There have been several behavioral observations lately…dun dun duuuuuun…. that have made me realize that it is time to address a few things. If you are reading this thinking “oh my god this is going to be about me”, it’s not just about you and that is why there is a whole blog post about it. If you are currently managing some body issue and doing a great job of it, we know who you are and probably use you as an example for others (keep it up).
Programs that involve lifting usually carry a stigma of big guys, doing dumb things, with heavy weights (thanks youtube). At this point you should all know that this is not the case. How attentive to technique you are, how much you listen to your body when it’s tired and sore, whether or not you tend to regularly get in over your head or not, and your history of what you’ve done to your body over the years are all important factors that can increase or decrease your risk of injury in any given activity. And sometimes injuries are merely the result of an accident that would have been almost impossible to avoid.
When Jesse and I opened CrossFit Squamish we made a commitment to you guys to train you through/around almost any injury that you may have from past or present. The first part of this goal is realizing that functional movements will require body parts to eventually move through a full range of motion. When I first started treating people who CrossFit in Whistler I noticed immediately that old damaged tissue in their body got cranky as they were introduced to functional movements. The most common being people’s restriction in putting their arms overhead (reinforced by health care practitioners who told them not to…. not very practical in the real world). Prior to learning CrossFit movements these people have done a great job of avoiding using the tissue that has been damaged from whatever it was…. old shoulder dislocation, knee surgery, back surgery etc. It’s not realistic or smart to avoid using any tissue in our body beyond the initial healing phases of an injury. Like I said to Andrew the other day, it’s like having your shocks on your car wear out, not bothering to fix them, and wondering why you replace your brakes all the time. A fully functional mechanical system (human or machine) is meant to work as a whole with each piece doing it’s proper job. Unfortunately, unlike a car or truck, replacing part isn’t a great or easy option with humans. I read a great quote in the CrossFit Journal a long time ago that said that if as a CrossFit coach you are not finding weaknesses and discomforts in your athletes you probably aren’t getting them in the right positions. You can thank years of crappy occupational postures and playing hard for that one.
I feel it’s important to make the distinction between “injury” and a “tweak” or “strain” etc. Injuries are serious and should be treated as such. They also tend to be longer in duration. Tweaks or mild strains happen in sports all the time. There are dozens of reasons for this, and they are much less of a concern unless they last longer than a few days or cause other things to flare up. I have found (in general) since I started working as an RMT that people use the term injury much too loosely. Patients tend to want a “diagnosis” so they can say “I have ‘X’ rather than “I have an issue with my ‘whatever’ that I’m working through”, and practitioners tend to always want to call it something. Unfortunately as most smart, thoughtful people realize, life is more of a grey than black and white. I can understand naming something (correctly or incorrectly is important to note) that it creates a lot more attention to the issue and that is gives some importance to what is going on. Fair enough. But walking around saying you’ve torn your tricep when really you just mildly pulled it, for example, is both misleading and dramatic. In my experience the number of actual injuries compared to minor nuisances I see in the gym or clinic is low (very low). I am certainly not devaluing what you may be experiencing (trust me, me life is committed to making people better), and those little tweaks do need to be attended to especially if they are one sided. This is why my approach to assessing an issue is less concerned with what it’s called and more what deviations from “normal” biomechanics, tissue and joint quality I’m finding, how do we manage them, and avoid it in the future. My favourite health care practitioners tend to follow the same concept.
So this is where Jesse and I take on a huge responsibility. Because of my background in health care we are enabled to train you through not only you initial aches and pains of getting used to new functional movements, but also managing other things that come up in your body either in the gym or in your other sports/activities. This is NOT typical in almost any gym environment, more commonly trainers, and heath care practitoners will keep themselves safe by encouraging more rest and recovery (how could you go wrong, right?). But the result of this is often a person losing valuable training hours, risking becoming sedentary, and losing the HUGE benefits of active recovery. There is a difference in resting the area affected versus… resting. We are happy to train you when you are injured or dealing with something minor, but please know that it is a bonus to be able to do so. It won’t always be fun to be on a modified program, but that’s life. As many of you know, to get better at a sport you have to push the threshold. Becoming a better skier requires falling sometimes, and becoming a better lifter requires missing lifts. That’s how you find your genetic potential. But in our gym this approach is only granted to those who have demonstrated safe quality movements and are not dealing with body issues for any given movement. If you are dealing with old or new issues you have work in a safe limit which often means PVC pipe, empty bar or a completely modified movement. Sorry.
We have found that this all works well until communication doesn’t happen. We NEED to know when something is bothering you. If you suddenly “injure” your shoulder doing a KB swing but we then find out that it’s been feeling “tweaked” for a few weeks and you didn’t say anything… bad on you. If you decide to tell us once the 10 second countdown is on the clock that your knee hurts when you run (this one is common lately)… not cool.
Some of you have been amazing about dealing with your body. It often seems that 9 times out of 10 when you approach us with something new we are able to get it with some mobility work. Many of you are also really diligent about using myself and your other health care practitioners for maintenance to avoid injury or to get something as soon as it starts. We praise you for your efforts.
