Veronica = beautiful mechanics = pain and injury free progressFrom Dr. Sean in the Injuries section of the Member Forum:
"Members, you need to remember that CrossFit programming is meant to make you really good at a lot of skills in all planes of motion and under all different types of loads. For some people there will be limitations! Our bodies are not built to be exactly the same. If you are feeling pain, it is paramount that you are responsible for yourself. Mention to Dennis, Mike, Ty, Rob, Or myself that you are experiencing some pain. We can help differentiate whether that pain is injury, or expected. The cue I give my personal training clients is a simple question; Is the pain 'ow' pain or 'ahh' pain". Usually that answer tells us a lot.
The most common error made by people regarding their own physiology is assuming that because a body part no longer hurts once it is warmed up that it is okay to use it. NOT TRUE! The most common injuries people who exercise will encounter will be tendonosis injuries. That means the tendons are aggravated, but not inflamed (counterintuitive but tendonitis is actually fairly uncommon even though it is commonly a label put to injuries). The "itis" signifies that inflammatory cells are present. In most cases they are not. Knowing that, tendonosis can progress to tendonitis if pushed. It is an OVERUSE injury. Warming the muscle up will certainly make it more flexible but will not protect it from injury if it is already injured. If anything you are presdisposing your body to further injury by using this practice.
Remember, what is good for one body is not necessarily good for yours. Only you know. Just because professional football players hit sleds and push them for yards at a time doesn't mean you should. You don't tackle people for a living (unless you do then by all means hit the sleds). If overhead lifting bothers you, there are modifications that can be made (lighter weights, dumbells vs. barbell, different shoulder placement prelift, different grip widths), the variability is endless and your trainers know how to modify for your needs. That knowledge all goes to waste when they don't know modifications are necessary.
Application
If you are experiencing pain AT ALL, you need to make one of your trainers aware of it before beginning a workout. If something hurts during a workout and gets worse as you go on, STOP! There are no heros in the gym and it is your responsibility to keep yourself safe.
Exercise is a great way to push our bodies to improve and you have the best trainers around guiding you to your goals. They need to know when a link in the chain is broken."
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Thanks Dr. Sean for the great post and the reminder that one workout will never make you, but one workout can break you. Train smart everyone and continue to treat improved technique as the road to long-term progress.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 02:53PM |
Reader Comments (1)
Coming off an Eight day hiatus because of an injury i'd say this is great advice...my injury, although nothing terrible just a badly pulled chest muscle (that hurt like hell!!!) was acute and had no warning. I did follow the "if it hurts, don't use it" (or rather I followed the "being I slept sitting up for 3 nights it'd probably be a good idea not to work out for a few days...lol) ...and after 8 torturous days, all I can ask myself is HOW DID I EVER LIVE WITHOUT CROSSFIT?
Do yourselves a favor, if you do hurt yourself, or feel something amiss, its better to take a two or three day teaser than have to abandon everything for a week or more...I can now say this from experience!=)
Miss you all, see you tomorrow!