About a year ago my back started hurting. “No pain, no gain,” right? So I pushed through it. I’m a 57-year-old trying to be a 37-year-old so I was doing cross-fit taught to me by my 30-year-old trainer.

By October when I stood up from my very expensive all-leather ergonomically-designed desk chair at work, my back would cramp up and send me toward the roof in pain and back down into the chair. Anytime I’d twist or stretch to get my purse, or throw something into the trash can or shred bin, I’d have shooting pains in my back. By November I was in physical therapy; by then all I could do at the gym was walk on the treadmill.

I had to stop PT on December 11 for the Face Lift, after all what’s more important? If you’re going to try to act 37 you have to look the part! A month of hiding out at home helped, but as soon as I went back to the gym and work I was in pain all over again.

In February, I went to see my neurologist who is a pain management specialist. I got a MRI. It indicated I have a ruptured disc between L4 and L5; I had another loooooonnnggg round of PT. The MRI and PT cost me about $2,000 in co-pays.

The first question this therapist asked was “you haven’t been doing cross-fit have you?” Apparently a lot of people hurt themselves doing cross-fit, even actual 37-year-olds.

So, I’ve given it up for good.  I’m back to just cardio, light weight-lifting, and stretching. It seems like my lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves were tight, tight, tight. The more I get them stretched out the better my back feels.

I say all this to say, if you’re old like me, struggling to get in shape and stay fit, avoid cross-fit. I know, I know. “But it sounds so good. It works out all parts of your body at the same time and gets your arms, legs, and core all working together in coordination.” Well, I’ve been doing some reading about it. There’s quite a bit of criticism. There are many a critic who feels the chance of injury outweigh the benefits.   You might want to read some of it for yourself.

But, in the meantime you can read my, “seven signs that you, like me, might be a ‘cross-fit nit-wit'”:

• Your trainer is less than half your actual, not your pretend, age;
• You were born in ’58 and your trainer was born in ’85;
• You think kettle bells are called kettle balls; that should have been your first sign that you’re way out of touch;
• You call the bosu ball the bonsu ball; it’s something like your mother would do;
• You are a 40DD; are you out of your mind? Cross-fitters are like what? 32B?
• You get to where you’d rather get a face lift every month to avoid going to the gym;
• When you retire in 3-5 years you’ll probably be attending those 9 a.m. classes where they all sit in chairs and just move their arms.  So what the heck were you doing trying cross-fit anyway?

dmzh