The fitness industry is growing at a rapid pace, which in turn has led to the birth of many self-declared healthcare experts. With new trends and fads every day, it is important for people to understand their body type and consult a doctor before picking up any intensive exercise form.
What can happen during unregulated workouts?
This is especially true for high intensity workout regimes like CrossFit. For those unfamiliar with CrossFit, the exercise focuses on high intensity interval training, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics and calisthenics. This exercise is a type of strength and conditioning workout that uses your own body weight for resistance in order to build power all over. It is a combination of intense cardio and strength training which targets all areas of your body.
While CrossFit training is great for improving physical conditioning and versatility, a disorderly workout can lead to a brain stroke! Therefore, it becomes critical to recognize that while keeping physically active is the key to a healthy lifestyle, it’s best to check with your doctor before you push yourself off limits.
How CrossFit can lead to a stroke
The brain communicates with the whole body as the nerve fibers descend down through the neck and then spread all over. The blood supply to the brain also comes up from the neck in the form of four big tubes (called carotid and vertebral arteries), two in the front and two at the back. These blood vessels are vulnerable to injury and damage.
Any vigorous neck movement that pulls the neck backward or pushes it forward can injure the blood vessels. Injury to the blood vessel is known as dissection in medical terms and can lead to the devastating paralytic attack or brain attack. Any vigorous exercise if not done in proper form can lead to dissection of neck blood vessels.
(Dr. Chandril Chugh, Senior Consultant & Head – Interventional Neurology Max Super Speciality Hospital, Saket)
