CrossFit, Injuries and How To Avoid Them.

I have posted this as an open letter to our members on our Facebook page but thought it would equally apply to other CrossFitters and boxes so my musings might interest some of you.......

CrossFit is a great, no, scrap that, the best way of building all round functional strength and fitness that I have ever come across in over 16 years of training and coaching. It covers all your bases from strength work to cardio endurance and sprint speed to flexibility and agility in the gymnastic elements. Some of you discover CrossFit, come to us and it completely changes your life. And although that sounds pretty corny and dramatic I don't use those words lightly. You have fun, you make friends, you learn things you thought you could never do and you change your body in fantastic ways to become healthier, fitter and stronger.

However, CrossFit can and indeed does in some peoples minds have a reputation for being dangerous. The fact that pushing yourself to your limits is what makes CrossFit so fun and effective is also what can make it dangerous if you repeatedly go BEYOND your limits and don't listen to what we have to say. Whilst at Connect we always encourage you to go for every rep and lift that little bit more each time we always do so when it is SAFE to do so. We are responsible as coaches in getting the best out of you and when we think you can do more we will tell you so.

Just as a little question for our members, how often do you hear us telling people to lift heavier and how often do you hear us telling people to take the weight down? It is without doubt a lot more often the latter.

This is because you can get carried away with your own ability sometimes. You constantly want to get better (and we admire that) and you equate that with lifting heavier weights in WODs and focus sessions. Many of you have come to us having no background in lifting whatsoever and expect that in 6 months you will be lifting what the coaches are lifting and doing everything RXd on the board. Bear in mind that all of your coaches have been lifting for YEARS before they found CrossFit and have had time to develop not just the muscular strength but the strength in the ligaments, tendons and supporting tissues to be able to deal with the volume and weight of some of the WODs. Whilst we genuinely encourage you all to shoot for completing the WODS at RXd weight and lifting heavy during the focus sessions we also want you to realise it might take you years to get there. There is no rush. Much better to take things slowly, with perfect form than to rush through things and in 6 months time end up with nasty injuries which will force you to have time off. Or not come back at all.

When people call CrossFit dangerous and stupid it genuinely upsets me. With any sport or past time there is always risk of injury. Just take football, rugby or even jogging. Way more people suffer injuries doing these than have ever been hurt doing CrossFit but you wouldn't call them dangerous things to do would you? The dangerous side of it comes when coaches fail to give advice or people fail to listen to it. We will never tell you to lift more than you are capable of and I want to see you guys listening to us when we tell you you are pushing it too much.

As our membership base grows at the box we have to learn more and more about every one of you and what you are capable of doing. This is our responsibility as box owners. However, you also have a responsibility as a member to be sensible about your abilities and also LISTEN to what we tell you. We aren't trying to hold you back. We are trying to perfect your form, make you stronger and save you from hurting yourself.

The two things that constantly come up in relation to injuries we have seen at the box are pull ups and lifting too much during a WOD. 

Kipping pull ups are an absolute no-no if you are using a band for assistance. If you cannot do at least 8 - 10 strict pull ups on your own you shouldn't even be considering kipping ones. They place too much strain on shoulders that aren't strong enough to deal with the forces involved in the swing and kip. PLEASE DO NOT kip if you are using a band. From right now. Period. Using a band for assistance is a great way of getting your pull ups but keep them strict, work on them consistently and you will get your strict ones before long. Use a bigger band if needed. Yes, your WOD times might go up but I'm sure you'd prefer a larger number in your diary and strong pain free shoulders than not being able to lift your arms over your head? Swinging all over the place on a band, trying to kip will not get you stronger for your pull ups. It will just hurt you.

As for weights in WODs only a very small handful of you can complete WODs at RXd weight at the moment. We don't want to see ugly, rounded backs in WODs as this is not a nice experience and we have a duty of care to make sure you don't hurt yourself. Ask us for our advice on what to lift if you need too and we will suggest the weights for you. This is what we do, what we have done for a long time and what you also pay us for. We are in no way trying to hold you back. Leave your ego at the door and lift what you can lift well with perfect form. You will still get gassed and have a good workout, trust me. Its just you will also eliminate the possibility of hurting yourself as well.

Bad vs Good. We dont want to see the one on the left!

