‘CrossFit is Dangerous’: How Junk Science Sabotages Public Health (EP. 035)
The CrossFit Podcast
CrossFit LLC
4.3 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zach Long, DPT, better known as The Barbell Physio, joins Jocelyn Rylee to dig into the myths and realities around CrossFit injuries, mobility, programming, and long-term health. They unpack the latest research, expose scientific bias, and share practical strategies for athletes, coaches, and affiliate owners.
Read Zach’s point-by-point refutation of misleading CrossFit research here.
Zach brings his perspective as a physical therapist and longtime member of the CrossFit community to explain how to train through injury, why less is often more in mobility and programming, and how CrossFit has and continues to evolve.
Topics Covered
- Is CrossFit dangerous? Injury data vs. public perception
- How mobility training should actually work
- Scientific integrity and fighting back against biased research
- Training through injury vs. taking time off
- Building medical-professional networks around affiliates
- Programming pitfalls: volume vs. intensity and coaching time
- Why complex skills (like the snatch) belong in CrossFit
- Older adults as a critical growth area for affiliates
- Zach’s advice for athletes, coaches, and the future of CrossFit
Resources Mentioned
- Zach’s website: thebarbellphysio.com
- Zach on Instagram/Facebook: @thebarbellphysio
- CrossFit.com – Scientific Integrity Under Fire article
- Zach’s YouTube channel: The Barbell Physio
Community Highlight
Trevor Pogue started CrossFit in 2020 with no lifting background and no plans to stick around. But it flipped everything.
He was working in medical research at the University of Florida, first in cancer, then anesthesiology, when he realized something: many of the problems hospitals treat could be prevented through lifestyle.⠀
In 2023, he bought CrossFit 1088, a small affiliate in Ocala, Florida that was about to shut down. The name comes from the gym’s youngest and oldest original members: 10 and 88. That spirit — CrossFit for everyone — is what Trevor is rebuilding.⠀
He took over with 32 members. A year later, they’re at 120 and growing.⠀
At their last anniversary party, Trevor watched 88-year-old Martha climb a massive water slide and fly down it while younger members stood by saying, “No way.”⠀
“That’s why we do CrossFit,” he said.
Know someone you think deserves to be highlighted? Nominate them here.
Share Your Thoughts: Email us [podcasts@crossfit.com] or complete our survey here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've heard CrossFit's dangerous. Is that true? |
| 0:03.0 | Not according to the research, and at this point there's a lot of research on that. |
| 0:07.0 | CrossFit's injury rates have consistently been shown to be below four injuries per 1,000 training hours. |
| 0:13.0 | Tell us about that article. What was your first impression? |
| 0:16.0 | Wow, this is an incredibly biased article that's really paying the narrative that CrossFit is dangerous. |
| 0:23.6 | One bad article can shift the narrative of everything in science. |
| 0:33.6 | Zach Long, I've heard CrossFit's dangerous. Is that true? |
| 0:39.8 | Not according to the research. And at this point, there's a lot of research on that. So it's a bit of a shame that's still the impression that so many people have and the impression that's still put out by a lot of people that are actually trusted health and fitness professionals. |
| 0:55.9 | Like your doctors shouldn't be saying that at this point. Other strength the conditioning professionals |
| 1:00.0 | shouldn't be saying that at this point. It's kind of sad. And we're certainly the people interested |
| 1:05.3 | in quantification of fitness, right? That's been something that CrossFit really brought to the |
| 1:09.3 | strength and conditioning space right from the beginning, almost 25 years ago now, that not just tracking performance |
| 1:15.3 | improvements, but also tracking injury rates within our affiliates, within our gyms. And now there's |
| 1:22.1 | been enough time to gather data, not just in short term, but over really long periods of time. |
| 1:27.7 | So what does that data look like? |
| 1:29.5 | How does Crosbitt stack up relative to other types of activities that people might engage in for their fitness? |
| 1:34.4 | So there's probably 10 to 12 research studies at this point that have looked at injury rates in Crosbet. |
| 1:40.9 | They're all surveys, but that is true across other sports where they've done the |
| 1:45.2 | same thing. And in general, what they do is they report the number of injuries they found per |
| 1:51.0 | 1,000 training hours. And that's how most of this research comes up with a number to compare with. |
| 1:57.3 | And CrossFit's injury rates have consistently been shown to be below four injuries per 1,000 |
| 2:03.1 | training hours. |
... |
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