Staying Safe at CrossFit
CrossFit is a great way to increase your level of health and fitness and stay in shape. It can help you to condition your body, build muscle, and improve cardiopulmonary function. Because it combines aerobics, gymnastics, weight training, and dynamic exercises into one comprehensive routine, you’ll get all the benefits of hitting multiple stations at the gym.
The diverse array of exercises can be tailored to your specific wants and needs, offering you the ability to reach your fitness goals more quickly than you might with traditional types of workouts, as well as keep the process fun and interesting thanks to changing routines.
Like any form of physical fitness, the practice of CrossFit isn’t without its risks for accident and injury, which means you need to observe proper safety tips when participating in such exercises. But also, because you perform so many different exercises, there are many movements to master. Performing them awkwardly for the first time, could land you will a sprain or strain.
Here are just a few tips to help you stay safe and ensure that you don’t get set back by injuries.
- Warm-up and cool down. When you take a CrossFit class or meet up with an instructor, chances are that you’ll jump right into the routine, in some cases literally if you start with box jumps. The only problem is that you increase your chances of injury when you fail to warm up before the workout and cool down after. If you’re lucky all you’ll do is sprain or strain something. But it’s also possible that you could suffer a serious injury as a result of failing to practice this cardinal exercise protocol.
- Start small. Just because your instructor tells you to jump up on a tall box or lift a heavy ass weight doesn’t mean you have to do it. In fact, you should always start with the smallest increments and work your way up until you are certain that the activity you’re performing is safe for your level of ability. You could save yourself a trip to the emergency room by exercising a little caution and common sense.
- Use a spotter. There may be only one trainer present to monitor several students in a class, but if you’re at all uncomfortable lifting heavy weights or performing a specific move, either insist on having a spotter present or simply skip that station of the routine.
- Don’t bow to competitive pressure. Part of the CrossFit mindset involves completing as many reps as you can in a set amount of time for certain exercises. However, this type of repetitive motion, combined with the stresses you’ll place on your body as you push yourself to go faster, could lead to serious injury. And while you might enjoy the competitive atmosphere present in most CrossFit gyms, you need to forget about what the other guy is doing and focus on the signals your own body is sending you. Even if you don’t do as many reps as others in your class, you’ll come out ahead if you avoid the injuries that your fellow athletes sustain. Or you could wind up on the sidelines for days, weeks, or even months – your choice.
- Don’t second-guess yourself. You know when something is wrong with your body because it sends you urgent pain signals. But it’s not uncommon for people to think that they’re weak or overreacting to such symptoms. Do not make this mistake. If it’s even a possibility you should seek immediate medical attention – the worst that could happen is you’re wrong, and it’s better to be overly cautious than wind up with a further injury. The best services for first aid in Perth, Paris, or Pennsylvania cannot help you if you don’t seek them out, so when you suffer an injury in CrossFit don’t hesitate to seek help in order to avoid further damage to your body.
Tags: Conditioning, Crossfit, exercise, fitness, health, injuries, injury, Weight Training, weightliftig, working out, workouts
