How to Prevent Potential Cross Training Injuries
CrossFit has been known to expose individuals to many diverse forms of exercise. But, if you load these exercises with weight when one is not yet readily prepared may lead to injury. Some of the injuries are bound to be prevented but, others can lead to serious lifetime effects. Also, those who’ve been injured are at a much greater risk of experiencing the same kind of injury. Therefore, training without fully recovering is risky and should be avoided and the combination of heavy and technical lifts and time restraints is likely to "wake up" old injuries.
This high-intensity fitness program has also fastened our exposure to innovative bodyweight and Olympic style lifting techniques. The average consumer of fitness is not aware of what is best to "consume" the sources of fitness at their disposal. If an athlete does not have an adequate base of stability, mobility, and skill, the Olympic lifts with the straight bar can be potentially injurious. Most movements that involve heavy loading, increased bar speed, and higher skill levels are probably the most dangerous types of movements, however, they also have the highest ceilings of any lifts out there.
Most of the available data indicate that the number one risk factor for sustaining a future injury is having had a previous injury. Many athletes usually go back to training without having fully recovered from a previous injury, which may be partly the fault of the athlete and also partly the fault of the medical system. It’s difficult to say that one type of injury happens more often in CrossFit, but rather, the metabolic environment and heavy loading schemes under huge amounts of stress tend to revive old injuries that have been mismanaged or ignored in the past by the athlete, rehab specialist, or coach. Lower backs, shoulders, and knees often take the most of the hit when talking about injury rates in CrossFit. However, with better stability, mobility, and technique, many of these common injuries can be avoided.
Sessions such as the Work Out of the Day (WOD) also help to define an individual’s capabilities or a specific but all-inclusive workout across the board. People sometimes don't know their own limitations, which sometimes lands them into problems that increase the unnecessary risk of injury during training. Many people blindly shuffle into these challenging environments not really considering what they are physically capable of doing without getting hurt. This needs to be addressed to protect athletes and to offer some alternatives in programming to match their current functional ability.
Coaches also play an integral part in protecting Cross Fitters. They do it by making sure that every movement programmed into the Work Out of the Day (WOD) has workable modifications to accommodate athletes that are not currently executing a high-level movement without having an increased risk of injury. This may require the coach to check off whether an athlete may proceed in a WOD on a daily basis, or needs to downgrade and simplify a move or two. It’s also important to know the moves that people struggle with that way they don't get into the highly challenging metabolic environment, with those faulty movement mechanics. The role of coaches is to expose individuals to new exercises and combinations, not necessarily force feeding numeric training packages that may not be appropriate for one’s skill set or conditioning level.
