81018 Tweaks: Part 1- How can HCF help?

MetCon//

For Time

25 Burpees

60 AbMat Sit Up

45 Box Jumps 24/20

80 Walking Lunges

*10 Rope Climbs anytime

I've decided to write a short series of blog posts about how to handle injuries and tweaks so you can continue training and getting healthier and happier and fitter!

The most commonly quoted and probably accurate injury rate for CrossFit is 3.1 per 1000 training hours. I don't really feel the need to defend or explain that number. If you're working out with us, you likely know the risks of training and are training anyway, but it's still interesting. 3.1 per 1000 training hours is less than running, bodybuilding, and every ball sport. But you train 3-6 hours a week. The last time you did that volume was college, high school or childhood. I don't count but I'd say we see that- 3 tweaks, more or less, every 10 days (100 athletes a day-Kids, Teens, Adults 10 Days = 1000 training hours). Consider this, we know that intensity is the best catalyst for change, it's what we search for in CrossFit- relative intensity. The intensity is more or less guaranteed to be effective, but injury is just about 3.1 per 1000 hours of training. Lets say each of those 3 injuries set you back 10 training hours per occurrence (as in, training with an injury might be less effective), that is still 970 really productive training hours. If you're keeping up on the math, that's about 4 years of really consistent training.

 1st of all, we will always honestly share what we don't know and refer to another professional. If I think you should see a physical therapist or chiropractor or massage therapist, I'll recommend that. We won't pretend like we can perfectly diagnose your ailment. The liability is just too great.

One thing you would consider us a resource for would be just basic foam rolling, stretching, and mobility exercises. In this day in age, anything we teach you, you can also find for yourself with a little research though.

The main thing we'll do to respond to your tweaks is superb scaling. Tell us what hurts and we can safely explore how to modify a workout so you can still get a healthy dose of movement or intensity, which is actually your most important recovery tool. Whenever you’re seriously injured, a good physician and just about every surgeon will refer you to a physical therapist because movement is just really important to the healing process. We're built to heal on the run. The mechanisms that our bodies employ to recover from intense training are the same as those we use to recover from injury. And those mechanisms aren't local to sore spots, they are happening throughout your entire body. For example, you tweak your left elbow and we design scaling for the WOD to maintain your intensity- you only use your right arm. Everything happening to recover your right arm is happening also on your left side. When you continue to train, you just heal faster than if you stop moving. 

Fitness is a lifestyle of Nutrition and Exercise. Harvest CrossFit as a company services those two things. What to eat, how to move, and how hard to go! #1 and #2 only. We don't believe in a magical 3rd thing. We don't hunt for it and we don't really even hold out for hope in a 3rd thing. 3rd things might be any other healthish things you're into, copper-magnetic bracelets, ancient magical herbs, miracle juice cleanses, essential oils, aromatherapy, supplements, vitamins, sweat lodges, walk-abouts, electro magnetic things that shock your muscles, cryotherapy, fasting etc. You can certainly be into those things and they can probably even be pretty powerful, but we always need to come home to, eat whole foods, do constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements. When I get asked about those 3rd things, or really anything that's not food or CrossFit, we'll give an opinion. But if you’re you’re injured I’ll say come to class, let us know what’s going on and you’ll train to recover. It’s not training through an injury, it’s training with an injury. If things don’t clear up, go see a Physical Therapist, Chiro, or Massage Therapist.