You can be hurt, and very healthy. As Practice CrossFit trainer Kara Foster shows us below, you can be injured, and very smart…we just usually aren’t

The following is authored by: Kara Foster

It’s not ok to return from a 100m sprint holding your lower back and wincing in pain for two out of five rounds.

It’s not ok to run and box jump and jump squat four out of five days on knees, shins and calves that struggle in pain to keep up with your still-significant weight loss goals.

And it’s not ok to do right-sided burpees because you refuse to listen to your left sides plea’s for rest and recovery.

Plain and simple, it’s not ok to workout in pain.

“It’s ok because I’m a competitor.”

Staying in the game means heeding the call of the body to adjust training, rest, supplementation, nutrition, etc., as necessary, in-between competitions so that you can go hard during them.   Mindy Coby – an athlete who trains ferociously at Practice CrossFit – demonstrated this well last month.  After nursing a nagging foot injury for weeks by avoiding runs and plyometric movement, she signed up for the 2012 FitClub Games, an annual Columbus competition.  Through modification, rest and an orthotic shoe insert, she was rewarded with improved movement in the days leading up to the event.  When asked just days out how she thought she’d fair, however, she responded as a responsible athlete should, “If the first WOD is a big run, I’m out. My focus is the Open and Regionals next year and staying healthy for that.”  Similarly, when Holly Mangold suffered a tendon tear in her wrist just weeks prior to the 2012 Olympics, she didn’t just lower the weight for her clean and jerk drills.  She abstained from training the movements that irritated it, and followed a treatment regimen focused on enabling her to perform on stage.

If today’s workout prescribes 100 push-ups for your already-throbbing front deltoid, change the prescription.  You’d do that with medication that made you sicker, right? Replace them with a core strength movement for the same repetitions.  Have you ever watched ANYone complete 100 V-ups easily? Adjust today to increase your chances of smashing the movement when you really need to later.

“You just don’t understand my need to be better.”

You’re right.

To the athlete out there who’s lost a small child in body-weight this year as a result of fixing their diet, I can’t imagine the nagging itch to lose the rest…by tomorrow.  To the athlete returning from shoulder surgery and dying to get back to your jerk PR, I can’t relate.  To the athlete who’s lost weeks or, maybe, even months on the barbell to debilitating back pain, I can only empathize.  But as an aging athlete who started CF late in life and desires passionately to stay competitive, I am no stranger to the “demons” that deter healthy training.

Guess what? It doesn’t matter.  Your fear, doubt, impatience – whatever – isn’t unique.  It’s just yours.  Lock those demons in your anxiety box and get to work on what’s required to truly get better.

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18

“I signed a waiver and paid my monthly dues.”

On behalf of my training cohorts, shove your waiver and keep your dues.  I mean that with every ounce of my 5’2” frame.  My “side job” as a consultant has given me the opportunity to travel to a solid handful of CF boxes over the last several years.  Practice CrossFit rehabs and takes on clients other boxes would turn away or recommend a leave of absence to when injury or pain strike. We take that seriously.  It’s why we subscribe to a dynamic group warm-up.  It’s why we bore even tenured athletes with tutorials on movement standards every workout.  It’s why we hammer mobility, auxiliary and skill drills – sometimes to the point of public call-out.  And it’s why we stay tuned to new ways of doing things.

It’s your body and your health, so you own, at least, 50% accountability for your training.

When you’re injured, focus on a plan for recovery.

When you’re in pain, adjust training to alleviate or avoid it.

When you’re sore, hydrate, mobilize, and nourish your body well.

And when your body says, “I’m tired,” rest.

As your trainer and a representative of Practice CrossFit, I’m accountable for the other half (roughly).  When you’re in my class, you can count on me taking that responsibility stone seriously.

Now, go tend to your posture.  It’s likely you’ve compromised proper spine alignment for this entire read.

Strength:

Clean

1×3@80%
1×2@85%
1×2@90%
1×2@95%
1×1@101%

Front Squat

1×3@85%
1×2@90%
1×2@95%
1×1@101%

For time:

“Freddy’s Revenge”

5-Jerks 135/185
10-Burpees
5 Rounds

Auxiliary:

100-Seated banded leg curls

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