by Coach Chris
“CrossFit is dangerous!”
“I can’t do CrossFit, that’s too extreme!”
“CrossFit will get you hurt!”
These are common lines that I frequently hear, always from people who have never actually tried CrossFit (to their credit, if they think something is dangerous, then it would make sense that they wouldn’t want to try it).
I’ll be the first to admit that CrossFit is not 100% safe. But then again, nothing is. Think of any sport that you’ve played and I guarantee you know someone (or have been someone) that has gotten hurt. Growing up playing soccer, I saw plenty of torn MCLs and ACLs, strained hamstrings, and sprained ankles galore, but very few people say soccer is dangerous. In fact, there have been several studies looking at injury rates within CrossFit that found similar or lower rates of injury compared to other sports.
On the flip side, there was also a “study” published in 2013 by the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) purporting CrossFit to be too “extreme” based on data that was later found to be demonstrably false. Yes, the NSCA made up data to fit their narrative that CrossFit was dangerous. Earlier this month, a judge ordered the NSCA to pay 4 million dollars as a sanction to CrossFit for this false narrative. Judge Janis L. Sammartino wrote:
[I]n twenty-five years on the bench, “[t]his is the first case that [the Court] ha[s] ever had that has gotten to this point.” … Having carefully considered the record, “[t]he severity and frequency of defendant[’s] bad faith misconduct is as egregious as anything this [C]ourt has ever seen or read.
And that money was just a sanction, not damages which will be a separate process!
This is why I don’t blame people for thinking CrossFit will get you hurt – the biggest association in the world for fitness professionals was pushing an agenda because they felt threatened by a better methodology to getting fit.
And if you think sitting on the couch and doing nothing is 100% safe, think again. Imagine the type of person who does that and what kind of eating habits they have which leads to chronic diseases like diabetes and CVD and you’ll soon realize there is nothing out there 100% safe.
Tomorrow I’ll explain things to consider when starting CrossFit to make it a safe and worthwhile experience and how we implement those systems at Kanna.