21 May The G-Force Source: They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no!
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
— William Shakespeare
CrossFit, weightlifting, fitness, diets, eating chocolate, eating ice-cream, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, smoking methamphetamine, watching pornographic videos; they’re all addictions. We seem to take the equivalent to wedding vows with our chosen addictions to continue to do/eat/consume them in both sickness and in health. Become a diabetic? Chocolate and ice-cream will fix it. Succumb to emphysema? Continue smoking. Wrong!
More relative to what we do–CrossFit and fitness–when in health we continue our training regimes to continue to get better. When in sickness, meaning a physical injury, we still want to continue to train, even against the strongest of recommendations from medical professionals and our coaches that tell us to rest. Eww, there’s that dirty word: rest.
The importance of rest is probably one of the hardest messages to convey to athletes. The addictions are usually too strong and wisdom fails to take the reigns when the time has come to take some time away from lifting heavy things and throwing your body about (in a functional manner).
Injuries are common in absolutely every sport, even lawn bowls (true story). CrossFit is no different and there’s a possibility that as a CrossFit athlete, parts of the body may give way. If that happens, allow wisdom to take over, see a medical professional and get yourself fixed rather than heading back into the gym and potentially causing even further damage. Know who you need to see, be it a chiropractor or a physiotherapist. Here’s a hot tip: make sure the person you’re seeing knows our movements. There’s little-to-no point in going seeing a physiotherapist who doesn’t know what a snatch, thruster, muscle-up, butterfly pull-up or GHD sit-up is.
There’s one key message we would like everyone to comprehend, embed in their heads (thick or thin) and never forget: to avoid the potential of injury, maintenance is imperative! CrossFit folk need to understand that we are putting our bodies through a tremendous amount of work and therefore, maintenance by way of rest, ensuring you’re doing accessory work before and after classes, seeing a chiropractor and physiotherapist regularly, as well as eating enough to sustain our energy output levels are all musts.
If, however, you’re unlucky enough to fall to injury, seek rehabilitation via the appropriate means, get yourself healed up and you will be back in the gym again. If someone says you need to go to rehab, say yes, yes, yes! Don’t be the fool who ignores their injuries; be the wise man instead!
See you all in the gym.
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