Injuries in CrossFit practice

01/03/2023

How common are sports injuries in CrossFit?

According to published sports trauma studies, there is a wide variability in the percentage of injured athletes, ranging from 25 to 75%. The injury incidence in athletes who practice CrossFit is between 3 and 4 injuries per 1,000 hours of exposure, with consensus that the shoulder, lumbar spine, knee, and wrist are the anatomical regions most prone to injuries. The speed of execution, the high stress on these anatomical areas, and the high number of repetitions in anaerobic conditions with a short repetition time could explain poor technical execution due to fatigue and the presence of injuries.
CrossFit is a sports discipline that has been booming worldwide in recent years seems obvious. The statement that Spain has become the world's leading CrossFit powerhouse in 2022 reflects the true explosion of this sport in our country. In 2022, Spain became the world's leading country in the number of competitions, surpassing the United States and the United Kingdom. Since the sport was created in the US in the 1970s, the proliferation of boxing (the name given to the venues where this sport is held) worldwide and in Spain has been dizzying.

What is considered an injury in CrossFit?

Few published studies address what is considered an injury in CrossFit. One of them, conducted in Spain, defines an injury in the following three cases:
Total cessation of training and other physical activities for more than a week.
Variation in training routines in intensity, timing, or method of performance due to pain, for more than two weeks.
Pain intense enough to warrant consultation with a sports trauma specialist.

Which anatomical structures are most frequently injured in CrossFit?

Although there is no consensus among the various published studies on which tissue causes the most injuries, they do agree that the most frequently affected tissues are muscle, tendon, and joint. The most damaging disciplines are powerlifting (30% of injuries) and gymnastics (25%).
It is not possible to correlate the level of experience with the number of injuries. On the one hand, inexperienced athletes, with less than 6 months of practice, combine their lack of strength training with their technical inexperience, factors that various studies do link with a higher number of injuries. On the other hand, there are publications that point to expert athletes as more prone to injury due to the high number of hours of exposure and their participation in competition.

How to prevent sports injuries when practicing CrossFit?

Various studies establish basic preventive measures regarding the choice of box (unofficial boxes suffer an injury rate 30 times higher than official ones) and the creation of programs for inexperienced athletes that work on technique and strength, especially in exposed anatomical areas such as the shoulder or lumbar spine. The literature emphasizes: