The old adage is especially true with fitness and exercise programming. Too often there is no actual programming or design, its basically stringing together a series of tough moves together with very little to no rest.
I don't know if anyone needs a sports programming background to do that. Some people mistake this for a good workout. Workouts aren't about making you feel like crap, workouts are supposed to improve your capacity in some way, not just pain capacity but athletic ability. There's a lot of high level athletes with low pain thresholds that prove athleticism isn't about how much pain you can take. And being elite is about being really good at something.