Blue Chip Athletics

I once had a client tell me that he felt he didn’t get a good workout because he didn’t feel sore the next day. I had another tell me her workout was fantastic because she was sweating buckets. I’ve seen people post their workouts online, bragging how close they came to puking (and even some who brag about actually throwing up). I’ve heard of trainers yelling at kids as young as 10 to “suck it up” and keep moving, even though the child was struggling to even stand up.

Is that what this industry has come to?

Unfortunately public perception, fueled by images of Jillian Michaels screaming at obese contestants and Crossfit coaches urging athletes to keep moving, is that “What doesn’t maim, shred, brutalize, and then kill me, will make me stronger.” The weekend warriors, who used to run 10k races and mini triathlons, have moved on, trying to break their body down at every opportunity.

Behind that smile lives a hater...

This past week there were a couple of incidents among fitness “professionals” that were very alarming. The first one involved a Crossfit instructor, who tore her Achilles tendon in the middle of box jumps. She was doing a workout called the “Filthy 50” which is 50 repetitions of 10 exercises. As in most Crossfit workouts, this routine is performed “for time” — or as fast as possible.

Okay, let’s get into the science here. I’m going to quote the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” textbook. “The purpose of plyometric exercise is to increase the power of subsequent movements….To effectively use plyometrics it is important to understand 1. The mechanics and physiology of plyometric exercise, 2. Principles of plyometric program design, and 3. How to safely and effectively perform specific plyometric exercises.

I’m not sure if 50 repetitions of box jumps fits into those guidelines. But I AM sure that it doesn’t fit into these guidelines, also from the NSCA: “Because plyometric drills involve maximal efforts to improve anaerobic power, complete and adequate recovery is required…Drills should NOT be thought of as cardiorespiratory conditioning exercises, but as power training.”

I cite the NSCA because it focuses on science-based research.

Now I am not calling out this instructor because she got injured doing a Crossfit workout. She did not design the workout — it is a standard Crossfit workout, developed without consideration to research and safety. However, I will call her out on the example she is setting as a trainer:

Exhibit #1. She missed 14 weeks of training with a low back injury. She was cleared to train no more than seven months ago, and by her own admission has “degenerative discs in my L3, L4, & L5 with calcification and arthritis.” (Her blog April 14, 2011) Now, I am no doctor, but doing 50 fast-paced plyometric box jumps less than seven months after being told you have a degenerative lower spine is probably not the most intelligent thing in the world.

No, it is just downright stupid.
But, once again, the “No-pain, no-gain” mentality transcends all common sense, almost to the point of abuse. This is another excerpt from one of her blogs:

“It seems that only crossfitters understand that pain is progress, and that soreness you feel everytime you roll over during the night is an exciting thing.

“One of my teens is the greatest example of embracing this. He’s tried every sport, and nothing has excited him until Crossfit that is. He was soooooo sore after his first class that he didn’t want to come back. Of course, his mom made him come back, and our conversation before warmup was all about his soreness. I told him “when you’re sore, it’s weakness leaving your body so that there’s room for strong muscle.”

“It’s all he talked about for a week. He even called his mom out on being sore by telling her it was weakness leaving the body. I keep that in mind when I’m warming up and all I want to do is ice down, that it’s just weakness leaving the body. If it works for an 11 year old, it has to work for me.”

There are several things wrong with those paragraphs. Oh hell, I think the only thing right in those paragraphs is some of the punctuation.

Let’s start with the statement “Pain is progress.” If pain were progress, I could punch you in the face and call it progress. True, some “soreness” is rebuilding muscle fibers that are torn during training, but to think that every workout has to be painful is just idiotic.

How much progress is in that painful disk degeneration? I thought as much.

Now, let’s look at the abuse that is being heaped on an 11-year old kid (I think he is 11, because she calls him a teen at one point, and an 11-year old another time). Making a kid so sore he no longer wants to participate in an activity is abuse. Dragging him back a second time is worse. If the instructor is not smart enough to stop abusing her body, is she really smart enough to train your kid?

Kids who lift improperly are at risk for breaking growth plates in their bones. One of the battles I fight as a strength coach is the appropriate age for kids to use weights. I’ll cite the NSCA again: “A particular concern in children is the vulnerability of the growth cartilage to trauma and overuse. Injuries there may disrupt the bone’s blood and nutrient supply and result in PERMANENT growth disturbances.”

If a young athlete complains of pain or discomfort during a growth spurt, the strength and conditioning professional should be suspicious of an overuse injury rather than labeling these complaints “growing pains.”

It is the ignorance of those facts that lead many in the general public to believe that all weight lifting by children is unsafe. No, lifting under the guidance of QUALIFIED instructors is safe 99% of the time. Lifting under the guidance (or alleged guidance) of unqualified instructors in unsafe.

Pain is not weakness leaving your body. Pain is an indicator that something might be wrong. And if you are a child, pain from a workout might be an indicator that your chances for growth have just left your body.

Okay, enough beating that horse. Now on to the second issue that sprung up this week. Yes, it has to do with a Crossfit facility, but once again, it has to do with bad instruction:

I can’t for the life of me figure out:
1. What they are trying to teach, if anything
2. If there is anything safe at all about this video
3. Why would anyone post this, considering how dangerous everything is.

What is very frightening is that some people will watch this and believe this is how to train. What pisses me off, is that some people believe that all trainers behave this way. Some of these people might be driving by my facility or other reputable facilities right now, and won’t stop in because they don’t want to be treated that way.

True fitness professionals are hurt by these actions. There are those of us who take the time to teach, plan safe effective programming, and are results driven. We must now work harder to overcome these negative situations.
Now, I expect to be called jealous, or a hater for my views. Please do. If I am a hater for hating what is wrong with my industry, I am proud to be a hater.