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Robyn Flipse: The Coke-Funded Dietitian Threatening CrossFit Gyms

November 1, 2018 by Russ Greene

Yesterday, CrossFit’s twitter account linked to an op-ed entitled EDITORIAL: New Jersey trying to make dietary advice illegal. Dietitians were quick to respond, criticizing both CrossFit and free speech in nutrition. One of those angry dietitians stood out: Robyn Flipse. The New Jersey-based dietitian issued an implicit threat: “Gyms dispensing misinformation about diet have a lot to lose if the licensure bill passes.” It is true that gyms that give dietary information “have a lot to lose” if states make […]

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CrossFit Rebuttal Published in “Military Medicine” Journal

October 29, 2018 by Russ Greene

Patricia Deuster and Francis O’Connor are two exercise researchers who suffer from an enduring anti-CrossFit bias. Back in 2011, Deuster and O’Connor joined William Kraemer of the NSCA, among others, to publish what has become known as the CHAMP paper. That paper labeled CrossFit an “extreme conditioning program” and linked it to “a potential emerging problem of disproportionate musculoskeletal injury risk.” The authors cited no evidence whatsoever to support their allegations, as Jeff Glassman demonstrated in his rebuttal in the […]

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The Definitive Guide to Debunking Misconceptions About CrossFit

September 18, 2018 by Russ Greene

How do you get your grandmother, coworker, dad, etc. to try CrossFit? Bring them to the box. Or have them try a highly scaled WOD at home. Admittedly, this can be challenging. There are a lot of misconceptions about CrossFit. So here’s a guide to debunking those common myths. “The news said CrossFit will kill me” You probably saw headlines like Outside Magazine’s “Is CrossFit Destroying the World” and “Is CrossFit Killing Us?” Outside based these outrageous headlines on a fake […]

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NSCA Disguises Pepsi Employee as University Professor, Pepsi is NSCA’s Official Partner

August 31, 2018 by Russ Greene

Earlier this year I noticed the National Strength and Conditioning Association was misrepresenting PepsiCo employee Jon-Kyle Davis as a university professor. So, on April 18, 2018, I sent the following letter to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The NSCA did not respond. To this day, the NSCA still falsely reports that Davis is employed by the University of Montevallo. In fact, Davis left academic life five years ago to work full time for PepsiCo. Moreover, his PepsiCo/Gatorade employment constitutes […]

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The Russells’ Blog Is Now Keep Fitness Legal

August 18, 2018 by Russ Greene

Yes, the Russells’ blog is now Keep Fitness Legal. Unlike most corporate rebrands (see: Altria), we’re not burying a shameful past. We could not be prouder, in fact. Over the past five years, CrossFit HQ has defended its affiliates against our adversaries’ fraudulent injury claims, as well as the prospect of jail time for squatting instruction or dietary advice. We caught the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) committing fraud and sued. Four years later the NSCA’s own lawyers are […]

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“There Is No Serious Argument Available” – CrossFit Wins Favorable Ruling vs. Richard Beddie

May 30, 2018 by Russ Greene

Four years ago, New Zealand exercise industry lobbyist Richard Beddie made several false claims about CrossFit affiliates and trainers, among them that it killed six people overseas and left an Australian man paralyzed. This seems to have been part of an attempt to coerce CrossFit affiliates and trainers into joining his trainer registry, REPs NZ. Greg Glassman publicly rejected Beddie’s proposition:   “I’m not budging, and I’ll commit our resources to the very last drop to fight for the right of […]

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The American Council on Exercise Either Misled Consumers or It Misled Consumers

February 20, 2018 by Russ Greene

Last month we reported on an investigation into the American Council on Exercise’s Medical Exercise Specialist certification. A complaint with the National Commission on Certifying Agencies (NCCA) alleged that ACE improperly transferred its NCCA accreditation to a new credential. Since accreditation is supposed to verify the legitimacy of a single certification, certifiers are not supposed to transfer accreditation from one certification to another. NCCA responded to this complaint by announcing that it was conducting an investigation into the matter. Four […]

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Is a DOD Official Using Her Position to Promote Civilian Certification Companies?

