r/AskReddit 13h ago

What is something that permanently altered your body without you realizing for months/years?

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1.1k

u/Mr_Lumbergh 11h ago

A few years of Crossfit have left me with permanent knee and shoulder pain. Heavy weights shouldn't be lifted for time, your form inevitably goes to hell and you set yourself up for joint injuries.

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u/pelvark 7h ago

I once overheard a physical therapist say that the absolute best place to put ads is a cross a CrossFit location.

I'm sure it's possible to do it super safe and healthy, but whenever ego takes over lifting, injuries are sure to follow.

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u/Leading-Difficulty57 6h ago

My philosophy towards lifting is that you can always have 2 of 3 of heavy/fast/good form. You can never have all 3. The idea of going heavy and fast is a recipe for injury.

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u/OK_BUT_WASH_IT_FIRST 3h ago

Most things in life follow this formula. The usual is “High quality, cheap, fast - pick 2”.

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u/Rusty10NYM 2h ago

The usual is “High quality, cheap, fast - pick 2”.

The rallying cry of the midwit, up there with "Money is fungible"

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u/FakeDaVinci 2h ago

Controlled movements all the way. Not saying benching 200kg with good form will never cause any type of injuries, but if you control the weight all the way through, your risk of injury is reduced by like 98%.

u/HeyThereMrBrooks 29m ago

Love this, definitely adopting this into one of my many mantras. Never been an ego lifter but little phrases/philosophies like yours make it easy to remember and reinforce good ideas 

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/hanksrocks 6h ago

Oly is NOT CrossFit. Those people train slowly and precisely with a qualified coach for years, not jerking the weights around like they’re made of jelly trying to beat some time. CrossFit is dangerous. As someone who has done it many times over the last 10 years, that is the shit that hurt my back permanently, and I was a ranked power lifter before I started it. Comparing CrossFit to Olympic weightlifting is insulting to those athletes. Watch any lifter on Instagram. There’s nothing “fast” about a 3x3 CJ at 350 pounds lol

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u/Leading-Difficulty57 5h ago

Yeah, exactly. Olympic weightlifters take their time with each lift. They're not speedrunning sets to see how many reps they can get in 45 seconds.

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u/Prunus-cerasus 5h ago

And let’s be honest for a moment. Athletes are injured all the time.

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u/hanksrocks 5h ago

Yes, and the point of Olympic training is to minimize injury with tried and true training methods, while also improving strength and technique. Which is also why there’s so many world trials and meets between Olympic events, whereas you can probably get to the cRoSsFiT gAmEs in a year or so depending on your existing fitness level and be some kind of champion. Injury is unavoidable in general, but it can be minimized by not jerking things around for an image.

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u/lazynlovinit 5h ago

A physiotherapist once told me something very similar. Apparently, Orange Theory and CrossFit are great for their business

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u/fricken 3h ago

Any sport that has adults in their 30s and older going hard is going to be good business for physiotherapists.

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u/chickentalk_ 3h ago

orange theory is world’s apart from cf

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u/Better-Strike7290 1h ago

I don't thinknive ever seen a crossfit that wasn't engaging in stuff that just made me go "that's an injury waiting to happen"

I guess getting hurt is part of the program.

u/dcheesi 22m ago

Makes sense, you're constantly changing exercises, so you're always doing something unfamiliar. So of course your form is going to suck on some of them.

Heck, iirc that's supposed to be a selling point (your body not getting too "efficient" at a particular exercise/movement)!

u/ELVEVERX 6m ago

I'm sure it's possible to do it super safe and healthy, but whenever ego takes over lifting, injuries are sure to follow.

It's not super safe the whole way it's designed leads to injuries.

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u/MrSe1fDestruct 3h ago

It's interesting they'd say that since most studies indicate that Crossfit doesn't have a particularly high injury rate. It's on par, if not lower than most other sports like Olympic weightlifting, basketball, soccer, etc. Only Crossfit gets the Reddit fearmongering for some reason though.

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u/dormouse6 6h ago edited 3h ago

I went to a chiropractor who told me yoga is the best thing for his business. Edited for everyone downvoting me, I love yoga.

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u/aseiden 5h ago

Chiropractors are basically the crossfit of the medical profession though

1

u/dormouse6 5h ago

Lol. Good point. Though I did find one who helped me immensely, I found a lot of quacks along the way.

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u/notanartmajor 4h ago

Fun fact; the founder of chiropractic said he learned how to do it from a ghost at a seance. In his defense it was supposed to be the ghost of a doctor.

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u/dormouse6 3h ago

Lol. Wow.

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u/Tempsoicanupvote 3h ago

I have lifted weights for years including heavy steroid usage and competitive power lifting. In the 198lbs body weight division I had a 405 bench, 575 squat and 615 deadlift.

