Dangerous
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 10:40AM 
This isn’t dangerous. Wrestling lions is dangerous. Climbing mountains is dangerous.
This is a walk in the park.
You can stand there and scream, loading a thousand YouTube videos, a thousand screenshots of undereducated idiots throwing around barbells and calling it CrossFit. It doesn’t make you right. It makes you a YouTube-watching naysayer.
What you’re lacking is honest proof. Statistics. A spreadsheet, a number, a definitive outcome, an analysis of variance showing that what we’re doing carries an outsized risk of injury.
Of course, you’ll never find it, because it doesn’t exist. Instead, you’ll type hate mail on the nearest message board, insisting that thrusters break wrists and burpees break backs, that the clean and jerk is an abomination, the kipping pull-up an affront to humanity.
Good luck. While you hold forth from the mountaintops, we’ll be pressing on, recognizing a singular truth that has escaped your narrow worldview: risk and reward go hand-in-hand.
If you want the world’s safest fitness program, you’ll have to forego fitness. You’ll strap into a lever-controlled, pulley-modulated padded seat, moving through a predetermined range of motion, and you’ll stay fat. If you want to get fit, you’ll have to stand up, and the second you do, you’ll be subject to gravity.
Gravity is a risk, and it would just as soon have you on your ass as on your feet. It would just as soon snap you in two as leave you whole, twisting your ligaments from their tenuous foundations or leaving them intact.
Fortunately, gravity is also the supreme creator of athletes, the silent resistance that makes bones dense and muscles strong. It rewards every second of fight, every moment we refuse to succumb to its pull. The more advantage we give it through increased loads and coordinated movements, the more it gives back.
Of course, the risks grow in lockstep, the hundred pound injury a mere trifle to the tragedy of its three hundred pound cousin. With every fight, there is the spectre of failure, insignificant or catastrophic.
However compelling, these possibilities pale in comparison to the risk of stopping. Frailty, immobility, and disease are not the result of working too hard, of waging war against a barbell. They are the result of a padded seat. They are the result of refusing to stand, of allowing fear to dictate the bounds of fitness.
The true danger lies in non-participation.
Load your videos, and cite the miniscule incidence of rhabdomyolysis. Write letters to your constituency, warning them of the dangers of CrossFit, of our singular drive to massacre, maim, and kill. Yell and parade, and make as much noise as you can, and hope that the volume hides your lack of evidence. Time will prove you an idiot, fighting a force as inexorable as gravity.
Eric Barber, owner of Next Generation CrossFit, locks out at Hell's Half Acre. Picture courtesy of Patrick Cummings.
Reader Comments (15)
Another great one Jon!
"There is no substitute for hard work and high intensity".
I thought this was a nifty slogan when I started going to CrossFit. Well, it turns out that it is simply a true statement. Nothing more.
In 6 months, I have accomplished more with my $9.50 per hour trainer and his barbell, than I ever did with my $50 an hour trainer and his gym full of machines. Due to a back injury I could hardly bend over and pick up my 10lb dog. The machine trainer couldn't fix that, instead directing me to "train around my bad back". So I left.
My CrossFit trainer realized I had a weak back that needed proper training. Day by day, he taught me the proper way to work against gravity.
My deadlift PR is now 300lbs. Done correctly. With proper form. Through a full range of motion. I'm no firebreather, but I am the best I have ever been. CrossFit is the Reformation of physical training, and I am a devout follower. The only danger it poses is to the profit margins of "big box" gym franchises.
My sincere appreciation goes to Scott Wells and all those who have made CrossFit what it is today and to hell with the naysayers. They scramble about and hold out hope the methods they cling to still bear relevance. As if being right were somehow more important than being in shape.
How sad.
Amen Jon, great article.
Is this why you quit playing football?
Karl,
Awesome. I quit because I'm never in town on Sunday. And I'm scared of you and your massiveness.
Keep up the good fight, Brother!
Best,
Jon
Amen Brother!
Another great article Jon! Keep it up... Hope to be able to stop by this fall when I'm in Newport for a couple months!
Hey Jon,
It was great meeting you at the SW Qualifiers. Thanks for putting my picture on such a great article.
I'm honored. And humbled.
Looking forward to hanging out in the future and keep up the good work,
Eric
Jon - Righteous words, brother! You hit that nail on the head!
Take care and keep up the great work!
Best,
Ian
I belong to Crossfit Ignite. I am going to share this article with my coaches. It was inspirational and unbelievably accurate.
Thanks!!!
Unorthodox, irreverent...I love it.
http://www.crossfitfullcircle.com/?p=1170
we linked to this essay today. It tied in nicely with a lot of what we've been thinking about and talking over with our clients. It also helped me to explain the background behind our new T Shirt design, intended to mimic the classic 'INFIDEL' T that I've been wearing for 3 years.
That was awesome brother!
Just discoverd this site. Wow, what a great piece of writing! So well said and brillianlty writtien. Congrats! Look forward to more articles from u.
Thanks,
Jack
Hallelujah. More truths exposed in the way only Gilson can express.
We miss you at CFB!