I love CrossFit and I love coaching CrossFit and owning a box with such an amazing bunch of people for friends and members. However, I don't like seeing people get hurt unnecessarily and I want to make sure that we continue to develop a great team of coaches and a great reputation as a safe, effective and fun place to train. Please help us out on this front by being sensible in your training, being accountable for what you are doing, taking your rest days and not over-training. That way your CrossFit journey will last a very long time and your health and fitness will know no bounds........

The Tortoise or The Hare?

We have had a lot of new members join us recently and the popularity of CrossFit is exploding right now. Featuring regularly in Mens Health Magazine and Muscle and Fitness it seems you can barely turn around without seeing another advert or article about CrossFit.

This is fantastic news for the UK CrossFit community and of course for ourselves at Reebok CrossFit Connect. It was a great 2012 down at Hove Enterprise Centre and we have grand plans for 2013 too as we continue to grow and develop with more coaches, new classes such as our Barbell Club, Kids classes and CrossFit Endurance classes starting soon too.

But the one question that continues to crop up a lot with people who are new to CrossFit is the dilemma of "How often should I train?".

CrossFit is likely to be very different from any other fitness training that you may have done before. It is of course no revolutionary training method and it doesn't claim to be, but it does perhaps ask you to push yourself harder than you may well have ever done before. With its combination of weight training and intense met-cons (metabolic conditioning) in one class you certainly hit a lot of areas in one go. This is one of the main reasons it works so well. No isolating of small muscle groups one at a time. We ask you to use big functional movements which require multiple muscle groups and joint movements which in turn produce bigger and better hormonal changes and therefore better results.

We might not expect you to squat as much as Arnie, but you'll be going heavy!

However, this in turn can cause its own problems. The rest periods you need to recover from the hard work are likely to be longer than what you are used to. In your old routine that consisted perhaps of a bit of jogging/x-trainer work and a whip round of some of the machines, you could pretty much go 5 days a week and feel fine. This is not going to be the case with CrossFit. You will need longer to recover between the sessions as working on the strength work that we do with sets of 5's, 3's and single reps and then all of the new movements you will be learning such as Snatches, Split Jerks, Thrusters, Toes to Bar and Double Unders will leave your system truly taxed and needing proper recovery time.

Thrusters? One hell of a full body movement!

It really is a double edged sword though as the other facet that causes a problem with training frequency is that CrossFit is so damn addictive! You join, you love it, you love the community, you love the WODs so you just keep coming and coming to continue to get your endorphin rush that a good WOD will leave you with.

Post-WOD endorphins? Yes please!

Turning people away and asking them to stop coming quite so much has been a real issue at Connect. As coaches we are looking out for you and know exactly what it feels like to live and breathe CrossFit so we know what we are talking about when it comes to training intensity. A previously sedentary person just starting CrossFit should not expect to be able to train 5 days a week and actually still be doing it in 6 months time.

You WILL get hurt and you will be FORCED to stop coming by your own body.

And we have seen this happen. So what can you do about it?

PLAN. Plan your week, Plan your classes and Plan your goals.

We have plenty of different classes on offer at CrossFit Connect now so you should be thinking about getting a plan together with regards to making the best progress but safely. Don't just come to 5 WOD classes a week and smash all of them. Think about perhaps coming to two WOD classes, one lifting only class or Olympic lifting class and one Open Gym to practice your weaknesses. Think about intensity levels and how hard you are pushing yourself each time. Are you getting enough rest? Enough sleep? Are you stressed? Are you eating right? Have you got any niggles that really feel as though they could do with a week off?

Remember, we are here to help you with all of these things, you are not expected to know what's best on your own. Its what sets a CrossFit box apart from a regular gym. You have professional, experienced coaches on hand at the end of a phone call or email for no additional cost. Use us....and listen to us!

CrossFit should be a journey and one you want to stay on for as long as possible. Its not a sprint to see who can work out the hardest, see the biggest results the quickest but then end up burnt out.

You know which is the best one to be!

Plan, execute and achieve your goals safely and effectively. Which brings me onto the last point.

Don't expect to squat twice your body weight in 3 months if you have never squatted before. Hell, it could take years of squatting three or four times a week to achieve this. And don't expect to use the Rx'd weight for 'Grace' or 'Fran' after a month just so you can see Rx'd next to your name on the board. We want to nurture great athletes and we want to see you perform the movements well and safely. We would be much prouder in seeing one of our members perform 'Fran' with 25kg on the bar and a Green band for their pull ups and do those movements with perfect form; full depth squats, proper lock out overhead and lovely graceful chin over the bar, full extension pull ups than struggling at the Rx'd weight with shabby mid-line stabilisation, no lock out and painful looking kipping pull ups where half the reps you don't even get your eyebrows over the bar.

