“Injury, like illness, is an ineluctable fact of life.”
It might seem intimidating to walk into a new CrossFit gym — or even a familiar gym — and tell the coach you will need specialized scaling options for the next six weeks. However, CrossFit Torque Coaches can help you recover faster and increase your emotional well-being during injury. The coaches, community, and staff will support you.
Don’t skip the gym.
Here’s why you should still do CrossFit, even while rehabbing an injury.
THE BENEFITS OF CROSSFIT DURING RECOVERY
The health benefits of CrossFit — such as increased strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and power — still extend to members who are recovering from an injury. If you break or injure your foot, you still have three other working ligaments to train.
Alongside the overall improvements in your health, staying active while rehabbing an injury can also aid in healing tissues. This is usually an overlooked part of the equation.
“If you can keep blood flowing, blood brings oxygen to healing tissues. And that’s beneficial by itself,” Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Sean Rockett (CF-L2) says. “As long as you’re checking with your doctor about your injury, then I think it’s perfectly fine (to do CrossFit).”
It’s also important to keep using the uninjured parts of your body during recovery so you don’t lose the ability to use those muscles. According to an article by Harvard Medical School, “After an injury, illness, or any prolonged period of inactivity, muscle loss can occur faster, leading to muscle atrophy… . A study in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine found that older men who did eight weeks of strength training lost about 25% of their muscle gains after they stopped training for two weeks.”
Besides the health benefits, continuing to show up to your CrossFit gym while rehabbing an injury has many mental health benefits.
When a member sustains an injury, it can trigger an emotional response of anger, sadness, and frustration, which can ultimately lead to social isolation. I’ve been there, have you?
“There is a direct association between loneliness, coronary heart disease, and stroke mortality.” Data also shows a connection between social isolation and allostatic load, or damage to the body resulting from chronic stress, as indicated by inflammation and neuroendocrine and cardiovascular markers.”
By disrupting your routine and isolating yourself from your community, it can actually hurt your body even more. Yikes!
CrossFit promotes a culture of humility, belonging, and camaraderie. Even if you aren’t able to perform the movements to the same level you could before your injury, through scaling you can still participate in the workout alongside your friends.
Stayed for tomorrow for 5 tips to consider when coming back into classes.