The long and short of this is that we want you to know that we put a ton of mental energy into thinking about how to avoid and accommodate any type of body injury, ache or pain into the programming, so that you can safely rehabilitate that part while still seeing fitness gains overall. We take this very seriously. When we find out that you have been “testing” something or hiding something…. well.. it’s disappointing. You are going to stunt your own recovery and you are reflecting to the community inside and outside the gym that we aren’t paying attention. If you have a mobility issue deal with it before it catches you. Trust me, it’s an easier route to take. If your shoulder tweaks doing a KB swing one day and your shoulder has always had some range of motion issues, don’t tell people you got “injured” at CrossFit…. it’s just not that simple, and it makes us look reckless. Criticism from the outside community tends to come from misinformation (crazy concept hey?!!). Be honest about what you’ve got going on. I got an email one time from someone interested in Foundations who wanted to join but was nervous because they had heard that everyone gets injured there. Can you imagine how that made us feel, given how closely we monitor your movements and cut you off if something doesn’t look right??
We want CrossFit Squamish to be a place of excellence with a reputation of building strong well rounded athletes who are managed safely. We get great feedback and a ton of support for what we do from many physicians and health care professionals because of the changes they have seen in their patients and how we have managed them when things come up. Let’s keep a good situation good. We are working hard on our end, please do the same on yours.
Heather
Two things:
A helicopter is a fancy high performance piece of equipment, but for every hour of flying there’s an hour maintenance.
Crying wolf never helped anyone:)
when i first read “big guys, doing dumb things, with heavy weights ” i thought hey who is heather calling dumb.
as someone who is 13 months into injury/surgery recovery i can only say PLEASE PLEASE go back are re read what heather has written again. heather and jessie have gone so far above and beyond in helping me back with my shoulder i can never thank them enough. i have kept them completly informed as to what is going on and they have worked with me in providing modifications for work outs to stay away from the injury and work the rest of me. or hiting me over the head with a 2×4 when i have been stupid or just listening to me when i have been really down when dealing with post surgery blues.
after having spent a lot of time doing modified workouts i can definitaly say jesses modified workout suck more often than not than the usual wod’s so don’t expect to an easier workout just because of an injury only something different than what everybody else is doing.
as much as i want to do a whole bunch of stuff everybody else is doing and i can not do it yet i now have a great realationship with the sled and squat movement because of all of the support heather and jesse have given me.
there are some days i am sure jesse has just made up some new crazy work out name especialy after explaining the movement and me going you want me to put what where and do what with it -the bulgarian split squat- comes to mind….has me do the routine that leaves me in a twitching pile of sweat swearing that he is making it up for sure because no one else can be doing something that stupid only to go home and find it on you tube do you truly realize what a wealth of knowledge you have supporting you.
Its fitting that this was posted today, yesterday I injured myself, by the true definition of the word. A week ago at work I had to lift something from an awkward position, (this was stupid I know) and in doing so I tweaked my back. To be honest I really didn’t think much of it, I was sore but for the most part fine. I took the rest of the week off, I went to the chiro, Iced like crazy, and after a day of rest I started stretching,(slowly I would like to add) On Sunday I was feeling great, I got all warmed up and did some push ups sit ups and squats. This felt great no issues, that night more stretching before bed. I had all my mobility back, was pain free and honestly felt normal. Then yesterday (Monday) at work, I went to go push something in place, and instantly it felt like, I had been stabbed by a knife, I had pain that I wouldn’t wish on any one. My back was not healed, I knew I was hurt and in need of some help.
After getting some Happy shots at the hospital I came home, were I am now. I hurt, it sucks and I don’t like it. I feel like a 90 year old man, I cant put my own socks on at the moment….that’s hard to swallow as only a two weeks ago I PRed my 5x squat and 3x press…
As some of you may or may not know about 5 years ago I severely injured my neck, and pinched my spinal cord. I was out for almost a year. For the first few months getting from my bed to the bathroom was very difficult. I became, useless, miserable, I lost lots of my physical ability’s and gained lots of pounds ending up in a dark dark place!!! This was 5 1/2 years ago. I am happy to say I’m not that person any more. I have had the misfortune of being totally broken. Take my advice don’t go there!!!!!!!!!! Even injured I know that I wont let myself go there again. I also know that I have friends that wont let me go there again.
Well working out at CF Squamish, I have got some bumps and bruises along the way. But I have also gained, in almost every other aspect of my life!!! Some of the work out have caused me to hurt. Ive lost skin to the pull up bar, and my lunch in the parking lot. I have also pushed to hard to fast resulting in a few slaps in the face, some times these slaps came from Heather and Jessie (usually more in the verbal variety) and other times by feeling like a bag of shit. And I must admit that many of these bumps and bruises came from disregarding my Coaches advice. But I don’t ever feel that I have been Injured well at the gym.Sure Ive have had to modify a few work outs along the way, every one does! But I can say with out a doubt, these modifided work outs still worked me just fine. These two are amazing people and amazing coaches, and they will give back to you 10 fold what you give to them.
I’m sure there are going to be lots of new faces and Friends in a few months when I get back to town and I’m stoked to come and suffer with every one new and old, even if given what has happened to me I have to modify or scale some work loads. I’m not scared because I know that my fitness, and safety are going to be in good hands. I can’t say enough good things about Heather, Jessie, CF Sqaumish, and the community that it has brought together. Being able to come and work out with every one again is reason enough for me to get better!!!! and thats what I love about it, These two have created a place and comunity that has NO other agenda then to make you better.
For any one who is injured, I’m not going lie it sucks, in fact it can suck allot!!! But it does get better!!! you get better and stronger. Don’t give up and don’t give in, but also don’t be an idiot and push to hard, and don’t try to hide it from people who care about you and want to help you get better. It can take some time to heal but it doesn’t mean that life has to stop. I Stopped my life for a year, and that was the worst mistake I could have made.