Let's Get It On!!!

I got an interesting comment from a fellow fitness pro in my area, Lee Daugherty in regard to my post “Why I Hate CrossFit”. It was a pretty long comment, so instead of making an equally long response to his points. I posted it right here, so you could read, and leave your comments. Was my  ”Why I Hate CrossFit” post unfair and unfounded? Or is my opponent failing to see the truth? You decide. Read on!

He begins:

“I almost always agree with your advice to folks trying to get fit, but as a CrossFit certified trainer , I had to respond to this post. Here’s my rebuttal:”

  1)The “certification” program: Most fitness instructors I know have attended 2-day training programs at some point in their career. This type of training is common practice in virtually all industries, let alone the fitness industry. Unless you’ve attended the cert. (have you?), I’m not sure how you can criticize. Would you also explain what impact the cost of the program has on it’s validity? 

Lee, as I’ve been a fitness trainer with multiple certifications for close to 2 decades now, I am perfectly qualified to criticize a certification program as I see them described on the organization’s website, and based on descriptions from certified individuals. 2 day personal training certifications are ridiculous enough, without the terrible anti-science of CrossFit.  I’ve taught certification courses, and I can tell you, as many other experts will tell you, the curriculum in relation to the actual “system “ is subpar. A 2 day course is NOT sufficient to be set free in the world to conduct ANY high level training session. Let’s not even talk about Olympic lifting. The impact of cost on validity is simple. For the $1000 someone spends on a CrossFit cert, a more respected, and globally recognized certification, or two, can be enrolled in. For example an NASM, or ACE, or NSPA certification, can all be purchased for under $1000. The student will learn the science based foundations of training, and be prepared. To design safe, and effective fitness programs.

 2)Lack of programming logic: See New Rule #9 from Alwyn Cosgrove’s New Rules of lifting (Everything Works, Nothing Works Forever). As far as mastery of exercises, practicing the lifts is built into each CrossFit workout, and workouts are scaled to accomodate all fitness levels. Speed is not added until a person is proficient in the lift(s).

Lee, don’t bastardize Alwyn’s brilliance trying to justify the lack of programming logic. Learning exercise technique is meaningless if it isn’t married to a well-designed systemized training SYSTEM.  If you are going to use Mr. Cosgrove as a justification tool, don’t forget to mention that he is considered to be THE authority in the art and science of program design. If the CrossFit method were a legitimate method for the masses, he’d be doing it. However, he is not. In fact, he is quoted as saying this about CrossFit in T-Mag “This type of all over the place programming can be dangerous…”. He went on to say: “A recent CrossFit workout was 30 reps of snatches with 135 pounds. A snatch is an explosive exercise designed to train power development. Thirty reps is endurance. You don’t use an explosive exercise to train endurance; there are more effective and safer choices.

“Another one was 30 muscle-ups. And if you can’t do muscle-ups, do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips. It’s just random; it makes no sense. Two days later the program was five sets of five in the push jerk with max loads. That’s not looking too healthy for the shoulder joint if you just did 120 dips 48 hours ago.”

  I’m just sayin. Innovation is good if it moves science forward. CrossFit completely ignores science, and dares you to say anything about it. Strength and conditioning expert Charles Poliquin had this to say about CrossFit: “

3)Elite Snobbery: Not sure what to say to that, except as your blog post reads it’s like the pot calling the kettle black. As it relates to the topic of specificity, there is a reason why the military, law enforcement and emergency services communities have gravitated to the CrossFit model – the lack of specificity in the programming. Specialists are typically good at one thing, but in real world situations, being a specialist could have life or death consequences. Military and emergency services professionals may be called upon at any moment to perform any combination of the ten physical skills. Failure to be proficient in any one could be devastating.

Ok, the people you just mentioned who have chosen CrossFit because it has a pumped up, macho image, not because it is PROVEN to be superior to any other training system on the planet. To assume that is crazy. Many top level fit pros like JC Santana have also served these groups with more sensible programming. I dare you to examine JC’s programming, and call it inferior to CrossFit. I know you are smarter than that, Lee. Heck, I’m no JC Santana, but I’ve also trained military, police, and EMT personnel, and they have all seen massive improvements in their performance without CrossFit. This is my exact point about CrossFit. Too many CrossFitters beat their chests, and act like they know something no one else knows, and are somehow “elite” because they can excel at a poorly designed workout. As far as your “calling the kettle black” comment, at no point do I ever claim to be the end all be all world’s greatest trainer, and if you aren’t training in my system, yours is crap. You know me, Lee, I’m shocked you would even put that kind of personal attack out there. You did, however, prove my point.

