Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present this guest post by our colleague Derek Fields.  Last week Coke rolled out the first ever six-month update to its transparency database. This update increased the total funding by over $14 million, from $118.6 to $132.8 million. It also made a disproportionately high number of changes to funding for organizations, like the ACSM, that help push Coke’s energy balance agenda. Coke first published the database in September of 2015 in the wake of the New York […]

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This article was originally published in the CrossFit Journal  Prescribe What to Whom—and Why? There are two distinct fronts in the war between CrossFit and chronic disease. The first—and most important—is the battle being waged every day in our affiliates across the world. While CrossFit trainers aren’t selling a cure for chronic disease, increased work capacity appears to be diametrically opposite to metabolic derangement, heart disease and obesity. It is no longer surprising to hear that CrossFit athletes who signed […]

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And now, a new ACSM scheme. Some ACSM fellows ran a survey and found that CrossFit training had a lower injury rate than ACSM exercise. This was likely an unpublishable conclusion, so the academics ignored the higher risk associated with ACSM training and spun the data into a warning about CrossFit’s risk. This scheme only works until you look at the numbers; the article’s data directly contradicts its words. Since at least 2008, academic exercise commentators have tried and failed […]

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If you start to exercise more, is that an unhealthy sign? A new “study” on CrossFit suggests it is. The article’s entitled “Exercise addiction in CrossFit: Prevalence and psychometric properties of the Exercise Addiction Inventory.” It was published in Addictive Behaviors Reports. First, let’s address a false premise. The introduction states, “The prevalence of injuries in CrossFit is high.” It cites the Hak study as evidence. The Hak study did not find a “high” prevalence of injuries in CrossFit. In fact, it found a rate “similar” to “general fitness […]

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Not everyone supports CrossFit’s campaign to fight chronic disease and remove Big Soda from the health sciences. Perhaps some of the critics really care about the health of the nation. If that is their true motivation, however, they should stick to the facts when defending Big Soda, or claiming that CrossFit affiliates are dangerous. So we hope that these critics appreciate CrossFit’s efforts to hold them accountable for their statements. Let’s look at some recent claims and see if they are true, false or misleading. Second Opinion […]

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Editor’s Note: We are pleased to present this article by our colleague Derek Fields. On February 8, 2016, the Russells published a blog post investigating unannounced and unexplained changes to Coca-Cola’s Transparency database. You can see an archived page of the changed version we noticed on February 4th here, which we’ll refer to as the “February 4th version” throughout this article. The database, when first published, disclosed information related to: … funding provided by Coca-Cola North America (CCNA), The Coca-Cola […]

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Last week CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman sent a letter to American Council on Health and Science President Hank Campbell. Glassman asked Campbell to lead the ACHS in an effort to “publicly commit itself to not taking any additional funds from Coca-Cola or the soda industry.” Campbell responded to Glassman’s letter with “Fitness Fallacy: An Open Letter to CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman.” Reading Campbell’s lengthy letter yields one sole benefit: it demonstrates that Coca-Cola’s influence may not stop when the funding ends. Off the Coke Teat … First, the good news: ACSH is […]

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