Breakfalling

Falling is something we worry about as we get older. We often see our older friends slow down as they age, take shorter steps, need help getting up from a chair, and then need a walker. We watch this and are not surprised to hear that one of them has taken a fall. But even older folks who are active can suffer serious consequences from falling. As we age, our recovery times get longer, and bones break more easily and heal more slowly. A major bone break can start a downward spiral that may result in lost mobility that is never recovered.

Jim Baker and I are coaching a group of seniors in a class we call CrossFit Elements. Now that our clients have begun CrossFit, they are starting to feel some progress toward becoming fit and commanding more balance and agility than they used to. This in itself will reduce their risk of injury from a fall. That risk can be further reduced by knowing how to fall.

Adding falling practice to the set of skills one tackles in CrossFit makes good sense, not just for older or beginning participants but for everyone. Adding falling practice in slow, incremental steps is an example of CrossFit’s being scalable to all ability levels.