Tips To Avoid Injury During Workouts
Written by Nuno Costa
CrossFit has been around since the early 2000s – that’s when Coach Glassman started putting the methodology on the internet and people started learning about it. The first boom in the CrossFit community came around 2007-2009 when the first CrossFit Games took place. Around 2013-2015 we saw another huge boom in the community, ok enough of this history lesson – over the years CrossFit has grown so much and through those growth spurts, at times CrossFit has had to overcome the myth that it is dangerous.
Tips To Avoid Injury During Workouts
CrossFit inherently is not dangerous, and you shouldn’t be getting injured during workouts but there are a few things to keep in mind in order to avoid injury during workouts…
Mechanics, Consistency then Intensity
Let’s go back to the methodology first – one of the key components of CrossFit is their charter for training newer athletes – Mechanics, Consistency then Intensity (M-C-I) when this order is not maintained, it can certainly lead to injury. If you are doing CrossFit and performing the movements with the right technique/form, then it’s unlikely you will get hurt. Our first tip to avoid injury then is to learn the movements, understand how to perform them correctly and what faults to avoid and how to correct your technique when it does break down in a workout. In CrossFit there are quite a few movements, and for a beginner it may feel like they are learning a new language, so be patient here and know that this may take some time.
Don’t Do Too Much Too Quickly
So am I going to get hurt? The answer is hopefully not, but there are a few more tips we’d give in order to avoid injury – don’t get caught in the trap of doing too much too quickly. Hopefully you have a coach that has your best interest at heart and won’t allow you to do so. It’s easy to chase the rx workouts at the expense of losing some of the stimulus which could lead to you potentially getting hurt. You have your entire life to get fitter, learn the proper mechanics first and be patient about adding volume. For most everyday CrossFit gym goers a great goal would be to come to class 3-5 x week and that really is all you need so you aren’t doing too much too quickly.Â
Adding Too Much Weight
What about adding too much weight? Yeah that’s a given – if you try to do something beyond your current capacity, there’s a chance you might get hurt. Does CrossFit push you to do so, at times yes – we test max effort lifts, we go heavy in workouts, but once again hopefully you have some solid coaches that won’t allow you to do so, or if you are making some attempts at new PRs you are doing it safely and not compromising your form. Do we want perfect form? Not necessarily, because that would be the complete opposite end of the spectrum – yes you’d be doing things safely, but most likely not pushing yourself beyond your limits which means you will not be seeing gains in your fitness.
How To Avoid Injury: Recap
So how do we avoid injuries – hopefully we’ve outlined some main concepts above:
- Be smart about learning the mechanics of the movements, you may not master them but the more you focus on the basics the less likely you are to get hurt.
- Be patient with your fitness, you will start to see gains if you come in consistently, don’t fall into the trap that you have to do more in order to get fitter. We’ve seen the CrossFit methodology work for over 20 years with 1 hour group classes for someone consistently coming 3-5 days a week.
- When it comes to doing heavier weights – err on the side of caution for the most part. Make sure you have a coach watch you when the lifts get closer to your max to ensure you are doing them correctly.
Does all this mean you aren’t going to get hurt? Probably not – injuries are part of fitness/sport. Find me a sport where athletes won’t get hurt? There aren’t any, but at the same time we don’t want to be reckless and injure everyone that walks through your doors, if that’s the case, you won’t keep your doors open for long. Injuries are going to happen, freak accidents happen all the time, but our goal here at Invictus is always to focus on your movement quality and then pushing your intensity/capacity safely so that you can continue to see progress in your fitness.