332 — Injury Incidence and Patterns Among Dutch CrossFit Athletes

CrossFit is notorious for the number of injuries it causes. And also for looking kinda goofy at the gym.

But there’s been no formal assessment of how dangerous CrossFit is when compared to other workouts or schools of fitness: After all, CrossFit participants tend to be physically at the gym more frequently, and that correlates with higher rate of injury anyhow.

No real data existed in this domain, and so in order to answer this question, the authors conducted a 553-person survey of participants in the Netherlands.

Of the 449 CrossFit participants who met inclusion criteria (of the 553 total), more than half had been injured in the past year: Of the 56.1% that had experienced an injury, most had experienced a shoulder injury (28.7%), lower back injury (15.8%), or knee injury (8.3%).

Most of the injuries occurred during the “Workout of the Day” module, which suggests that lower exercise consistency, or personal trainer exercise familiarity, both covary with injury rate.

Though this paper doesn’t specifically compare CrossFit injury rates with other comparable workout regimens, it does seem that 56.1% injury is a bit worrying.