost in your head at all times. Not a second goes by that I am not trying to help everyone improve during training and in turn this helps me get better both with training you and in my own workouts. I trust what I know and work with because the only way I can do this without question is to create the most brutal process of analysis that I could.

This guys name that he posts with is called “Fatman” (irony noted) the post and the topic thread can be found at http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10966 for reference incase anyone has a problem with the context of content. I am trying my best to even give this guy, who I think is ignorant and uneducated in everything he says here, a fair answer to his statement and it bears noting that NONE OF THIS WOULD BE AN ISSUE IF THIS WAS THE PROTOCOL ALWAYS FOLLOWED. I really didn't want to get too into this but as I started typing I just couldn't stop getting more frustrated and feeling like you NEEDED the facts here and it was unnacceptable to let things go unchecked when they are so insulting on a professional and fundamental level. It is a hotly debated topic right now, and has hit mainstream media a few times recently. Before you read on please note that text from the source is italicized and emboldened to clarify where I am commenting in response (as if you needed the help).

“Ah, Crossfit.
Essentially, doing a shitload of stuff within a set time frame with crappy form.
Olympic lifting - again improper form, high reps (a definite NO-NO with Oly lifts). You take an untrained corporate desk-jockey and have him perform 20 clean and jerks in 3 minutes, or something. Of course the poor f***er's going to get injured.”
-I am not going to try and define what “shitload of stuff” equals in the number of exercises a workout contains I think that Fran which involves only Thrusters and Pull-ups proves this a false statement. Most of the programming follows a format of singles, doubles, and triples for combinations of what stimulus to involve in training. The time frame is a way for us to compete with each other in the form of ranking as well as constantly monitor personal progress. I will never accept crappy form in anything we do. A footstrike doesn’t land in the run portion of training that we don’t fundamentally address the mechanics of so why would we administer a program involving complex weightbearing and load manipulation without the same standards? This is not just a safety thing, but a HUMAN EFFICIENCY THING.

"Pointless mixing of exercises with the sole purpose of inducing nausea. Bodyweight for high reps against the clock = good. Deadlifts for high reps against the clock = short lifting career. Check out Patrick's, EvilOne's, Dave's, cheesedog's, plenty other logs to see how it's done. Cheesedog is especially good at "Crossfit without Crossfit" type WOs."
-Anything involved in training went through such a rigorous vetting process that to call it pointless is an insult professionalism and a lot of Crossfitters get so angry with their responses because to be questioned on something that is blatantly something they spent so much time working to validate ends up feeling like a kick in the balls. Bodyweight for high reps against the clock means that we scored awesome if our time happened to be small intervals. Most people I know can perform 200 bodyweight squats in a 9 hour period of time (work in a cubicle at an office?) getting up from a chair. The short lifting career would be true if someone used anything other than the technique and bodymechanics we instruct with which are backed by such a mountain of research that I don’t know where to start. Oh, we also scale every load lifted, rep number, movement type…damnit, we scale everything to the individual in minute detail! Excuse poor Coach Glassman for not wanting to do that for the millions of people that check the website for the days training, he only asks them to do a little number tweaking which can be done with a link he posted under the Crossfit Mainpage called “Start Here”.

"The old adage "Jack of all trades, blah blah" is taken to the extreme. These people take immense pride in not being very proficient at anything. C-fit is also 100% conditioning, you are never supposed to do any real strength work. This is okay for some people, depending on personal goals."
-The entire quote is “Jack of all trades, masters of none”, obviously something that Coach Glassman was not the first to say and is thus not a quote 100% indicative of Crossfit. We take our level of fitness seriously, and so does the rest of the world because it affects everything you do. Crossfitters are proud because they work hard and to say they are not proficient is a terrible lie. To help the Fatman understand I would like to respond be applying a different quote to our style of training, I am not speaking for Crossfit but after being a part of their community for a while now I would like to explain using my own interpretation of how most Crossfitters would probably define what they are doing in everyday conversation with over-simplification in mind:
--"We don’t care about setting a world record against athletes that care about nothing but the actual record, we care about destroying competition and working everything at the same time to develop an ability to excel in anything. To excel requires proficiency and we will work endlessly to develop this in everything we do."
This is something anyone could click on the website for 15 minutes and discover. Coach Glassman is kind enough, however, to post a true definition on his website which contains quite a few resources someone starting out could read (hint hint you lazy bastards out there http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html)
--"CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.
The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs. " -Crossfit.com
The comment about strength training is completely false, especially considering the 10 aspects of fitness I posted recently. On top of that I would like to point out that a workout that comes up in their program involves single rep sets of max effort loads, so enough said on that.

"They also ridicule bodybuilders, but have a physique-oriented mentality. This has been discussed earlier in another post. They hold "functional training" in high regard, but their workouts are only "functional" for fat-melting purposes, so they find themselves in a loop of self-denial which can be summed up as follows:
Bodybuilders train to look good. That's lame. We train to burn fat off and parade our chiselled midsections, using "functional" exercises like 21-rep snatches with a barbell. We're much cooler than dumb bodybuilders who also develop other muscles apart from abs. Big arms, chest, back and legs are stupid and vain. A six-pack is functional, unless it is accompanied with hypetrophied other bodyparts, in which case it is gay and bodybuilder-y."
-I am tired of all the ignorance already but I will continue. Functional training is just a phrase that is used to describe stuff that makes you good at doing stuff you do outside of training. The other part of this statement is right out of grade school, but just because I am trying to be so fair bodybuilding methods are shunned because they are attempting to elicit a different form of muscle hypertrophy than us, this is fact by biological cross-section comparison. Everyone wants to look good, no one denies this at all. Crossfitters like to be ripped and jacked too, they just don’t measure progress visually or with inches on measuring tape because this does little for those of us who need our fitness to also pay dividends when people are trying to paint a wall with our brains and skull frags. I have no idea how to approach responding to this third part but I think this guy made up a word.

"Pretty much everyone on this site knows how to Crossfit better than Crossfit. Training is not a puking competition. For general fitness I guess it is okay, but as preparation for sport - a resounding NO. If you're absolutely determined to destroy your tendons and joints, my opinion is that lifting heavy weights is a much more honorable method"
-Sigh, I am not going to comment on that last part. I think you get the picture and I am tired of typing. Post your thoughts in comments and lets get back to business.

Website Updates and Details:
1. I really need to know if there is some format or breakdown that anyone would like to see in the posts to make things easier to read or find content. I know they all look long and bulky so if it is a popular request I can break them into multiple different posts or whatever you think. I didn’t know the RSS feed thing was messed up so I registered us with the Feedburner website and if you click on that link you should be able to get notified of new topics and responses to your comments. Still learning.

Savage Society/Affiliate Developments:
1. Still have the Crossfit Level 2 Certification to attend next weekend (I only get to go for day two and I won’t get certified but I will learn for free and meet people)
2. I am working on both a video and physical library of resources. It includes all the Crossfit Journals, Instructional videos, books I have collected over the years, and tons of scientific research/journal articles. I want to make everything available so eventually we can make the ultimate base of our efforts here (Manchester Mills or maybe parking there sucks? Just because I have no money for affiliation doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan.)