Crossfit injuries: common mistakes, causes and statistics * Crossfit

CrossFit injuries are not uncommon. After all, training always includes work with free weights and implies serious stress on the body throughout the entire complex.

Today we will look at typical examples of injuries in CrossFit training, their causes, talk about the scientific statistics on this issue, and also give advice on how to minimize injuries in CrossFit.

All professional athletes are well aware of the 3 most common crossfit injuries:

Back injury;
Shoulder injuries;
Joint injuries (knees, elbows, wrists).

Of course, you can damage any other part of the body - for example, it hurts to hit with the little finger or something worse, but we will talk about the 3 most common.

Examples of CrossFit Injuries

All of the injuries mentioned above are extremely unpleasant - each in its own way. And you can also get them each in its own way. How exactly and in what crossfit exercises we will figure it out in order.

Back injury

Let's be honest, back injuries are the most dangerous in CrossFit. In fact, there are a great many of them, ranging from hernias to displacements and other troubles. Under what circumstances can you injure your back on CrossFit? Below is a list of the most traumatic exercises for the back.

Barbell snatch;
Deadlift;
Barbell push;
Squat (in its various variations).

For ethical reasons, we will not show real-life examples of injuries on video - it is not easy to look at it even with a stable psyche.

Shoulder injuries

Shoulder injuries are characterized by the fact that they are quite painful and very long. The main mistake of novice athletes who have received a shoulder injury is that, having recovered, having received the long-awaited relief, they rush into the fight again and get followed by another one no less painful one.

A shoulder injury in CrossFit should be treated very carefully. And even after curing her, you need to start shoulder training very carefully and gradually.

The most traumatic exercises:

Bench press;
Breeding dumbbells to the sides in an incline or lying on your back;
Parallel push-ups from the bench (feet on another bench);
Cravings for the chest.

Joint injuries

And third on the list, but not least, are joint injuries. The unpleasant leader of which is the injury of the knee joint. There are no specific exercises that have a strong impact on injuries. You need to understand that in almost all exercises, one or all of the joints presented at once are involved.

Causes of injuries and typical mistakes of athletes

Next, let's take a look at the key causes of injury during CrossFit training and 4 common mistakes.

Causes of injury

There are not so many reasons why you can get injured on CrossFit training in general.

Incorrect technique. The scourge of all novice athletes. Feel free to have a coach give you workout advice and see if you're doing it right. No coach - ask an experienced athlete nearby. Are you all alone? Record your suffering and see yourself from the outside.
Chasing records or neighbors on the platform. You need to do with the weight at which you 1) do without prejudice to the technique 2) do, experiencing sufficient loads in order to get tired of the exercise.
Loss of focus or negligence. And this is already the scourge of experienced guys - after doing the same exercise 100 times, it seems to many that they will do it in a dream with their eyes closed, and relaxing at an unnecessary moment can get unpleasant consequences even for not the most simple shells (for example, a lot of cases of damage to banal box jumping - it would seem that this is not a barbell 200kg above your head).
Equipment. It is trite sneakers - many sneakers are not designed for heavy exercise and it is simply impossible to keep balance on them. Lack of taping (in cases where it would be very useful). The absence of calipers and other fixing elements in the event that you know that there is a significant risk of injury to yourself, and so on.

A prime example of a back injury on the deadlift:

4 common traumatic mistakes

1. Warm up	The athlete did not warm up during the warm-up and did not stretch the joints
2. Pre-existing or just past injuries	Do not load muscles and joints that are already sore or have recently healed - this can seriously aggravate the situation.
3. The transition to heavy weights without preparation	For example, according to the program, you have deadlift with a maximum weight of 100 kg. And with the first approach, you put on 80kg, and on the second one, you put on 100kg at once and felt that your muscles were overly tired. In this case, you need to understand that you need to approach the maximum weight a little bit, properly flexing the muscles.
4. You need to calculate your strength	If you are struggling to do weight X, and you still have several approaches, then you do not need to cling to additional weights to the detriment of technique. This mistake mainly affects men.

There is also a bonus on the video - error 5 😉

CrossFit Injury Statistics

The nature and prevalence of injuries during crossfit training. (Source: 2013 US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health study; attention on the link original in english).

CrossFit is a constantly varied, intense, functional movement aimed at improving a person's physical performance. The technique has gained popularity around the world since its inception twelve years ago. There has been a lot of criticism regarding possible injuries associated with crossfit training, including rhabdomyolysis and musculoskeletal injuries. However, until now no convincing evidence has been found in the literature.

The purpose of this study was to determine the indicators of traumatism and profiles of crossfit athletes received during planned training complexes. An online questionnaire was distributed to several international online crossfit forums in order to obtain a statistical sample.

Research results

The data collected included general demographics, curriculum, profiles, and types of injury.

A total of 132 responses were collected from 97 (73.5%) who had been injured during CrossFit training.
A total of 186 lesions, with 9 (7.0%) requiring surgery.
The injury rate was 3.1 per 1000 hours of training was calculated. This refers to the average athlete being injured once every 333 hours of training. * (* Editor's note)

No cases of rhabdomyolysis have been reported. (although, for example, in the same wikipedia this is clearly indicated)

The injury rates for crossfit training are similar to those described in the literature for sports such as:

Olympic weightlifting;
Powerlifting;
Gymnastics;
Below are competitive contact sports such as rugby and rugby league.

Injuries to the shoulder and spine prevail, but no cases of rhabdomyolysis are recorded.

Well, then draw your own conclusions. If you liked the article, share it with your friends on social networks. Do you have any questions or comments? Welcome!