4)Denial of risk of injury: See New Rule #12 (fast lifting is not more dangerous than slow lifting)from Alwyn Cosgroves’ the New Rules of Lifting. The ability to sustain movement in a fatigued state is an identifier of fitness capacity. Certainly no one is endorsing an unsafe training program, but people must explore the boundaries of their fitness capacity if they want to elicit a training response. An Olympic lifter’s goal is to perform one rep max lifts in the games, therefore they are specialists and have no need to train any other way. To say that the Olympic lifts should not be utilized as a training tool in other ways is shortsighted. A friend of mine recently broke her toe taking a ballet fitness class. I guess there is no room for sloppy in that class either.

Once again, Lee, you take Alwyns words out of context. He wasn’t speaking about Olympic lifting when he made this rule. Fast lifting isn’t more dangerous than slow lifting IF the exercise in question is a stable, low tech exercise like a bench press. Do repeated sets of loaded, barbell snatches for reps, and technique WILL breakdown, putting your trainee at high risk of injury. It’s a fact, and you know this, you aren’t new, Lee. In fact, the one and only Mike Boyle had this to say : “I think high-rep Olympic lifting is dangerous. Be careful with CrossFit.”. Once again, it’s not just me saying this, it’s high level, respected strength coaches around the nation who are saying this as well. Strength and conditioning legend Charles Poliquin said: “If you try to do everything in your workout, you get nothing. CrossFit is different, and maybe even fun for some people, but it’s not very effective. No athlete has ever gotten good training like that.”. finally, are you really comparing ballet to CrossFit?!? You are really reaching, Lee. It seems as if you haven’t read my post in its entirety . The evidence behind my statements is solid, and you haven’t helped Crossfit’s case at all with the nonsense in your rebuttal.

5)The guy who started it all: Greg Glassman is a former gymnast who suffered an injury years ago. Unfortunately this injury has impacted his ability to perform exercise as he prescribes. Vince Lombardi didn’t suit up and take the field with his team on Sundays, so does that mean he wasn’t a great coach? You’re using broad brushstrokes to paint an unfavorable image of CrossFit and it’s founder, very surprising to me given the normally positive and enlightening approach you give to most of your writings.

Greg Glassman: “If you find the notion of falling off the rings and breaking your neck so foreign to you, then we don’t want you in our ranks,” he said in a 2005 New York Times article. Glassman responded to a lawsuit filed by Makimba Mimms, a former Navy CrossFitter who claims he suffered permanent disability from a CrossFit workout, by posting a video of children doing the allegedly dangerous workout, which was sarcastically renamed “Makimba.” (CrossFit and Glassman were not named as defendants  in the suit; Mimms was ultimately awarded $300,000 for his injuries.). Glassman has endorsed the “Pukey the Clown” award given to people who push themselves to point of vomiting, and the “Uncle Rhabdo” character commonly found in CrossFit “boxes”, which represents a real, potentially  life threatening injury caused by overtraining. Lee, tell me where I’ve misunderstood Greg Glassman? Tell me 5 good things about the man. Share one positive thing he has contributed to the fitness industry. By the way, being a former gymnast who got an injury is no excuse to be fat, and out of shape if you are representing a FITNESS PROGRAM! I have had numerous injuries in my wrestling career, including several degraded cervical vertebrae, a surgically repaired torn pectoral, and low back injuries. Know what? I’m 37, and regularly maintain less than 10% bodyfat, and I’m as strong as ever. An expert fitness trainer knows how to work around injuries to ensure the represent their product at all times.

Lee, I respect your knowledge, and what you’re doing to help improve the condition of our community. However, in this instance, I feel you are completely without a leg to stand on. The science of training flatly supports my stance on the CrossFit method, and as for it’s founder, well, his words and actions speak for themselves.   I truly belive the concept behind CrossFit is legit, the but it’s the method behind the concept that is extremely flawed. However, if someone likes the activity in the CrossFit method, more power to them. Any physical activity is better than none!

BTW, this is the absolute last time I blog about Crossfit. Comments can be left below, and I will gladly speak to anyone wanting to discuss this topic more. But there will be no more full posts dedicated to the topic. As much as I still want to, lol…

Thanks for commenting Lee, I definitely look forward to talking to you more about this in the future!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, radio show host, and speaker whose “Metabolic Mayhem” fitness training program was called “One of The Best in The Country” by Emmy Award winning fitness celebrity Rocco Castellano. Find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness, or listen to him weekdays at 12pm est on his FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat” on http://www.ftns.co

The target...

CrossFit is a strength and conditioning brand that integrates multiple training disciplines into high intensity. CrossFit contends that a healthy, fit person requires proficiency in each of ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and acuracy. It defines fitness as increased work capacity, and the training circuits are usually done for completion in the shortest amount of time. Now, on paper this sounds great. But as the old saying goes “the Devil is in the details”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we can find fault with most anyone’s training methods (except anything Alwyn Cosgrove writes), even if they are firmly rooted in solid exercise science. The CrossFit method is special in that the fallacies don’t just lie in the programming, but also in the brand as a whole. How I hate thee, let me count the ways…

Trust me! No,no, no, our certification is COMPLETLY legit...

