Regardless of your experience or current views of
CrossFit, you’re welcome here - this is a safe place. If
you’ve had a chance to see the CrossFit Games competition
that takes place every year in Southern California, you’ve
witnessed the brutal workouts these men and women put their
bodies through. The level of intensity they attain is truly
something to behold. You may have also had a chance to see a
CrossFit fail videos on Youtube – also something to behold.
Whether watching CrossFit impresses you or makes you cringe,
you’re in good company. Based on the Physical Therapists
that I’ve spoken with on the controversy that is CrossFit,
opinions are quite polarizing.
One thing’s for sure, CrossFit isn’t going away any time
soon. Since its inception in 2000, CrossFit has grown to
include over 11,000 affiliated boxes (gyms) worldwide .
Every year there is an Open competition that anyone can be a
part of, and every year there are thousands more
participants than the previous year. What this means for us,
as you may have noticed, is that we are seeing more and more
patients with CrossFit-related injuries.
Have you ever treated a CrossFit athlete? That’s how I view
them, by the way – as athletes. Fitness level aside, this is
the mentality of each and every individual that participates
in CrossFit – a competitor and an athlete – and if one
becomes my patient, I will treat them as I would an athlete
of any other sport.
Speaking of sports, that’s how we must view CrossFit – as a
sport.
CrossFit Is a Sport
The problem many PTs have with CrossFit is that it breaks
all the rules of fitness. Instead of going slow on every
repetition, they go as fast as they can. Instead of resting
two days before the next workout, they go at it again the
next day, if not sooner.
While I don’t agree that CrossFit bootcamp classes are the
safest way to get fit for someone just starting out, I would
have to say I feel the same way about running.
How many runners have you treated for knee pain? Do you tell
them they shouldn’t run ever again and make them feel stupid
for even wanting to run in the first place?
“But our bodies were designed to run,” you say, “we’ve done
it for centuries, it’s natural.”
Have you ever run a marathon? There’s nothing natural about
running 26.2 miles. It will destroy you. Yet we applaud the
marathoner and get her lacing up her Asics as soon as
possible for the next one.
But that’s sport.
Pushing beyond what you thought possible to reach your goal.
And that’s our job as Physical Therapists: to help people
achieve their goals in the most optimal way.
How Physical Therapists Can Optimize CrossFit
Performance To Prevent Injury
A Physical Therapist would treat an athlete in any other
sport – football, soccer, running - the same way. We want
them to do what they love. That’s what they want, too -
that’s why they come to us.
Of course, there is a disclaimer here. I wouldn’t tell
someone with acute patellar tendinitis to go run 10 miles in
the name of sport – that’s just foolish. I’d tell them to
rest from running as treatment progresses and return in a
progressive manner.
We will lose our trust with the CrossFit community if we
tell them to stop – and they won’t stop – they’ll just go to
someone who is willing to help them, or worse, push through
the pain and get injured further.
I’m not here to debate whether the principles applied in
CrossFit are 100% optimal for the human body – that’s
another article entirely.
The bottom line is, yes, CrossFit can cause injury. In fact,
it has been shown that participation in CrossFit yields a
20% injury rate according to the Orthopaedic Journal of
Sports Medicine . This population is getting injured and
needs us to educate them.
How can you educate them? If you’re unfamiliar with CrossFit
and the different movements included in their workouts, I
urge you to learn more. Take a look at Crossfit.com where
there’s an array of instructional videos on many of the
exercises. If we are to be experts in human movement, we
must know these movements backward and forward.
Embrace, Don’t Hate
So please, if you see a CrossFit athlete as a patient, treat
them with respect. Remember, this is their sport, this is
what they love. Have them show you what movements are
causing them pain. Analyze it, critique it, and see if you
can make improvements.
The take away here and what I hope I’m communicating clearly
is that we must embrace the CrossFit community, treat them
like we would any other athlete, and get them back to doing
what they love. We can achieve this collectively by
promoting proper technique and safe principles.
Too many people in this country aren’t moving, aren’t
lifting things, and are living sedentary lives. Our bodies
were made to lift things, move things, to run, to swim, to
sweat, and to work until fatigued. This should be encouraged
and optimized to push further and achieve more in the most
effective way possible.
This is where Physical Therapy and sport intersect.
This is where I want to be - right in the middle of it.
Join me.
Last revised: February 18, 2017
by Michael Curtis, PT, DPT, OCS
References
i Crossfit.com
ii Weisenthal, et al. Injury Rate and Patterns Among
Crossfit Athletes. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine
April 2014 vol.2 no. 4
