Crossfit and Lifting

Crossfit and Lifting

One of the things we love about the Crossfit community is that they are adventurous and passionate to learn about health, movement and fitness and will give anything a go.

Our performance tip for crossfitters PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE for the sake of your shoulders, back and literally everything else, stretch out/release your chest!!! Needless to say, you don’t want to end up in the same boat as one of the 26 people in the regionals that tore their pecs from 21, 15, 9 ring dips and dumbbell snatches!

WOD’s being as variable as they are, often require rotation. Having tight chest muscles stops your back from being able to safely rotate. If you don’t have enough rotation available in your upper back, excess forces will be put through your lower back to compensate. Your lumbar spine which was designed for bending and extending movements has only 10 degrees rotation (not a lot!) giving rise to lower back pain. Tight pec minors will tilt your shoulder blade forward jamming your shoulders setting you up for bursitis  and rotator cuff problems. Also, because everything is connected by   soft tissue if you get jammed up in your shoulders it can feed down your body and tighten up your back and your hamstrings, calves and feet limiting your ability to squat.

Having a tight chest will also contribute to muscle imbalance of your shoulder muscles, poor posture and injuries in pretty other parts of the body. Our senior physio and podiatrist Ali has even released a chest to fix a toe pain much to the surprise and delight of the patient!

If box jumps, running or double unders make you need to dash to the bathroom for a pre-WOD prep pee…you’ll be pleased to know we are also lucky enough to have a woman’s health physio Claire who has dabbled in a bit of Crossfit so she understands the needs of the Crossfit community.

At Sydney Advanced Physio we do full body assessments to get you whole kinetic chain working together to improve your performance. If you have noticed a shoulder, hip or knee that is not moving how it should or is limiting you from progressing to your next goal (handstand press ups, cleans, bar muscle ups etc), you want your AMRAP’s or EMOM’s to be better than your best mates, or are you having to swap out your overhead squats and miss out on completing your workouts Rx we are here to help.

-Ali Gibson