At
Bulletproofbodies we get this question a lot.
Kipping Pull
Ups are bad or not proper Pull Ups.
This demonstrates
how the person asking the question does not really understand what they are
asking.
Or they have an agenda to say that CrossFit causes injury (which of
course I disagree with!).
In my
experience of treating and managing CrossFit injuries for 7 years, it is true
that I treat a lot of shoulders.
However, these athletes have a few musculo-skeletal
niggles rather than what I would classify as an injury.
These athletes respond
quickly to treatment and have fantastic adherence to the rehabilitation
exercises they are asked to perform.
For us at Bulletproofbodies, CrossFitters
are the perfect patients.
There is
also a culture of body maintenance thanks to Mobility WOD and ROM WOD.
In studies
on CrossFit injuries by Hak et al (2013) and Weisenthal et al (2014) they both
point to overhead activity as the main culprit for shoulder injuries.
Muscular
fatigue of the rotator cuff during kipping may be responsible for the loss of
proper form and increased potential for injury.
The simple
injury prevention strategy is to break up your big numbers into bite-sized
chunks.
Then, progressively
build up your rotator cuffs exercise tolerance to keep the humeral head in the
optimal position.
The mind-set
of task completion must also be addressed, if you feel any pain whilst
performing kipping simply stop and rest.
It is
important to differentiate the achy feeling of delayed onset muscle soreness
which should be relieved in a couple of days and the sharper, “this does not
feel right” pain that you need to seek the opinion of a Physiotherapist for.
Check out
Luke’s Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCueCBBvCWzVb7n6FxKjDUog
References
1. Hak PT, Hodzovic E, Hickey B. The nature
and prevalence of injury during CrossFit training. J Strength Cond Res. In
Press, doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000318.
2. Weisenthal, B. M., Beck, C. A., Maloney,
M. D., DeHaven, K. E., & Giordano, B. D. (2014). Injury Rate and Patterns
Among CrossFit Athletes. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2(4), 2325967114531177.
