I’d be super curious about how to cope with the psycholgy of making those changes. As someone who has worked out 6 days a week for more than 2 decades, I find the idea of cutting back to be a hard lifestyle change. I know from my nagging shoulder injury, and inability to go at the WOD hard each day, it would probably be good for me. But I always feel psychologically better the days I have been active (running, CrossFit, hiking)

I would love to know how the 3 on – 1 off training schedule should be modified for older athletes. Or if it should?

I say “heavy lifting” in this kind of general way above. There’s lifting that’s heavy that’s submaximal and there’s lifting that’s heavy that’s give-it-all-you-got. And I am still a novice lifter, so I can’t speak authoritatively from personal experience or coaching expertise about the advantages and disadvantages of these things in relation to my (or anyone else’s) particular needs and injury history. I continue to learn and I can infer —> but there’s certainly a lot of conflicting beliefs and advice.

This topic is of great interest to me. Although I’m only 30, I’m acutely aware of how, as I age, I continue to amass this very particular history of experience and injury in my body that shapes my physical abilities and needs.

For the first time in my life I have suffered two rather painful and slow-to-heal injuries unprecipitated by specific traumatic events. Both of these injuries occurred in rapid succession, the first one just after my 6-months-of-Crossfit-and-heavy-lifting mark.

I came to Crossfit as an athlete/dancer/former tumbler (who’d recently returned to tumbler) and I was used to a high volume of activity, but I failed to adequately address my recovery needs as I added to the volume and overall intensity of my training and physical work.

It seems to me that an important question is not merely why we can or cannot do something, but whether if, simply because we can, we should.

I am still injured now (since July 09 —> though the first injury has healed and I’m just healing the second), but as I return to my activities, I will have new considerations to take into account. Especially now that I’ve suffered a lumbar/sacral injury I’ve got a lot of concerns about the potential trade-offs of lifting heavy.

I understand that there’s a lot of evidence that heavy lifting executed with perfect form is actually therapeutic, but it may be that the potential perils of lifting heavy with anything less than absolutely stellar biomechanics all the time outweigh for me the benefits of that particular kind of training.

I use my body not just for my enjoyment of my life, but also my livelihood as a performer and movement educator. Every injury in my life has been a time of incredible learning and in the case of the few really major injuries I’ve had, I’ve always gained awareness, intelligence, and strength in my healing process.

But I’d really rather not find out that an injury that in my 20s might have meant a little pain (or even a lot!) over a moderate period means a lot of pain – or permanent pain – over a sustained period as I get older. And I want to make sure that the ways in which I train actually benefit my priorities and goals in life, rather than being ends in and of themselves.

I hope my comments aren’t riddled with typos or grammatical errors —> the website form will not allow me to scroll up to review my comments!