Injuries in CrossFit practice

It seems obvious to mention that CrossFit is a sport that has been booming worldwide in recent years. 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 terms of the number of competitions, surpassing the United States and the United Kingdom. Since the discipline was created in the United States in the 1970s, the proliferation of CrossFit boxes (the name given to the venues where this sport is held) worldwide and in our country has been dizzying.

All official boxers follow the same activity pattern in their training, which consists of:

• Olympic movements (snatch, clean and jerk)
• Powerlifting (squat, deadlift, press/push press, bench press)
• Gymnastic movements (pull-ups, toes-to-bar, lunges, burpees, box jump)
• Metabolic conditioning exercises (running, rowing, cycling)

Studies on CrossFit injuries
Few published studies address what constitutes an injury in CrossFit. One of them, conducted in Spain, defines an injury in the following three cases:
1. Complete cessation of training and other physical activities for more than a week.
2. Changes in training routines in intensity, timing, or method of performance due to pain for more than two weeks.
3. Pain severe enough to warrant consultation with a sports trauma specialist.

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 ranges 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.

Although there is no consensus in the various published studies on which tissue most frequently causes injuries, they do agree that the most frequently affected tissues are muscle, tendon, and joint. Therefore, the most injurious disciplines are powerlifting (30% of injuries) and gymnastic exercises (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 have linked to a higher number of injuries. On the other hand, there are publications that point to expert athletes as more prone to injury due to their high number of hours of exposure and their participation in competitions.

Injury Prevention in CrossFit Practice
These studies establish basic preventive measures regarding the choice of training box (unofficial training 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. Furthermore, the literature emphasizes proper management of workloads, adequate recovery times, sleep quality, and wellness questionnaires.