Posted in General
The beginning of Crossfit can be traced back to the early 1990s with the founder, Greg Glassman. He first opened his own gym and began providing personalized training to interested individuals. As his workload grew he began to train two clients at a time at a reduced rate instead of training a single client at a time. Glassman noted the clients enjoyed exercising together which aided in the inception of the Crossfit community.
Glassman was a firm believer in both body weight exercises and free weight exercises, now commonly practiced at gyms. The idea was to create a sport that would test all aspects of strength and fitness. To accomplish such a lofty goal, a large arsenal of exercises needed to be included; and as the ability of competitors increased, so did the difficulty of the exercises. For the free weight exercises, Greg combined weight training, power lifting, and Olympic weightlifting.
Crossfit commonly incorporates several different lifts such as:
- Deadlift
- Clean and Jerk
- Back Squat
- Snatch
- Front Squat
- Romanian Deadlift/Straight Legged Deadlift
- Shoulder Press
- Jerk
- Push Press
- Hang Clean
- Power Clean
Even if one was unfamiliar with all of the lifts above, it can still be inferred that with a name like “jerk” these motions have the potential to be quite precarious.
The Clean and Jerk and the Snatch are Olympic lifts. Weightlifting athletes train for years on end simply to increase their performance and tweak the technique for those two lifts alone. Naturally, these lifts can be intimidating to newcomers and even veterans from other sports. Assessing only a handful of lifts practiced in Crossfit gyms, the dangers of Crossfit become revealed. Nearly all the lifts mentioned above are trained, in part, to increase performance on the two Olympic lifts.
The back squat and front squat are some of the most popular free weight exercises for beginners and veterans alike. However, even these relatively simply lifts can lead to back injuries without the proper weight and form. When Glassman began Crossfit, he personally could asses the forms of all the clients to ensure safe techniques. However, given the massive growth of Crossfit, specially trained coaches are used in each gym.
But not all coaches are created equal and not all Crossfitters are keen to instruction. These two factors along with the cumbersome and complicated lifts can frequently result in back, knee and shoulder injuries.
Ring dips, kettle bell swings and other exercises commonly done at Crossfit “boxes” also have a high potential for injury.
Injuries as result of Crossfit?
It is possible that the injury sustained by a client of Crossfit is not the client’s fault. If an individual suspects that the Crossfit gym or staff was responsible for said harm, then that individual should contact a personal injury lawyer to help determine the validity of a possible suit. If a case can be made, the victim could receive money to cover expenses incurred as a result of the injury.
