(Small point, but I like the site so why not… the BoingBoing post mentions ‘Matter’ as the home of this article, but it’s actually ‘Medium’ that hosts it.)
I recall reading that it turned up, and was better identified, following The Blitz.
Nothing about Crossfit is designed for elite military units, if that is what your referring to. The instructors get certified by attending a 2 day conference, and learn the 9 basic crossfit exercises, if you can call them that, pay a fee and are good to go. Everyone gets the same one size fits all exercise program, which isn’t safe or sane, and then they make their way through a grueling 20 minutes injury inducing plyometrics, ballistic exercises, and complicated lifts all done wrong, in an exhausted state.
Exactly, I’ve avoided gyms (hamster wheels) and hipster training exercise classes, etc. The people that seem to be in the best, most well-rounded health do well-rounded exercise, not that crap. If I want to roll around in the mud, I’ll do my hybrid hiking/mountain biking in the mountains in CO, not have some idiot scream at me to do monotonous pushups in the mud.
I’ll let nature dictate the rules, thank you very much sergeant yuppie. Also, unlike many of these trendy exercise programs, I have to actually use my brain out in nature to survive. I have to strategize for the weather, plan my route beforehand and use nearly every part of my body and mind while making split-second decisions during the hike/ride. No human is capable of setting up a regime that has even a fraction of that mental/physical complexity with some cordoned-off, muddy course or in some rigid gym.
Exercise to me is mental and physical exercise. Lifting some kettlebells in a field somewhere or any other repetitive, unnatural bullshit doesn’t interest me whatsoever. I realize that not everyone is able to do what I do depending on their own situation, but when I see perfectly capable people heading to a gym across town when the mountains, ocean, woods, etc. are just as close, I cringe.
/rant
2 Likes
IIRC, statins have become the hallmark for phonied-up pharmaceuticals companies’ research…
Where is the peer-reviewed research to go along with this anecdotal account? Where are the numbers? Isn’t Maggie usually the one making this point?
If there is a risk, let us quantify it. Hand-wringing over what I will generously refer to as a case-study isn’t doing anyone any good.
What makes them “yuppies”?
I suspect that the crossfit crew are not notably less competent than many personal trainers; but (by all accounts) they tend to be very, very, good at applying social pressure, in a way that Joe Trainer may well be less able to.
In order to be dangerous, you have to be incompetent and sufficiently persuasive (or the danger sufficiently subtle) to get the victim to execute the exercise.
1 Like
Where is the peer-reviewed research to go along with this anecdotal account? Where are the numbers? Isn’t Maggie usually the one making this point?
Do we really need a double-blind, peer-reviewed study to imply to us that stress induced urinary incontinence exacerbated by trendy, over-the-top exercise programs probably isn’t the wisest choice for our bodies?
If there is a risk, let us quantify it. Hand-wringing over what I will generously refer to as a case-study isn’t doing anyone any good.
I was so busy hand-wringing over the content of Maggie’s post that I hadn’t noticed I’d pissed myself during my expensive, crossfit resistance training program with sergeant yuppie.
Moral of the story… this is boing boing and not a science journal. It’s a challenging place where Maggie and others can point out the value of peer-review in some posts while also daring to post about health or science issues that haven’t necessarily been peer-reviewed.
As far as I can remember, boing boing has always required critical thinking skills of its readers. I hope that never changes. If this article inspires you to perform a peer-review study to get to the bottom of whether there’s value in shitting your pants during trendy exercise programs… then have at it, sir. 
What makes them “yuppies”?
The programs are expensive, trendy and possibly unhealthy. Only yuppies can find that much time and money to waste that much time and money.
Of course, they get into it by sucking up advertising without using very much critical thought in the first place. This haste all comes from an unhealthy desire to fill existential voids.
The lack of self-reflection and self-awareness causes them to jam trendy things into their lives along with a few Land Rovers. They do all this in hope that these hollow, shiny “things” and trendy trends will fill the “forever empty” perpetual loneliness they’ve never faced head-on in their lives.
Any distraction from reality is a good distraction including distracting objects and creating trite, preventable problems for oneself out of thin air so they can be a victim in this world while they’re at it. I know this because I’ve been guilty of some of these things myself in my life but thankfully not all at once and not perpetually.
That makes a yuppie.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
