The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

Is your workout worth the risk?

Almost everyone I know has a chronic injury of some sort. Maybe it's a lower back that needs

extra warming up before a long day, a knee that gets stiff on cold nights, or a tweaked shoulder

that prevents good overhead positioning. They're usually not crippling, debilitating,

or otherwise serious infirmities, but they are injuries that limit quality of life and performance.

And all of those people, to a person, got their injuries from training.

My understanding is that this is true for most people who exercise regularly.

Injuries happen to everyone.

It's possible that I'm experiencing selection bias. Perhaps the injury history of the general exercising public isn't anything like the history of my circle of X and current endurance athletes,

serious fitness buffs, ultimate frisbee enthusiasts,

and otherwise active individuals. But I'd wager that most people who step foot into a gym have a nagging injury of some sort. The research suggests injuries happen quite frequently. A recent study of CrossFit

enthusiasts found that 73.5% had experienced an injury during training, 7% of which required

surgery. But before the anti-crossfit crowd starts gloating, realize that this injury rate is similar

to Olympic lifting, powerlifting, and gymnastics, and lower than contact sports like rugby.

Similar polls and runners find that in a given year, 13% of runners experienced knee injuries, 8% get Achilles tendonitis,

7% suffer hamstring pulls, 10% deal with plantar fasciitis, 10% have shin splints, 14% report

illitibial band syndrome, and 6% get stress fractures.

There's no way around it. Engaging in non-essential extracurricular bouts of physical exertion, also known as working out, carries some risk.

Not working out carries its own set of greater risks, but that's beside the

point. As many allotted strength coach has said, injuries are a matter of when, not if. And many of

these injuries become chronic injuries that stay with you for the rest of your life.

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