No matter what sport you partake in-you are subject to injury. For some reason CrossFit gets this horrible reputation that you WILL get an injury if you do CrossFit, as if you sign up for it when you sign off for your membership. Sure there’s a higher possibility of injury if you don’t take care of yourself or never do your research in finding a good gym with high-caliper coaching, don’t pay attention to your form…. But it’s not a given.
The past few weeks my right elbow has been bothering me. Nothing alarming-just annoying. A dull annoying ‘pain’ and lots of clicking. Have I pushed through it before? Yes. But I know that that mindset can lead to injury and I will not become part of the ‘CrossFit Injury’ statistic. Not adding fuel to that fire. My coach watches my form daily and sees nothing that could lead to a bothersome elbow. He spends time with me after each WOD to wrap it (VooDoo floss-amazing!, worth the weird bruising) and helps me work on some mobility exercises. It has nothing to do with the coaching or the workouts, but it has a lot to do with mobility (or for me, the lack thereof).
Tuesday morning was my first ever DNF; what a big ass piece of humble pie. I am incredibly competitive by nature not only with myself but with the other people at CrossFit in the morning so it took a lot of me to put the bar down and accept ‘defeat’.
But that’s the thing—it’s not defeat. I made the conscious and smart decision to stop after the 15 reps of 3-6-9-12-15-12-9-6-3 thrusters (65#) and bar facing burpees ladder WOD this morning. My elbow was tender in the front rack position and then flared more during the press. After a few minutes of being upset and feeling like I failed I was able to reel myself in and realize that I was a winner. I am doing what I can to prevent a further injury. I made the stronger and smarter choice by putting that bar down and avoiding further injury. Later in the evening I found this article about a CF coach kicking an athlete who was injured out of the box.
One of the athletes at my box is also a PT/Sports Med Doc and he does monthly free 15 minute sessions for us. I lucked out and yesterday was the day. He worked on my elbow, scraped it (holy hell the best ‘hurts so good’ feeling ever) and did some manipulations of the elbow, shoulders, and neck. I left feeling like $100. From that brief assessment he seems to believe it’s a case of tennis elbow. My ‘treatment’ plan is to push where I can, when I can. But trust in myself to put that bar down when the elbow needs the rest. At least I can still work the legs and booty 😉
So go ahead and ridicule CrossFit all you want that it produces injuries-but it’s no different than any sport. Bottom line is it comes down to how the athlete addresses it and takes care of their body.
Have you had tennis elbow/tendinitis? Recommendations?
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Bummer about the elbow, hope it feels better soon! Glad you were able to see someone to help you figure out what it is and how to proceed, so important!