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Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

>>The answer to every single complaint this guy has is that he is in a terrible crossfit gym with terrible coaches. Granted, there are a lot of terrible crossfit gyms out there and a lot of terrible coaches. That doesn't make crossfit in general bad.

First of all, Erin Simmons is a woman. Second of all, she addresses this argument in the very last paragraph. You may want to read the whole thing before commenting on it.

>>It boggles my mind sometimes. Why are people so offended by Crossfit?

It boggles my mind sometimes. Why are Crossfitters get so incredibly defensive whenever someone criticizes them? What's with the fucking creepy cult mentality?

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My bad. Did not realize it was a woman. I did read the whole thing. Her last paragraph is like me saying, "If you do any sort of MMA programming it is terrible for you. You will get hurt. Period. No exceptions. Don't listen to your coaches." Just because she says something doesn't mean it is true.

Second point, I should have asked, Why are people so offended by crossfit in particular? Seems like a disproportionate amount of hate toward crossfit as opposed to other sports. I guess you could attribute it to popularity though. Bigger target, more pageviews/reactions if you bash it.

>>Her last paragraph is like me saying, "If you do any sort of MMA programming it is terrible for you. You will get hurt. Period. No exceptions. Don't listen to your coaches." Just because she says something doesn't mean it is true

No it is not. The logic is both solid and easy enough to follow: Crossfit gyms are about Workouts of the Day. Every gym does them. And they are dangerous as hell. Therefore every Crossfit gym is dangerous. Another commenter gave this accurate analogy:

"It’s like saying I don’t need to visit every movie theater in America to know that they all show movies at regular intervals."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7762796

Her premises is flawed. Workout of the day is a prescribed set of movements with a particular goal in mind. You scale and change the weight movement and reps with your coach each day based on skill, and ability. The author seems to think there is no wiggle room. Also most gyms week have several workout of the days to pick from based on experience level.

The mark of a good crossfit gym is individualization. This author seems to think those kinds of gyms don't exist.

> Crossfit gyms are about Workouts of the Day. Every gym does them. And they are dangerous as hell. Therefore every Crossfit gym is dangerous.

Huh? That's like saying "if you step in a car, you will get in accident. Period." That's not logic, that's just called chasing black swans.

No, it is like saying, "if you speed past every red light at 100 mph, you will probably get into an accident."

A Workout of the Day (which every Crossfit gym does) is basically doing a perfectly fine movement at very high repetition. The higher the reps of these complex movements, the riskier they are. Therefore, every Crossfit gym is dangerous.

My affiliate's most recent WOD was a 3RM squat ladder with 2:30 rest between each set. There is nothing "high repetition" about it and there are specifically timed rest intervals to allow for ATP regeneration, etc.

You should refrain from claiming knowledge about the programming of every CF affiliate on the planet. You're absolutely wrong about every single thing you have claimed in this comment thread.

> Crossfit gyms are about Workouts of the Day. Every gym does them. And they are dangerous as hell.

If you are saying that every CF-affiliated gym takes the WOD from the main site and tells its members to do it as prescribed, you're wrong.

If you are saying that every CF-affiliated gym comes up with its own WOD, and tells all its members to do it with no adjustment in weights or tailoring to the needs and abilities of individual members, you're also wrong.

How can anyone credibly claim "The WODs programmed by CF gyms for their members are always, inherently dangerous," or make this analogy to movie theaters, when there's not even a single, authoritative source of the programming?

My best guess is that noticeable opposition to Crossfit is directly proportional is the pervasiveness of Crossfit. It is popular enough that a few lovers and haters have dramatically increased the number of times you've heard about Cross fit, over say the single lover and hater of a random workout.

I'm sure there's a more math-y argument than mine.

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