Outside Magazine just published an article IS CROSSFIT KILLING US? The CrossFit backlash is in full swing—led by a long list of injured participants. 

While the title is rather dramatic since I really don’t think anyone is dying doing CrossFit, the point is why are we getting hurt doing an activity that is suppose to make us stronger?

The answer is simple.

Don’t expect to get stronger, faster or more durable by putting fitness on dysfunction. And by dysfunction I mean your crappy compensating movement.  If you can’t do a perfect squat of just your body-weight, why do you think putting a loaded barbell on your back is going to make that squat any better?

While Coaches, Trainers and Physical Therapists need to prioritize their athletes movement, which is topic for another post, I think Athletes need to be better informed consumers.

The Outside article touches on it. We like competition, we like to push ourselves. We like to turn off the chatter in our heads and sweat. It feels good, it’s a stress relief. But that is exactly why we are getting hurt in the gym. Yes the CrossFit cult has made a sport of gym based workouts but most people (in Jackson at least) go to the gym because they believe that “getting strong” will keep them from getting hurt while climbing, running, cycling, skiing… and maybe they will be a little faster on the bootpack, or top-to-bottom Tram laps won’t be as crushing.

Unfortunately if you don’t have a solid baseline of movement capability walking into the gym, you are stacking the odds against you. You are putting fitness on your bad movement patterns and you will get hurt. There is a time a place to “leave nothing in the tank” and push yourself to fatigue and lift heavy. That time is after you address your movement.

For those of you who are so driven by posting your maxes and PR’s I challenge you to post your minimums. Take an honest look at yourself as an athlete and post what you suck at and address it. What’s your FMS score? Mine’s 18. Do you honestly know what your movement faults are?

Re-assess why you are at the gym? Is it to brag about your 2x body-weight deadlift or is because you want to be that old guy lapping the 20-somethings on Glory? It’s time we re-define what is means to be durable.