Patience is the key. Don't be swayed by anyone else. You are competing with the weights and times in YOUR diary not anyone elses. There is of course a time and a place for competition but for beginners the WOD classes are about your safe progression to becoming a more dynamic and able athlete.

So in summary:

1) Plan your training days. 3-4 times a week for beginners MAX!
2)Utilize sessions other than WOD classes. Open Gyms, Lifting classes etc
3) Perform the movements perfectly before going heavier. DO NOT worry about how much weight is on the bar. Leave your ego at the door.
4) Have patience and don't rush things.
5) Listen to your coaches. We happen to know what we are talking about. ;)

Most of all, have fun. CrossFit can become a massive part of your life if you take to it slowly and surely. It sounds cheesy but this stuff has the power to change you, your body and your outlook on life. Enjoy.

CrossFit and Rest Days - How Much Do You Need?

We have been open a good few months now and some of our early members have had a while to really get their teeth into CrossFit. It is about now that an interesting question arises.

If you train at this intensity, how much rest do you need?

Of course this is an impossible question to answer in one fell swoop as everyone is built differently and will have different needs when it comes to rest and recovery.

CrossFit HQ programme their training and recommend a 3 day on / 1 day off split. They have found that this training frequency and rest produces the best results and the recovery needed to be able to go at each WOD hard. Now i think personally for your average person this is a little too much. We work hard at the box and you will feel drained and achy afterwards. Trying to maintain the intensity over 3 days will be too hard for most people. Its fine if you have a very athletic background or are used to training a lot but for a large majority of our members at Connect this isn't the case.

For years i stuck to the very popular Mon, Wed and Fri training days with perhaps a lighter session on weekends and this worked really well for me. I found i got the recovery i needed as every training day was followed by a rest day and as well as the physical side of things i didn't get burnt out mentally either.

With CrossFit and now owning and being at the box everyday i find a 2 day on / 1 day off split much better. I can work really hard in the WODs or lifts for two days knowing that i have a rest day to look forward too on the 3rd. I then come back on the 4th raring to go again (well mostly!).

Rest days shouldn't be underestimated. You actually get stronger and fitter when you are NOT at the box. You do all the breaking down of muscle cells and raise your metabolism whilst you train but the muscles actually repair stronger and you carry on burning calories when you are resting. Get plenty of sleep and eat well on those rest days and your results will improve. Continuing to train wont get you any improvement if what you really need to do is repair.

CrossFit is tough. You will be lifting weights you never have before and asking your body to do work that you previously thought impossible. You need to be nice to your body and give it its rest. Reward it for squatting a new PB of 100kg or deadlifting 150kg! Overtraining can lead to injury and we all definitely want to avoid this.

As i mentioned a couple of paragraphs up, maintaining your mental intensity is just as important. Have a think about where you are right now with your training. Do you walk into the box and groan when you look at the whiteboard as just thinking about all that work makes you tired? Or do you walk in ready to take on the world and smash your previous records? Its definitely the latter that you want to be feeling and if its not, then perhaps you need to take a rest day or two. I can guarantee you that in two days or so you will be itching to get back to Connect and bang out a WOD! If you have been CrossFitting a while remember the enthusiasm you had when you first started CrossFit? How you wanted to try all the benchmark WODs, set all the scores, compare yourself to everyone else. This is what you have to maintain. And that can be very tough. We aren't just another place to pass an hour of your free time. We are a strength and conditioning facility that wants to see you get stronger, fitter and faster and become the best you can be. And that needs focus and determination. If you are tired and actually hurting (as opposed to a little ache!) those two things are going to be very hard to achieve.

So do a little planning. Play around with different frequencies, different days and different amounts of work/rest ratios. See what works for you. If you continue to improve in your lifts and your times then you are probably on the right track. If you find that you have gone stale, your lifts aren't improving and you have lost your enthusiasm then take a few days off. Three to four days off will really recharge the batteries. Of course, if you cant bear the thought of doing nothing then you can always come down to the Open Gym sessions and just play around with a few skills, practice things that you cant do yet or just stretch out. If you can only make the WOD class times due to work or such then just tell us you want to do your own thing when you turn up. 

I hope this helps and makes you think a little more about what works for you. We have a whole year of competitions to prepare you guys for next year (see the DWF section above!) and there is a hell of a lot of promise being shown at the box at the moment. Its this that we want to build on.

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