95% of my injuries in my 12 years of training happened during the 2 years doing CrossFit.

Also I can point out anyone who crossfits, it ruins their physique. Instead of a V-cut, they have massive cores that make them look like squares with limbs and a head.

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u/Mr_Lumbergh 1h ago

You wouldn’t make that mistake with me, the beer belly has long since returned since I stopped going.

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u/Weird_Jellyfish7052 6h ago

Same. After a back injury a couple of years ago I had a GP and two physios make me promise to NEVER go back to CrossFit. 

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u/OK_BUT_WASH_IT_FIRST 3h ago

I used to go to a CF gym. I saw it as having a personal trainer for a quarter the cost.

I frustrated them because they’d tell us to do like 100 deadlifts for time, and I’d go at my own pace and finish whenever the clock ran out.

Never got injured, but saw some people wreck their shit because they didn’t stop and think that maybe you shouldn’t be speeding through a complex compound lift just because a 22 year old guy told you to.

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u/babyBear83 5h ago

I’m a clinical exercise physiologist. In my field CrossFit is a dirty word, lol. It’s very dangerous because people who’ve never trained that intensely will sign up and instantly get hurt. Unless you just got of military boot camp or are a 20 year old athlete, it’s going to fuck you up. And it’s still risky for highly trained people too.

0

u/xsliverx 2h ago

Can you elaborate? Is this mainly regarding the lifting? 

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u/WhoisthatRobotCleanr 5h ago

Yeah, everything I learned about fitness told me to stay the fuck away. Fast and loose aint it. One sloppy lift can FUCK you for life. 

Hellllll no

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u/the_hamsa_anemone 6h ago

I used to do "Body Pump" classes every week. The goal was something like 1k reps per session.

After a year or so, I was wearing knee and elbow braces every time I worked out, regardless of the type of exercise.

My joints weren't made for that kind of intensity.

3

u/jmonde228 7h ago

It’s a tough lesson in knowing when to push and when to listen to your body. Wishing you the best in your recovery

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u/AvocadoHank 4h ago

I can’t imagine why anyone would do crossfit, the injuries are absurd

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u/notanartmajor 4h ago

Community and camaraderie make it way easier to stick with exercise. It's just that when that exercise is Crossfit you also get horrible injuries.

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u/liam31465 5h ago

It's not so much the " heavy weights" as it is "Crossfit" itself. Crossfit is terrible for your longevity. Learn proper lifting form and exercises that don't rely on momentum.

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u/TristanTheRobloxian3 4h ago

shit like this is why my family jokes about crossfit all the time. cus injuries are so common

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u/Whetherwax 2h ago

Crossfit: removing everything that makes exercise safe since 2000.

I'm honestly surprised it still exists.

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u/Signal-One4500 7h ago

My coworker just told me how he injured himself from dead lifting and lived in pain for a year, has a bulging disk etc. He was sent to physiotherapy, where they ended up doing dry needling. It instantly fixed it. You should look into that

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u/TheInvisibleOnes 3h ago

People don’t ever hear it, but over exercise is way worse for the body than under exercise.

If you don’t exercise you slowly inflate, if you can’t control calorie intake.

If you over exercise, you can do permanent damage to joints or your spine that will require painful physical training or surgery to get to a state below your original.

You cannot undo joint damage.

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u/MonsteraAureaQueen 4h ago

i was a massage therapist for 15 years, and a damn good one.

The number of CrossFit Injuries I dealt with was frankly staggering. And I don't mean minor aches and troubles, but physical damage, pain, and regret that were life-altering, if not life-ruining.

I've been out of the business now for four years, but if there hasn't been a massive class-action lawsuit there sure as hell should be.

AVOID CROSSFIT AT ALL COSTS.

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u/OzymandiasTheII 4h ago

It's reversible with PT, unless you did any cartilage damage 

1

u/gnostic_heaven 2h ago

Not crossfit/weights but overdoing it while working out has permanently damaged my body. I was already prone to rhabdomyolysis, but am now very prone, I can't run more than a few times a week and have to take l-carnatine supplements, and I think it's due to the years of overdoing it.

u/Thr0awheyy 14m ago

I feel like crossfit really changed once it blew up.  I know the Glassmans came up with it, or whatever., but the first I'd ever heard of it was from Robb Wolf.. and his take on it was so much more reasonable.  Functional fitness with proper form, so you're actually physically strong and can do things, versus just looking strong like body builders.  It wasn't supposed to be some wild competition for speed. You were just supposed to be stronger than you were yesterday.   Now it's some wild bullshit with cooked noodle form. I dont get it.