At Bulletproofbodies we get this question a lot.
Kipping Pull Ups are bad or not proper Pull Ups.
This demonstrates how the person asking the question does not really understand what they are asking.
Or they have an agenda to say that CrossFit causes injury (which of course I disagree with!).
In my experience of treating and managing CrossFit injuries for 7 years, it is true that I treat a lot of shoulders.
However, these athletes have a few musculo-skeletal niggles rather than what I would classify as an injury.
These athletes respond quickly to treatment and have fantastic adherence to the rehabilitation exercises they are asked to perform.
For us at Bulletproofbodies, CrossFitters are the perfect patients.
There is also a culture of body maintenance thanks to Mobility WOD and ROM WOD.
In studies on CrossFit injuries by Hak et al (2013) and Weisenthal et al (2014) they both point to overhead activity as the main culprit for shoulder injuries.
Muscular fatigue of the rotator cuff during kipping may be responsible for the loss of proper form and increased potential for injury.
The simple injury prevention strategy is to break up your big numbers into bite-sized chunks.
Then, progressively build up your rotator cuffs exercise tolerance to keep the humeral head in the optimal position.
The mind-set of task completion must also be addressed, if you feel any pain whilst performing kipping simply stop and rest.
It is important to differentiate the achy feeling of delayed onset muscle soreness which should be relieved in a couple of days and the sharper, “this does not feel right” pain that you need to seek the opinion of a Physiotherapist for.
Check out Luke’s Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCueCBBvCWzVb7n6FxKjDUog
References
1. Hak PT, Hodzovic E, Hickey B. The nature and prevalence of injury during CrossFit training. J Strength Cond Res. In Press, doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000318.
2. Weisenthal, B. M., Beck, C. A., Maloney, M. D., DeHaven, K. E., & Giordano, B. D. (2014). Injury Rate and Patterns Among CrossFit Athletes. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2(4), 2325967114531177.