1. The “certification” program – The Level 1 CrossFit trainer certification program is a 2 day course, and according to the official CrossFit website “is an introductory course on CrossFit’s methodology, concepts, and movements”. There are no pre-requisites to take this course, and when you pass your 50 question test at the end of the course (which is $1000 BTW), you are a brand spanking new certified CrossFit trainer! Fork over another $2k, and you can become an official CrossFit affiliate, ready to open your own “box” as they call their Crossfit gyms. So after a 2 day course, you are ready to teach each of the ten general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and acuracy? Ridiculous to even assume. 2 Day courses in general are a blight on the fitness industry, so to send people into the world and entrusting your brand, and the safety of people seeking fitness into the hands of an inexperienced person holding a 2 day certification is irresponsible and downright stupid.

It doesn't add up!!! Ahhh, do it anyway...

2. Lack of programming logic - The CrossFit programs come in the form of the “WOD”, or workout of the day. These come for the CrossFit HQ or from whatever CrossFit gym you may be attending. The workouts don’t emphasize balanced training, often appearing random with no rhyme or reason for the exercise selection, or number of reps assigned.

For instance, Monday, WOD may be the “Murph”:

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Then the Wednesday WOD may be  the “Grace”:

For time:
135 pound Clean and Jerk, 30 reps

Then Friday’s WOD might be “Random-ass workout A2″ (not official name):

Set a cone at 20 meters. Five rounds for time of:
185 pound barbell Overhead walk, 40 meters
30 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
95 pound barbells Farmer carry, 40 meters

What?!? This makes about as much sense as Kim Kardashian getting married. This kind of random assery being promoted as the “world’s greatest fitness system” is a slap in the face to industry legends like JC Santana, Alwyn Cosgrove, Roberto Dos Remedios, Lou Schuller, Douglas Brookes, and others like them who have made safe, progressive, and effective program design a thing of beauty, and bastardizes the artful blend of solid science and real world application. Ugggh…without a plan of steady progression, how are we really supposed to master any given exercise or method? I guess CrossFit knows something everyone else doesn’t. Which leads me into…

Pffft...you and your specificity. Mediocrity is the the new elite...

3. Elite snobbery – Despite the fact that the fitness industry  has been effectively using HIIT (high intensity interval training) for many, many years before Crossfit was born, many people in the CrossFit community act like they invented it. Some guys busts his ass manage to master a terribly designed fitness program, and walks around like he is the fittest man on the planet who none can question? Not so much. The fact is that CrossFitters are typically good at only one thing. CrossFit. With the lack specificity, the programming doesn’t lend itself well to much else. So working out pretty much becomes your sport. Now I don’t doubt that CrossFitters are strong, and are probably pretty decent athletes. But let’s be real. Outside of Crossfit Games, among the real elite, speficity training rules the day. Most of the so called”elite” I’ve seen in CrossFit were already strong athletes in one sport or another, so it only makes sense that they would do well, even with this faulty method. I would put any of the top known strength and conditioning specialists in the country’s programming against the CrossFit programming, and i guarantee the athlete in question would outperform any “Elite” CrossFitter.

I don't hear you...I don't hear you...

4. Denial of risk of injury - This is the biggest thing I have a problem with. Combine repetitive explosive movement with randomly selected set/rep/time/exercise schemes and what do you get? A recipe for disaster in my estimation. Olympic lifting has no place in timed endurance circuits due to the amount of technical proficiency required for the lifts themselves. The CrossFit workouts are extremely taxing, dangerously so. Executing Olympic lifts while in a fatigued state is a force multiplier to that danger. When you get tired, you get sloppy, and with a loaded bar above your head, there is no room for sloppy. Olympic lifters who do it full time only do the lift one rep at a a time…I’m just saying. I’ve heard so many hardcore CrossFitters say their method is no more dangerous than any other method cuurently being used. Pretty much every non-CrossFit fitness expert on the planet who has objectively reviewed the CrossFit method disagrees.

CrossFit creator Greg Glassman and the infamous "Pukey The Cown" T-Shirt

5. The guy who started it all - The man behind the madness is a former gymnast and CrossFit creator Greg Glassman. You would think that someone who claims to have created the ultimate fitness method who kind of look the part. He should have otherworldly work capacity, and be strong as an ox. Right? Not so much. Seeing Greg Glassman and his lack of  a physique is the ironies af all ironies. For all the “survival of the fittest” rhetoric he spouts, shouldn’t you be a product of your product? Rumor has it, Glassman doesn’t even DO CrossFit workouts anymore. He has visciously attacked critics of his methodology, and has dismissed popular figures in his company for daring to disagree with him. He hasn’t demonstrated an ability to make friends and influence people within the industry, and doesn’t even seem to be well regarded within his OWN affiliate network. I’ve tried and tried to find something redeemable in this character. Save for appreciation for creating the CrossFit method, noone seems to have anything good to say about Mr. Glassman. I’e read interviews he’s done in the past, and he comes across to me as an arrogant, self serving, faux Messiah sent here by God to spread the gospel of CrossFit to the strong among us. Anyone who wants to convince you that their way is THE way this badly has something to sell…it’s true.

