I recently had two unrelated experiences that after reflection (and viewing a funny video while talking about the second experience with some colleagues) seem to have some commonality.

Experience 1:  In August my wife and I visited Namibia to attend a friends wedding.  Our first trip to Africa was filled with unique and wonderful experiences and a few unexpected introductions.  While in Etosha National Park, we met a honey badger on his morning hunt.  At first this seemed unimpressive.  We were on an early morning safari tour and as the sun rose we were expecting so see giraffes, lions, leopards, elephants, wildebeest, zebras and other big, exotic creatures.  Instead we were using an infrared flashlight to view a honey badger searching in a field.  The fact that this was important to our guide should have been a clue about how impressive a honey badger was, but the significance didn’t set in until about an hour later.  As we were stopped now viewing two adult male lions, someone remarked how fearsome the lions looked.  Our guide, Wilson, explained that he was not afraid of the lions (they are often lazy and poor hunters, although good killers of the wounded or careless prey). He went on to say that he most fears the leopard and cape buffalo, but that the honey badger was the ‘toughest’ animal in the entire park.  Seeing the size and complete lack of intimidating appearance of the honey badger his statement struck me as odd.  Learning more about the honey badger you see that they are extremely driven, tough, and goal-oriented, but reckless in their pursuits.  Thankfully honey badgers are as resilient as they are reckless.

Do you exercise like a honey badger?  The honey badger don’t care. (see video below)

Experience 2:  I was introduced to Cross-Fit recently, a new exercise fad with all the buzzwords that you would hope to hear from a high quality program.  They welcome all abilities and think everyone is an athlete; they perform ‘functional’ exercises; they train ‘form’ before load; and they focus on core stability.  I went to view a Cross Fit session and realized that while the buzzwords were there, they were not applied effectively.  Functional exercises were performed, but not within the ‘functional range’ of the participant.  People of varying abilities and experiences were given the same program and encouraged to do what they could without being offered a peel-back exercise, which encourages the less able to try and perform up to the level of the more able participants.  It was clear that exercise was intended to be ‘tough’ and that you should ‘really feel it’ afterward.  The session ended with an abdominal exercise in which a half round support was placed under the lordosis (curve) in the lumbar spine (low back), and then the athlete performed a full sit up over the half round support into lumbar flexion.  (This is after other exercises performed with poor control caused repeated loading in lumbar flexion.)  [For those unaware repeated loading in flexion is the #1 cause of non-traumatic back pain, so this is a dangerous combination.] As the session ended I left wondering how a system developed with such great intent had declined to the reckless pursuit of movement that I witnessed.

‘Functional Range’ defined: “The functional range is the painless range which is appropriate for the task at hand”, Dennis Morgan PT, DC.  A range of movement within in an exercise that does not increase symptoms and is performed with adequate control and stability.

The parallel:  In talking with other healthcare providers this past weekend (Zak, Phil, et al.)  I realized that many others see the same significant flaws in Cross Fit (as well as some well known programs and exercise DVDs) that I do.  [This is not to say these programs are inherently bad, just often poorly applied.]  It was also confirmed that many have seen athletes become patients from these programs.  The common perception was that these injured people had the best intent to be healthier, but they were encouraged to pursue health with reckless abandon and emphasis on movement and muscle activity over control and coordination.  This is much like the honey badgers endless efforts to gather food which frequently ends in being stung by swarms of bees, fighting with buffalo, and venomous paralyzing snake bites.  The difference is that the honey badger is remarkably resilient and recovers in a short period of time.  Humans and human tissues often do not possess this same resiliency and injuries can take weeks (or longer) to be addressed.  We need to stop exercising like honey badgers.

The take home:

• Honey Badgers are incredible, fearless, and resilient creatures (with funny and inappropriate youtube videos [view with caution due to language]).
• Exercise programs such as Cross Fit, kettle bells, and home exercise DVDs can be wonderful components to a healthy lifestyle, but are all too often performed with recklessness (poor form, repeated spine loads, boom-bust mentality, failure to prescreen for injury risk, failure to recognize and respect the ‘functional range’, and an emphasis quantity over quality).
• Exercise should be ‘challenging’ but does not need to be so ‘tough’ or ‘hard’ that it is likely injurious.
• If you have worked with a healthcare professional who understands movement patterns and joint loading, see what they think of your program and goals before it’s too late. (most often parts of the program are great, and a few parts are problematic, with help to identify those you can continue, while limiting your risk). [if you haven't, use the clinical rehab society to find one]