CrossFit is the new fad in the Workout world, and is rapidly taken over the world of exercisers. You cannot walk into a gym without someone doing as many burpee’s, and push-ups, and deadlifts, and calorie rows as they can at the most ridiculous frantic pace. Just watching someone engaging in a Crossfit workout can make you feel exhausted. Well, this new fad may, in fact, not be so great.

The positive side of taking part in CrossFit is how fast you can see results. “CrossFit itself is defined as that which optimizes fitness (constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity).” as defined by www.crossfit.com. Basically meaning that it is a continuous change in many different high, intensity workouts over a short period of time. With the constant change in workouts, it creates Muscle confusion, so your muscles do not get use to the workout because you are not doing the same thing every time.

Even with the growing popularity and built up fame, CrossFit has a “little secret” that is beginning to come to the surface. Eric Robertson, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy at Regis University, is unveiling the truth about the dangers of CrossFit in his article CrossFit’s Dirty Little Secret. The article goes into detail about Rhabdomyolysis and how dangerous it can be.

Under extreme conditions your muscles cells explode. They die. They leach protein out into the blood stream, including one form called myoglobin. Ever stalwart, your kidneys take up the job of clearing these dangerous proteins from the blood. Why? It’s just what they do. Unfortunately, myoglobin proteins aren’t designed to be in the blood in the first place and they can easily overload the kidney. This can produce injury or death to all or part of the kidney in a short amount of time, and is potentially lethal. Locally, the muscles are left damaged and dying.

Although this condition is very rare, it can still happen. A huge factor is how far will you push yourself. Pushing yourself too far and not listening to your body can be extremely detrimental. When you can hear yourself say, “I think I may die if I don’t stop”, then maybe it is just time to sit the hell down for a minute.

At the end of the day, it is your body. You know what’s best and what is too far for you. CrossFit may be you ideal workout for great, fast results, but being conscious of the positive and negative effects are important. And that goes for every workout, not just CrossFit. For Eric Robertson’s article in it’s entirety go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-robertson/crossfit-rhabdomyolysis_b_3977598.html

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