4 simple ways to prep for your Crossfit Workouts to prevent 74% of Crossfit injuries
In my line of work, there’s a lot of misconceptions around the potential danger around Crossfit.
Having worked with some of the countries best Crossfit athletes, I’ve seen the difference between what keeps a Crossfit athlete training and competing and what throws them constantly in the physical therapy room. And it has nothing to do with intensity and load, as many of the professionals would have you think.
It comes down to progression and prep, and here I want to go over the 4 things that the top athletes do to avoid injury, that you should be doing as well.
A meta-analysis showed that 74% of all Crossfitters had sustained an injury with the main areas being the shoulder and lower back, followed by the arm/elbow.
If we consider the exercises that could be involved in injuries to these sites, the first thing to consider would be strength and range of motion in these areas. If we look to the fact that a change in joint position results in one side of the muscles becoming longer and hanging on in an attempt to re-center the joint, and the other side becoming much shorter, then we can see that muscles aren’t in an optimal range to perform at their maximal capacity (they are too short, too long).
I mention this, as it’s important to realise that a good mobility and stretching routine isn’t just about injury prevention and improved range of motion. It’s also about maximising the ability of a muscle to contract around joint, and here, I want to show you the ways the smarter athletes are approaching this.
Ditch the Foam Roller
The foam roller has become the holy grail of mobility tools. While it’s been shown to improve DOMS, this is likely the effect of increasing muscle activation prior to a workout. If we are looking to improve range of motion of a joint, then initially, we look to inhibit the muscle activation, so the muscle can relax and increase it’s length.
If we want to use some sort of tool to relax a muscle so that we can increase it’s length, the best bet is to use a massage ball. By using a ball we can be specific about where the ball is placed, and look to impact the insertion of the muscle, in order to relax the muscle rather than activate it.
Take away point: Foam rolling activate the muscle rather than letting us increase length
Know what to work on, and work on something relevant
Stretching gets a bad rap in some circles, and in many cases, it is likely due to way it which it has been researched. General stretching, where we look to use it to loosen up or help with recovery, is unlikely to really help with much, and probably makes any deficits worse.
Stretching and mobility work needs to be targeted, and only used to improve the way in which a joint or bone is being placed in (or kept in) a suboptimal position as a result of muscle tension.
These are the muscles that need releasing, and placing a muscle that is already long under stretch, is likely to cause further misalignment.
Take away: Stretch whats short, strengthen whats long
Work the joint
Targeting the correct muscles means we look to lace joints in optimal positions. Directly working the joint through its ranges of motion helps us to maintain it’s range, as well as understand any deficits we may have.
Swinging the arm through the air, as you may have done in 8th grade physical ed classes, doesn’t do much to impact the joint, as the body is moving around so much to compensate for areas of the shoulder that don’t move, that all you are doing is reinforcing the shoulder to not go to these places.
A good mobility program will look to stabilise the rest of the body, in order to focus on isolating the joint movement through all of it’s possible vectors. Doing this under tension, can also help to strengthen the muscles around the joint to maintain range of motion.
Take away: stretching seeks to impact the way a joint moves. Ensure you also work with the joint directly.
Integrate with movement
Stretching and myofascial release are temporary (though there is some content coming out that stretching may change tissue structure) Regardless of whether the changes are neural or structural, we need to integrate it into our nervous system so that the body can use it.
Move it or lose it are the key concepts here, and this applies to how we support the temporary impact of stretching and release. The reason why you have to visit your massage therapist every week is because the change in symptoms doesn’t equal a change in how you move.
The best way to use massage and stretching, is to have a strategy to incorporate your new range of movement into exercises, and ensuring that opposing sides of the muscle have the strength to use this range. For example, this is like stretching the hamstrings so that someone could bring your knee to your head, but not having the strength in the quad to do it yourself.
Take away: Integrate your new range of movement into training and exercises
Should you do this before a workout?
You may have heard that stretching before a workout reduces power. And that is mostly true (it depends on how long the stretch is held), and if you are going for max efforts, then it probably isn’t the best time to look at stretching the muscles. That's what “training” is for.
If we consider that shortened and chronically lengthened muscles both equal the inability for a muscle to fire optimally, then it makes sense to do something prior to your workout to bring the body into position, where it can function best.
This means understanding what your body needs to work on, and having a good system using the above components to plan a routine that preps you and helps you recover. Use the techniques mentioned here, then start to prep your workout (or even before each new exercise), with some light reps of the exercise you are about to perform. This is the key to having you not only prep well to perform better and avoid injury, but to also improve performance.
Want to know more about these techniques?
Click here to get the free ebook that runs through it