February 16, 2018 by Russ Greene

Should federal officials be allowed to interfere with commercial enterprises using their government titles? Ought they be able to promote some non-governmental organizations and attack others, all while identifying themselves as government authorities? It’s unimaginable in almost any context. A Health and Human Services official also working on behalf of Pfizer couldn’t write a journal article about avoiding Merck drugs. A U.S. Treasury official would be called corrupt for promoting a “Goldman Sachs Guide to Getting Really Rich.” High-ranking USDA […]

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The American Council on Exercise: Nonprofit Authority or Business Scheme?

February 13, 2018 by Russ Greene

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present this anonymous guest submission. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) states on its website, “ACE serves as America’s Authority on Fitness.” ACE appears to be using the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) to accomplish this goal. In the early 2000s, ACE, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and other organizations in the fitness industry chose to become accredited by the NCCA. Since then, these organizations […]

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The Food Industry Lobby is Collapsing, Is Its “Science” Institute Next?

February 9, 2018 by Russ Greene

“We do not want to be involved in advocacy-led studies that so often, and mostly for the right reasons, have been criticized.” —Mars, Inc. after announcing its planned departure from the International Life Sciences Institute The food industry’s trade group, the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), has lost at least eight of its corporate members since the summer of 2017. And now Mars, Inc. has left the industry’s science propaganda arm, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). Will ILSI suffer the […]

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The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Pro-Junk Food, Anti-Free Speech

February 8, 2018 by Russ Greene

Editor’s Note: Russ Greene wrote the first draft, and Russell Berger contributed to this piece. Having stopped fitness licensure in its tracks, the CrossFit community is turning its sights to nutritional licensure. Once again, a junk food proxy stands in the way. In the United States, 21 states restrict food speech through nutritional licensure laws. These laws are: 1. Unconstitutional: They violate the First Amendment by restricting freedom of speech. Nutritional licensure laws even have been used to restrict the […]

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Why Giving up My Dietitian’s License Was the Healthy Choice

February 7, 2018 by Russell Berger

Editor’s Note: We’re pleased to present this guest post by Cassie Bjork, RD, former LD, and founder of Cassie.net (formerly DietitianCassie.com). Cassie is a globally recognized industry leader in weight loss, a highly sought-after speaker, and the #1 international best-selling author of Why Am I Still Fat?: The Hidden Keys to Unlocking That Stubborn Weight Loss. After spending nearly a decade as a licensed dietitian, Cassie relinquished her dietitian license after a five-year battle with her state licensing board over […]

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Nutrition Gets an F, Too, by Vik Khanna

February 2, 2018 by Russ Greene

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present this guest post by Vik Khanna. Last summer, I lambasted the fitness industry on this blog for being an utter failure at improving anything except its bottom line (while failing to keep Americans’ bottoms from expanding). It’s time for the nutrition industry to take its turn in my woodshed. Let’s start with this little gem: The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that there are almost 70,000 people working as nutritionists and dietitians—and […]

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The Dutch CrossFit Study, or How to Correctly Cite Injury Data

January 17, 2018 by Russell Berger

The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine recently published a study entitled “Injury Incidence and Patterns Among Dutch CrossFit Athletes.” The study is the result of a questionnaire, distributed to CrossFit affiliates in the Netherlands and posted on Facebook. From the 449 qualifying responses received, the authors calculated that injury incidence for athletes participating in CrossFit was 56.1 percent. So why would we need to write a post guiding people through reading and interpreting this study? Because as with similar studies we […]

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How America’s Soda Industry Conquered China’s Public Health Agency

January 11, 2018 by Russ Greene

Editor’s Note: Derek Fields and Russ Greene collaborated on this piece. Soda Advocacy Groups Exploit the Nonprofit Loophole Wenhua Zhao and Junshi Chen both serve as preeminent public health officials in China. At the same time, Zhao and Chen have led Coca-Cola’s propaganda and lobbying efforts in China. They have fooled not only the Chinese government but also the Western academic journals they’ve published in. They have declared no conflicts of interest while publishing in outlets such as the Journal […]

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  • The Russells’ Blog Is Now Keep Fitness Legal

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