By Coach Sean Tallman
If you watch sports and/or ESPN, you often see, no matter what sport, athletes getting injured. Whether it’s a sprain, broken bone, tear, etc.. These athletes can take a considerable amount of time off of their sport to recover from their injury. Just look a PFT, Payton F’ing Manning!! He had to take an entire season off. And yes, I am comparing Crossfitters to athletes like PFT! Crossfit is starting to get to that point, as a sport. You can’t tell me that Pat or Rich Froning aren’t as athletic as most of the “professional athletes” out there! Anyhow, as some of you know, I injured my shoulder participating at the Turkey Challenge last year. My injury resulted in me needing surgery. My surgery was in February of this year, and you can say I’m still recovering from it. Although I’m back at the fire station and training/working out, I am not at 100%. 100% to me is being very competitive at Regionals and I’m far from that right now. I was anticipating on being out until July, but through being complaint with my PT program I was able to cut my time off a month short. Just before I had surgery, I knew I was going to lose A LOT of what I had been working so hard for the past few years and it was going to take a greater amount of time for me to gain it back. So, I sat around, when I wasn’t at PT, getting fat and out of shape (not recommended), trying to be as patient as I could. So, now instead of making this about me, I want make this about how to avoid things like this.

First, listen to your body. If you are beat up, take a day off or two off. You are much more prone to injury if you are extremely fatigued. It will only be beneficial in the long run. Second, perform basic maintenance on yourself. The coaches at MBS have shown everyone quite a bit of mobility and recovery exercises at the beginning and at the end of classes. As many of you know there is a site dedicated to this, mobilitywod.com. Third, check your egos! Just because you think you can go RX’ed, doesn’t mean you should. Using a weight that is 90% of your 1RM in a workout that calls for about 50-100 total reps, is just asking for an injury. Lastly, maintain proper technique!! This might be the most important. I know it’s easier said then done, but while in the middle of your workout remind yourself, ‘tight back, weight on my heals’, ‘head neutral’, ‘ butt back and down first, knees out over my toes’, etc.. Fight for good form!! It might not seem like it, but it will make the movements easier. Injuries can be prevented and these are just a few steps that will help prevent them.