Prevalence of Injuries in Exercise Programs Based on Crossfit^®, Cross Training and High-Intensity Functional Training...

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Exercise Physiology
• Injury Prevention

Background:

• Growing popularity of high-intensity training modalities like CrossFit, Cross Training, and High-Intensity Functional Training (HIFT).
• Concerns exist regarding the safety and potential for increased injury prevalence associated with these training styles.
• Need for a comprehensive analysis of injury rates and study quality in HIFT research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze the prevalence of injuries in CrossFit, Cross Training, and HIFT.
• To evaluate the methodological quality of existing studies examining injuries in these training modalities.
• To identify specific body areas most susceptible to injury during HIFT.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review adhering to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol.
• Quality assessment of included studies using a tool developed by the National Institute of Health (NIH).
• Analysis of injury prevalence data from selected literature.

Main Results:

• The shoulders, knees, and back were identified as the most common areas for injuries in HIFT.
• A significant majority (11 out of 12) of the reviewed studies exhibited poor methodological quality.
• The findings highlight potential underestimation or misreporting of injury data due to study limitations.

Conclusions:

• High-intensity functional training practices are associated with a notable risk of injury, particularly affecting the shoulders, knees, and back.
• The current body of research on HIFT injuries is largely compromised by poor methodological quality.
• Further high-quality research is essential to accurately determine injury risks and inform safety guidelines for CrossFit, Cross Training, and HIFT.