Correlation between previous sedentary lifestyle and CrossFit-related injuries

Abstract

Objective: To correlate CrossFit-related injuries with previous sedentary lifestyle, and to investigate other factors potentially associated with higher rates of injury among practitioners. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional study involving CrossFit practitioners who received a digital questionnaire inquiring into CrossFit-related injuries, previous sedentary life, training intensity and experience, site of injury and general demographics. Results: This sample included 121 CrossFit practitioners, 34.7% of participants were sedentary prior to starting CrossFit practice, from these, 45.2% reported CrossFit-related injuries, compared to 30.4% from previously active practitioners (p=0.104). The shoulder/elbow (60.5%), lumbar spine (30.3%) and wrist/hand (16.3%) were the most common sites of injury among participants reporting CrossFit-related injuries (35.5%). Participants performing intense weight training were more prone to injuries than those practicing light or moderate weight training (p=0.043). On average, participants with a history of injury spent significantly more time training than those with no history of injury (68.4 and 61.7 minutes, respectively; p=0.044). Conclusion: The incidence of CrossFit-related injuries did not differ significantly between previously sedentary and physically active participants. Intense weight training was associated with a higher incidence of injuries. The overall injury rate was 35.5%, similar to that found in previous studies, and the most common site of injury was shoulder/elbow.

Risk Factors for Musculoskeletal Injury in CrossFit: A Systematic Review

“…Twelve studies investigated injuries in CrossFit participants that they had sustained over periods of 6 months 22 23 25 26 , 12 months 8 21 23 29 30 , or practice lifetime 23 27 32 33 34 . A total of 6,062 participants were included, of whom 2,050 sustained an injury.…”

“…A total of 42 studies was excluded after full-text evaluation, as shown in the PRISMA flow chart ( Figure 1 ). We included the remaining 15 studies 8 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 for analysis. These were 3 prospective cohort studies which we included in our best-evidence synthesis and 12 cross-sectional studies informing us about potential novel risk factors.…”

“…The following risk factors were associated with increased injury risk: being a male participant, [22,34] increased body height, [25] increased bodyweight, [25] engaging in physical activity outside CrossFit, [25] being a recreational (versus beginner) athlete, [32] and performing intense weight training (compared to light or moderate weight training). [33] Higher levels of coaches involvement was associated with decreased injury risk. [22] Increased injury risk in competitive athletes was reported in two studies, [21,32] whereas one study [23] reported decreased injury risk for this group.…”

“…Twelve studies investigated injuries in CrossFit participants that they had sustained over periods of 6 months, [22,23,25,26] 12 months [8,21,23,29,30] or practice lifetime. [23,27,[32][33][34] A total of 6062 participants were included of whom 2050 sustained an injury. We included 2 studies of Feito et al [8] [30] which were based on the same dataset but 8…”

“…[22,26] From the available data, the mean age was 35 (9) years, the mean bodyweight was 74 (14) kilograms, and the mean height was 1.72 (0.6) meters. Three studies used experience in CrossFit as an eligibility criterion: Minghelli et al [23] and Paiva et al [33] excluded participants with less than 6 months of experience. All other studies included participants with mixed experience.…”