How to Deal with an Injury in CrossFit?

The intensity of some sports, such as CrossFit, can lead to injuries. To prevent them, it's essential to follow guidelines, such as establishing a progressive method of executing the exercises.

Suffering an injury in CrossFit is, without a doubt, a risk that the athletes of this discipline face, but how do they deal with it? Obviously, the resting period will depend on different factors, such as the type of injury and its magnitude.

When we’re injured, there are several general recommendations that we can consider to accelerate the recovery process. Up next, we’ll talk about how to deal with this process if we practice CrossFit.

The most common injuries in CrossFit

If we analyze this sport’s regular practice, these would be the areas of our body that are more prone to suffering injuries:

Knees

The knees are one of the areas most often affected by CrossFit workouts. In fact, these injuries affect both professionals and novices, or those who only practice CrossFit for fun.

Generally, these types of injuries appear due to bad positioning while performing the exercises. However, there may also be genetic problems in the joints that lead to their occurrence.

Shoulders: an injury in CrossFit

The shoulders are one of the parts of the body that receive the most load during CrossFit training; therefore, it’s also common to suffer injuries in this area. The shoulders are usually strong by nature, but the problems appear when we don’t warm-up correctly. Likewise, bad positioning when performing an exercise can also be the main cause.

Lower back

Undoubtedly, the lumbar area is exposed a lot in this type of training. The problem often lies in the sedentary lifestyle to which we condition our bodies to.

In our daily lives, when we’re going to lift a little weight, the lower back is very involved. There are also times when we try to lift much more weight than we can actually bear.

Wrists

Wrists are quite resistant joints. However, they’re small and often don’t support the amount of weight and demands that this type of training involves.

That’s why the wrists are also one of the areas that receive the most injuries in CrossFit. Hence, it’s important to warm them up before starting and to gradually add more weight.

Possible treatments for an injury in CrossFit

Discomfort

It’s essential to pay attention to any discomfort that may arise before or after training. No matter how mild the pain is, it’s advisable to see a specialist to review it. Failure to do so could result in a worse injury, which would mean having to discontinue training for weeks or even months.

Rest to recover from an injury in CrossFit

Rest is crucial for faster recovery. This, of course, doesn’t mean staying sedentary and doing nothing.

In this regard, it’s fundamental to ask a doctor about the limitations to know if you can continue training, but with less intensity. For example, if the injury affects the upper body, perhaps you can take walks or exercise on a stationary bicycle.

Therapy

On many occasions, it’s necessary to resort to specialized therapies in order to successfully overcome an injury. The specialist will be in charge of teaching and helping you to do the most appropriate exercises to strengthen the area that’s hurt. This will allow your recovery to be more effective.

Likewise, and depending on the injury, a doctor may also recommend therapies that involve coldness, heat, and even electricity.

Follow the doctor’s instructions

However small an injury may appear, it’s vital to follow the doctor’s guidelines and instructions to the letter. Otherwise, we’ll only manage to delay the recovery and, with that, also the possibilities of training as we did before the injury.

Recommendations to avoid an injury in CrossFit

Do a good warm-up

Warming-up is key to avoiding the majority of injuries. It’s necessary to dedicate time to warm-up the whole body; from the wrists to the legs, also passing through the shoulders. To do this, we can use tools such as bands and light weights.

Weight and posture

Weight is usually another problem that generates injuries. To avoid hurting ourselves, it’s important to increase our load gradually and not act as if we’re professionals in the first few classes. Similarly, adopting the correct posture in each of the movements will avoid many of the most common injuries.

In short, the correct way to deal with an injury in CrossFit is to address even the slightest discomfort that arises during or after training. If you’ve had an injury, it’s essential to comply with the doctor’s instructions and rest to speed up the recovery process.

To finish up, it’s necessary to remember that factors such as warming-up and making the movements with the proper posture is key to avoiding some of the most frequent physical afflictions in this discipline.