Over the past few years, the term “crossfit” has become more widely known. It’s one of the more recent fads in weight loss and getting people into the best shape of their lives. I won’t deny it, people who practice crossfit are in pretty incredible shape, but there is a price to pay. A few weeks ago a crossfit coach from Denver named Kevin Ogar was paralyzed from the waist down during a crossfit competition. He was performing an exercise move called a snatch. This move requires you to lift a heavy bar over top of your head. Unfortunately, Kevin couldn’t hold the weight and it fell behind him. As he fell, the barbell bounced and hit Kevin in the back, severing his spine. Devastating….YES. Surprising……NO.

Crossfit will get someone into incredible shape, but that’s if they can manage to stay injury free. The injury rate of crossfit is high and getting higher because in order to lift heavy weights in a record breaking period of time, you must sacrifice form. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to exercising. Form is important for many reasons. A few reasons would be for proper muscle development and also to keep you injury free. If you’ve ever watched someone practicing crossfit at the gym, you’ll notice a lot of jerking motions during the exercises. You’ll notice that they will do whatever it takes to get that weight up. I’ve got news for you, if you have to sacrifice form to lift a certain amount of weight, THE WEIGHT IS TOO HEAVY FOR YOU!!!

I can appreciate anyone who puts fitness as a major priority in their life, but fitness isn’t all about appearance and how much weight you can lift. It should also be about increasing the quality of your life. It’s very difficult to have a high quality of life if you’re paying for injuries from previous years. Even the crossfitters who haven’t injured themselves during a session or a competition are still causing long term damage to their joints and tendons down the road. Do you really think all of the burst strength and jerking motions in crossfit are safe for the body?

I think the crossfit community needs to take a step back and re-evaluate a few things. Form shouldn’t be sacrificed for strength, nor should it be sacrificed for speed. A weight lifting competition that focuses so heavily on getting a lot done in the shortest amount of time is just going to turn out sloppy. If you choose to do crossfit, realize that the best long term results come from doing the exercises properly, not quickly. Crossfitters may have the physique you want now, but 10 years down the road you’ll have the physique that their injuries won’t allow them to get.

-Tom