Kevin J. Kula asks why CrossFitters use muscle-based soft-tissue therapies. For chronic problems, he says fascially based therapies are the solution.
CrossFitters demand more from their exercise program than the average gym rat schooled in the outdated exercise science of the biceps and leg curls. Why, then, do we have exercise standards consisting of high-level gymnastics movements and Olympic weightlifting while relying on outdated muscle-based therapies like trigger-point therapy and deep-tissue massage?
Individuals partaking in an exercise program like CrossFit can benefit from understanding the difference not only between isolation exercises and functional movements, but also between muscle-based therapies and those that address the body globally in a functional way.
The poor flexibility and orthopedic imbalances many CrossFitters display aren’t a result of CrossFit—as some contend—but from poor work posture and old injuries. While movement patterns improve with CrossFit, it is my own experience from coaching athletes, teaching self-care and providing soft-tissue work to CrossFitters that some of these imbalances do not just go away with CrossFit but are chronic and continue to limit performance. It is these chronic restrictions that muscle-based therapies fail to resolve and only are addressed with a fascially based approach like structural integration, or SI.