A response to Whole 9's recent series

[Andrew Bell]

Originally Posted by Erik Preston

It will make a CrossFit affiliate’s job harder. I will not stand for that. I’m not going sit quietly while Whole9 implies that CrossFit only cares about competition.

Just curious, and not trying to stir the flames or pick sides (cause I have no dog in this fight), but if you're not going to sit quietly what are you going to do?

[Jason B Cox]

Originally Posted by Steve Liberati

I'm gonna do everything I can to bite my tongue here as nothing good usually comes out of talking about other companies poorly in public. The only thing I will say is you should never bite the hand that feeds you so shame on W9 for violating that golden rule.

And if CF is guilty of forging "elite" fitness, W9 is guilty of forging "elite" nutrition.

I just can't figure out for the life of me why CF affiliates continue to host W9 seminars when they do nothing but talk bad on CF…...

"Melissa and Dallas, although it is public knowledge that you hate what CF is about, please come to our gym for a day and give a seminar to our members." HUH

I agree- I stopped paying attention to them a long time ago - for some of the same reasons that I have nearly stopped paying attention to Robb. Definitely do not want to open that can of worms at all - don't misunderstand, I am not choosing sides - I am just coming from the perspective of wanting neutral, unbiased, no-hidden-agenda info for my myself and my clients. List to either one long enough, and you'll pick up on a steady undertone of crankiness, passive-aggressive- CF-bashing. If you have gripes about CF, fine. Remember both the bay and the bathwater. And if you are trying to come across as a journalist of any kind, own your bias/motive. Thats what journalism means.

[Steve Liberati]

Originally Posted by Katherine Derbyshire

Affiliates are businesses. Their primary responsibility is to their members. As long as W9 -- or any other organization -- provides information that affiliate members find helpful, they'll continue to be invited to present.

Katherine

Katherine, this may be how you operate and do business but NOT me. I'm not going to invite a criminal into my house just because my son is friends with him.

I carry the CrossFit flag in my gym and don't want people in my gym that publicly disparage the CrossFit name. That is just me.

[Shar Davis]

I haven't heard of Whole 9's series until now. My simple thought is that the "Killing the fat man" series is demonstrating episode after episode that CrossFit is 'doable' for the every day person - not just the elite. It is demonstrating the essential partnership between exercise and eating. I for one, love the series and love what CrossFit has provided for me - a place where I am encouraged to give MY very best effort every time I turn up and cheer others along as they give THEIR best. I am far from Elite...I'm still overhead squatting with a broomstick....but I still love watching those who are at the 'top' of the field...who doesn't like being inspired to greatness...so my broomstick and I will stick with this 'thing' called CrossFit that kills the 'fat man', frees the athlete inside all of us and inspires us to be 'elite' in our approach to living life in ALL its fullness!

[Steve Gillanders]

Originally Posted by Anneke Lynn Marvin

Steve -
Not sure if you mean [LOVE] THIS!! or [HATE] THIS!

Anneke, that's a big LIKE!

[Badier Velji]

Originally Posted by Erik Preston

While they’ve deleted many of their attacks, they recently claimed that CrossFit “has long ago abandoned training for health and quality of life in favor of performance at a CF "sport”.

This isn’t just inaccurate, it feeds into the public’s false fear about CrossFit.

Hi Erik,

This quote is taken out of context. If you go back to the original Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/Whole9/posts/138352112956390, WFS) the criticism of "that gang" is directed at Glassman, Budding, and Castro. You have mistakenly chosen to use those three to represent all of CrossFit, which I, and Whole9, disagree with.

Whole9 has issue with those people for very personal reasons (related to their de-affiliation and treatment of Robb and Greg) and while they occasionally forget that their public forum is not a place for personal views, on the whole, they do respect what CrossFit has done toward getting the world to a healthier place. But they do also understand that CrossFit is not perfect and does have some flaws, and somehow, highlighting these flaws comes across as "CrossFit bashing" (I'm specifically thinking of the backlash from Dallas' blog post on SDHP and their resemblance to the shoulder impingement test). Same goes for implying that people doing two-a-days or heavy metcons 5 days a week may not be optimal for long-term health.

Furthermore, Whole9 definitely understands that CrossFitters are their main clients, and as CFHQ does not currently provide a nutrition seminar, they (along with Balanced Bites) are filling in the gaps. They are good people and want to help everyone get better, so some of these accusations are quite unfair. The boxes they team with share the same vision of promoting health and fitness together, regardless of how strictly that box adheres to main site programming and CFHQ philosophy.

For context, I have my CF-1, I teach nutrition at my own box, and am one of Whole9's Envoys. However, I am not beholden to them financially, nor am I afraid to call them out on something if they cross a line (which I have done).

So again, it's important to make the distinction that Whole9 does not disparage the idea of CrossFit, but does have issues with some specific movements and some of the specific members of HQ and their non-health-related actions.

Hope that helps.

[Kevin D Hughes]

http://www.crossfitftf.com/ftfcommun...about-you.html YOU MUST ANNOTATE ALL LINKS AS TO WHETHER WORK AND FAMILY SAFE

addresses this very thing...

[Wayne Riddle]

Originally Posted by Erik Preston

There’s no question that CrossFit improves health and fitness. Countless individuals have lost hundreds of pounds and accomplished what they never thought possible with CrossFit.

Same for countless other programs out there. Many were doing this well before CF was ever thought of as a business idea.

And if you look at the health problems that Americans are facing, there’s no doubt that we need CrossFit.

No, we don't "need" Crossfit. Sound nutritional advice with moderate exercise a couple of times a week would work wonders for those out of shape.

This is why it’s so annoying when people claim that CrossFit’s just for the elite, or it’s not safe for normal people.

Those damn "Forging Elite Fitness" t-shirts, damn them all to hell! Who came up with that marketing idea? I mean really, talk about a way to turn the average person off.

While they’ve deleted many of their attacks, they recently claimed that CrossFit “has long ago abandoned training for health and quality of life in favor of performance at a CF "sport”.

What is the most recent marketing slogan being used? Sport of Fitness or something like that? Damn marketers..

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Steve Liberati

Katherine, this may be how you operate and do business but NOT me. I'm not going to invite a criminal into my house just because my son is friends with him.

I carry the CrossFit flag in my gym and don't want people in my gym that publicly disparage the CrossFit name. That is just me.

I don't personally own a gym, so I don't have a dog in this fight.

However, there is a teacher of aikido-related stuff. Let's call him Dave. Dave has some pretty strong opinions about the state of the aikido world, not all of them complementary to the teachers in my organization. And let's be clear, it's not a brand or a corporation he's disparaging, it's individuals. Dave also has some pretty impressive skills, and an excellent teaching methodology to go with them.

My teacher agrees with some of Dave's opinions, strongly disagrees with others. But he has a lot of respect for Dave's skills and thinks they are important for his students to learn. So he invites Dave to teach at our dojo on a regular basis and politely ignores his more provocative opinions.

I don't see why affiliate owners should be expected to take a loyalty oath that puts criticism of CFHQ off limits. And I don't see why an invited presenter's attitude toward CFHQ should be more relevant than the presenter's knowledge and ability to share it. It's a business, not a cult.

Katherine

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Steve Liberati

Katherine, this may be how you operate and do business but NOT me. I'm not going to invite a criminal into my house just because my son is friends with him.

What if you personally were friends with someone your son's school didn't like? Say, a former teacher who left over political disagreements? I think comparing the Whole 9 team to "criminals" vastly overstates the case.

Katherine