Greg Glassman, co-founder of the Broken Science Initiative and founder of CrossFit, delivered this talk in Atlanta, GA, in December 2024 at a BSI Medical Society event. His speech explored the fundamental flaws in public health, modern medical science, and the academic approach to scientific validation.
Greg remains skeptical of institutions like the NIH and CDC, highlighting that many accepted health metrics—such as blood pressure and triglyceride levels—are incorrectly treated as independent variables rather than as outcomes of lifestyle choices. I.e. managing symptoms rather than addressing the cause. The cure then lies in a low-carb diet, paired with training high-intensity functional movements at least 3 days per week. A solution MetFix can offer that doctor visits can’t.
He also addresses the “replication crisis” as well as a deeper epistemic corruption in science, ranging from an over-reliance on statistical significance testing, to errors in logic. Ultimately, Glassman stresses that the hallmark of real science is predictive strength. Many so-called scientific models, especially in public health, lack meaningful predictions, rendering them unreliable. His talk was a call to action for individuals to develop stronger critical thinking skills and for the scientific community to restore integrity in research.
Greg Glassman founded CrossFit, a fitness revolution. Under Glassman’s leadership there were around 4 million CrossFitters, 300,000 CrossFit coaches and 15,000 physical locations, known as affiliates, where his prescribed methodology: constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity, were practiced daily. CrossFit became known as the solution to the world’s greatest problem, chronic illness.
In 2002, he became the first person in exercise physiology to apply a scientific definition to the word fitness. As the son of an aerospace engineer, Glassman learned the principles of science at a young age. Through observations, experimentation, testing, and retesting, Glassman created a program that brought unprecedented results to his clients. He shared his methodology with the world through The CrossFit Journal and in-person seminars. Harvard Business School proclaimed that CrossFit was the world’s fastest growing business.
The business, which challenged conventional business models and financially upset the health and wellness industry, brought plenty of negative attention to Glassman and CrossFit. The company’s low carbohydrate nutrition prescription threatened the sugar industry and led to a series of lawsuits after a peer-reviewed journal falsified data claiming Glassman’s methodology caused injuries. A federal judge called it the biggest case of scientific misconduct and fraud she’d seen in all her years on the bench. After this experience Glassman developed a deep interest in the corruption of modern science for private interests. He launched CrossFit Health which mobilized 20,000 doctors who knew from their experiences with CrossFit that Glassman’s methodology prevented and cured chronic diseases. Glassman networked the doctors, exposed them to researchers in a variety of fields and encouraged them to work together and further support efforts to expose the problems in medicine and work together on preventative measures.
In 2020, Greg sold CrossFit and focused his attention on the broader issues in modern science. He’d learned from his experience in fitness that areas of study without definitions, without ways of measuring and replicating results are ripe for corruption and manipulation.
The Broken Science Initiative, aims to expose and equip anyone interested with the tools to protect themself from the ills of modern medicine and broken science at-large.
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