Are you going to get injured doing CrossFit?
A common theme we hear all the time. The answer is…it depends. The likelihood of being injured doing CrossFit is not any more likely than being injured running, skiing, yoga’ing it up, or in a boot camp class.
First, let’s define what we want to call an “injury” in this article: hurt, pain, impairment, disablement. In my experience what we would describe as an “injury” CrossFit comes from two places: 1) inactivity —> to activity and 2) poor coaching (pushing movements/weight the body is not ready for).
#1 is BY FAR what we see most often, but the least recognized by people coming in. A person going from very little or no activity is going to experience sore and tight muscles. Those tight muscles if not addressed will continue to tighten over time and eventually lead to a place where a person is now in constant pain (now associated with something torn). This is where the misconception is. 98% of the time when we prescribe rolling, stretching, massage, fascial stretch therapy, AND the person follows the prescription. We see the pain dissipate within days or weeks. If the prescription is ignored the pain will not go away, it will limit the range of motion or ability to work out, and ultimately that pain will be associated with an injury. And now the association of doing CrossFit and getting injured is real.
#2 poor coaching and pushing movements and weights onto people who are not capable at that time OR someone goes against advice and is uncoachable. Technical ability is always first. Slowing down is not sexy, lifting baby weights over and over is not IG worthy, but it is what keeps you safe and able to do it over and over.
True injuries don’t happen very often in CrossFit. Less than what I can count on one hand in 10 years.
A true injury in CrossFit typically come from poor coaching or poor choices.
If you want to be successful long term find yourself quality coaching.
If you are in pain ask a coach for a prescription of stretches/rolling or a referral to a professional massage therapist/bodyworker. Then DO IT.
CrossFit is a methodology that combines weight lifting, bodyweight movements, gymnastics, and conditioning (cardio). With that combination done all together, it is the best in the world at creating someone who is fit and can live a high-quality healthy life outside the gym.
Not Getting Results?
Many of us invest a lot of time and money into our workout. We spend hours at the gym, invest in expensive apparel and gadgets and sometimes even hire a personal trainer. But why is that that despite the billions of dollars going into fitness every year nearly everyone is complaining about not getting to their goals? Why is it that the person on the next spinning bike still looks substantially the same even though he/she has been diligently working out for years? In most such cases the problem is found in one, some, or all of the following factors:
Overtraining
Training wrong (too much weight or cardio training)
Wrong nutrition
Underlying health issue such as pre-diabetes or thyroid issue
Metabolic analysis provides an excellent tool to determine the right dose of exercise and prescribe accurate diet planning. The additional and very valuable benefit of this type of analysis is that it can also detect latent metabolic diseases that are not only preventing clients from reaching their goals but also pose a serious health risk in the future.
We have the equipment and staff to metabolically test right here in Brighton, MI. If you are interested in finding out more please email us at crossfitkv@gmail.com.
I Ate The Donut Today
This morning I ate my breakfast and ate some of my lunch for breakfast. It was that kind of a day. In the breakroom, there were two small delicious donuts that looked amazing. I almost grabbed one… a chocolate covered cake donut. It would have been delicious.
For just a second I weighed my options. I could easily cut something out later and make everything equal out. But then I remembered that losing weight is challenging and it means giving up some of the freedoms you had when you just are maintaining your weight. The difference in losing or maintaining your weight could be as simple as 200 extra calories a day which is about the same as one serving of peanut butter.
Let’s talk about the ugly truth about weight loss.
#1 it’s not exactly fun. Cutting out things you like to eat, forcing yourself to be more active or to go workout, passing on the alcohol while out with friends. Who wants to do any of that.
#2 One-pound = 3500 calories. The means we need to create 3500 calorie deficit for every one-pound we want to lose. (This is the over simplified version.) That’s a lot of calories considering I watched the stats from 165# male do 100 burpees and he burned 42 calories during exercise. That is one bite size small snickers…think about that for a minute.
No one can make me eat better, no one can force you to eat better, you must decide for yourself and then follow the guidelines. Why are we here – to help guide you. We have the formula. But I cannot sit on your coach and force you to meal prep, or make good decisions, or to not eat the donut. (Well I can but that costs lots of money and you must live with me.) We are here to help you and we have the formula.
5 Quick tips to help with weight loss:
Get rid of all foods with “added” sugars in them
Ditch the processed foods, they add up fast calorie wise and usually don’t offer a good return
Drink 64+ ounces of water a day
Get 7+ hours of sleep
Log your food for a few days so you can see how much you are eating, then add or subtract based on what you find
PS. I watched my co-worker eat the donut at my first meeting…
Mondays with Mike Running at MAF in Washington DC
So with Ticker Training, we have been learning more and more about operating at a reduced heart rate close to our MAF. We have given most of our athletes this level based on the metabolic tests. Starting out running at your MAF can seem difficult and slow, but that’s ok, we are working on building an engine that can go for days and keep you healthy as an athlete.
So when you are thinking CrossFit is beating me up, there is a better way at Kensington Valley CrossFit. Since we are powered by Ticker Training out athletes are making great gains in the gym, setting personal records on lifts all while Building this aerobic engine.
So Mike says, where can you run to today?
How to Scale Murph
"Murph" the hero wod by CrossFit is in honor of Lt. Michael Murphy who died heroically protecting his platoon, is typically performed by many CrossFit gyms around Memorial Day. The volume of the workout is intimidating by many newer athletes and there are many options to "scale" the workout!
Whats In Your Shopping Cart
Have you been working out and not seeing the six pack abs you're looking for? Instead of looking in the gym, what’s in your shopping cart? This week with Kensington Valley CrossFit, Monday’s with Mike we are taking a look at what we are buying and eating. The food we eat is the base to any healthy life style. Let's start with a couple quick things, no processed food, no sugar, and stay away from sugary drinks (pop, juice, mixes etc). Most of our calories need to come from real meat, veggies, nuts, some starch, no sugar, and our grocery shopping should match that.
