Back in 2011, discussion of Achilles injuries secondary to box jumps was not that prevalent. All of us in the CrossFit world were doing fast, rebounding, high-rep box jumps. Maximum “suck” could be derived from cycling these reps are quickly as humanly possible.

In fact, back then, there were some interesting methods of effective speed on box jumps, some of which included “resting at the top” which would necessarily require a hearty rebound from the floor, and one coach in my sphere insisting on “popping” off the floor. He would actually coach that very thing – “I want to see that POP!” This is not a joke.

Then, in 2011, the entire paradigm shifted when CrossFit went from having sectionals as the first step in qualifying for the CrossFit Games, to an online Open. This fact resulted in worldwide participation as, as a result, worldwide sharing of information, strategy, technique, and results, via various social media platforms. Mostly, in those days, that meant discussion forums.

CrossFit Open workout 11.2 consisted of deadlifts, box jumps, and pushups. Word began to spread like wildfire from that point on that box jumps equated to Achilles ruptures and anecdotes of torn Achilles’ started coming out, but we, as a community, were slow to catch on. No one, yet, considered stepping down from a box jump. At least this was not widely considered because even if it was mentioned, it seemed highly counterintuitive to the speed of CrossFit and therefore largely ignored.

Later that year, the first in a number of high-profile Achilles tears occurred. Kate Rawlings, a competitor in the 2010 Games, tore her Achilles on rep 27 of the box jumps doing Filthy 50. She says, in her blog, “The box jumps were going smoothly as always until I popped off the box at rep 27…” (Read the full blog entry here). There’s that word again, “pop.”

Responding to the grassroots swell of commentary, the CrossFit Games introduced a new standard in 2012. In 12.3, they allowed stepping down, with the caveat that you must still “jump up” onto the box. That year, there were no notable injuries, at least in the Open. However, high-rep box jumps did find their way into the Masters games that year in both the individual events and the Masters events. The individuals had box jump overs (see Foucher, 2015) and the masters had standard box jumps. I watched those masters heats and don’t recall anyone stepping down.

As the grassroots efforts to avoid injuries began to swell, many boxes began to convert to a “must step down” standard. More and more, discussion on social media was beginning to show a community-wide acceptance of the fact that stepping down from box jumps was in fact, as fast, sometimes faster, and much more safe. At least, on a general training level, this seemed to work and make logical sense.

Fast forward to 2013. For the first time, the CrossFit Games allowed, in the Open, stepping up and stepping down. It seems that CrossFit was listening to the concerns of the wider community and implementing changes that would keep people injury-free. In fact, most people who initially tested 13.2 with box jumps, re-tested it with step up/step downs, and found that their scores improved dramatically. Stepping up and down allowed you to continue to work while maintaining some capacity to breathe. While this seems counterintuitive (that is, box jumps should crush you, shouldn’t they?), it was effective and extremely safe.

Unfortunately, at the Regionals competition that year, box jumps again made a return, this time with higher boxes. The workout was that combination of deadlifts and box jumps that had been widely criticized in 2011, and the concern seem to be centered around the loading of the posterior chain with extremely heavy deadlift coupled with the pop off the floor which would result in a particularly fatigued Achilles and thus make it more susceptible to injury.

My initial thought here is that it’s not the deadlifts in the Regional workout but rather, the height of the box: 24” for women, 30” for men. This is a height that virtually eliminates any reasonable ability to step down, and, with a fairly low rep scheme (21-15-9) of deadlifts and box jumps, the name of the game here is speed. Everyone will rebound, and everyone did – including Cheryl Brost.

Brost ruptured her Achilles in that event – event 5 of the Northwest Regionals. You can see the injury occur here, and listen to Brost as she explains what occurred. Pop.

And of course, there’s Julie Foucher, at the Central Regional in 2015. With a realistic shot at the podium this year, Foucher is at the top of her game. She was a few dozen jumps into the 100 box jump overs at the beginning of Day 2 when she rebounded off the floor and…pop.

You Can’t Avoid Box Jumps

Box jumps have shown up in every single open since 2011, every single regionals, and every single games. They are here to stay in the competition setting. In addition, CrossFit gyms everywhere still do and will continue to program these on a weekly basis, as they are a very good means of training not only hip explosion but overall conditioning as well. Jumping up on a box 10 times every round for 20 minutes is hard work, and leaves you out of breath. It’s a cornerstone of the CrossFit culture, and it’s not going anywhere.

The question then becomes, how does one effectively protect him or herself from an Achilles injury and still get the benefit of the conditioning value that comes with box jumps?

Four Ways To Modify To Make them Safer

As we discussed, it’s nearly universally accepted that the pop off the floor, the violent rebound, is the culprit that causes the injury. Consider the Achilles tendon like an already extremely tight guitar string. You can strum the strings normally, as what occurs to your Achilles while say, walking or running. You can bang them pretty hard, Pete Townshend-style, as in playing pickup basketball, Parkour, or other sports where the impact is intermittent, and increase the odds of an injury, or; you can pound on E string every 3 seconds with a hammer, i.e. high-rep rebounding box jumps, and increase the odds 100-fold of breaking that string.

So let’s eliminate the “pop.” How do we do that?

1. Step down. This is the obvious choice and one that gyms should, if they haven’t already mandate. There is zero reason that a box offering GPP should be either allowing or worse, compelling, rebounding off the bottom.
2. Interrupt the movement at the bottom. Here, if you introduce some other element that interrupts the movement, then rebounding is no longer an option. For example, burpee-box jumps overs are perfect because they require a logical break in the activity on the floor. There is no rebound if one has to execute a burpee. Rather, you drop off the box (or step down) and perform a burpee, and because there is no “pop”, the likelihood of an Achilles injury nearly disappears.
3. Pause. For training purposes, this works well although it’s not effective for competition. Even if you jump off the box, the intention of stopping at the bottom simply requires that you absorb the force at the bottom rather than marshaling that force back into momentum up, which all culminates directly in your Achilles tendon.
4. Decrease box height. Think about this – if you are working with a box that is simply too high to jump onto without a full explosive effort, you can’t and won’t rebound. For me, being 5’8”, this is about 34 inches. Imagine the workout I would get if there were 10 box jumps in a round at 34”. I would literally have to have a second box next to my 34” box to serve as a step. I use all my force to jump, step down onto my second box, recover and jump again…impractical? Not at all. Very advantageous from explosiveness, body awareness, and conditioning standpoint.

While Achilles injuries can be eliminated at the gym-level easily, the key here is to make them safer at the Games level where athletes are utilizing speed to get the workouts done in order to win. In this case, either Option 1 or 2 above would be very effective.

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