Today’s blog post was taken from a study in Dutch Crossfitters and Crossfitters in South Florida.
1) Like in many other sports and fitness activities, it seems like being a newer individual increases your risk of getting hurt. This makes sense, a less fit athlete may not be as prepared for the demands of CrossFit as a more fit athlete.
2) The authors proposed that heavier individuals may be exposed to higher forces during crossfit given that many of the movements in crossfit are bodyweight in nature.
3) Athletes who were more competitive also had a higher risk of injury. The authors explained that this could simply be due to the factors that athletes exposed themselves to more training hours. This makes sense however competitive athletes also tend to push harder then the average CrossFit athlete. In my opinion this increased intensity could also be a factor related to injury risk.
4) Lastly, more training hours simply increases your exposure to given movements and thereby increases your risk of injury. Athletes who trained more frequently were more likely to be injured in these studies.
What do you think? Is this consistent with what you end up seeing in the gym? Do you think more competitive athletes are more likely to be injured during training? Does no one ever get hurt in your gym?
I love being hurt,
Dan Pope DPT, OCS, CSCS