All and all, the concept of CrossFit is good. Being able to perform well across the board, being truly fit is something I believe in. The execution of this concept  within the CrossFit brand is poor at best, downright dangerous  at worse. that being said, come back in a few days, and I’ll show you how to do CrossFit the right way, get into killer shape, and make yourself a fitness machine without the risk!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, fitness columnist, radio show host, and speaker whose “Metabolic Mayhem” fitness training program was called “One of The Best in The Country” by Emmy Award winning fitness celebrity Rocco Castellano. Find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness, or listen to him weekdays at 12pm est on his FTNS radio show “Jump Start With Chad and Kat” on http://www.ftns.co

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, and co-owner of Home  Team Fitness Training with his wife, Kat. He has a weekly fitness column  in the Herald Mail newspaper  that is read by thousands weekly. Visit  his website http://www.hometeamfitness.net, or find him on Facebook  http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness. You can also listen to  “Jumpstart” with Chad and Kat live weekdays at 12 pm EST on FTNS Radio  http://www.ftns.co.

National Championships!

No, I’m not competing, but Kat and I will be in Wallingford, Ct for the “Fitness Atlantic” WBFF National Championship series! We’ll be there with the whole FTNS radio team conducting backstage interviews, having some fun on stage, and helping introduce the world to the FTNS revolution! It’s going to be a blast meeting these amazing athletes in peak condition, and re immersing myself in the bodybuilding world.

The FTNS gang is slowly becoming like family to us, even though we’ve never met! It will be great to finally put faces to names, and see what Friday nights in Norwalk, Ct have to offer. We’ll actually get to see the studio, and maybe push some buttons, as my ADD will make it almost impossible not to, lol.

Mr. P90-X, Tony Horton. He stole my pose...

The coolest part, however, is we’ll be interviewing Mr. P90-X himself, Tony Horton for the blog. We’ll also twist his arm, and make him commit to appearing on Jumpstart sometime in the near future. He is doing a one dayworkout with over 300 people registered to participate! That’s what I call respect.

We’ll be taking video all weekend long, so stay tuned next week for some awesome new content right here on our blog, and watch out for a special message with an awesome opportunity for you to get a huge jumpstart on your efforts to “bring sexy back” this summer. If you would like to get an early notice, send your name and e-mail to hello@hometeamfitness.net with subject line “jumpstart”, and you’ll go to the head of the line. Believe me you want to be first in line…

Well, off I go, and be sure to check back here next week for our reports from one of the  biggest bodybuilding and fitness events of the year!

Chad Smith is a Hagerstown personal trainer, and co-owner of Home Team Fitness Training with his wife, Kat. He has a weekly fitness column in the Herald Mail newspaper  that is read by thousands weekly. Visit his website http://www.hometeamfitness.net, or find him on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness. You can also listen to “Jumpstart” with Chad and Kat live weekdays at 12 pm EST on FTNS Radio http://www.ftns.co.

What you have just witnessed is the world’s worse spotter. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to find this guy in most gyms around the country. total lack of focus, attention, and care for his buddy’s safety are the typical characteristics of this clown. It’s even more common in high school weight rooms, which, I’m going to assume, is where this video was filmed. Many HS strength training coaches have no idea what they’re doing when trying to manage a group of guys executing potentially dangerous lifts if not done with perfect technique. I’ve witness coaches saying good job to a younng man executing a deadlift with a spine that looks similar to a turtle shell. I expected to see a vertabrae fly past my head at any given moment.

The spotter can make or break a major lift.  HS coaches need to spend time teaching kids how to be a great spotter so videos like this don’t have to happen.  It’s more than standing behind you partner saying “IT’S ALL YOU, MAN!!!”  If the safety bars hadn’t been there, this video would have been a recording of his buddy’s death. Spotting is crucial, and should NOT be taken lightly on any any level. Get it right, and we’ll make sure everyone gets stronger, AND stays injury free. Get it wrong, and well…

That’s it for now. Stay Strong, and Train Hard(er),

-c

Chad Smith is a fitness columnist, and NASM certified Hagerstown personal trainer who specializes in helping busy people look, feel, and perform better. He is Co-Owner of Home Team Fitness Training with his wife, NASM certified personal trainer Kat Smith who tries her best to keep him in line. Visit their website http://www.hometeamfitness.net, and find them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hometeamfitness.