Should I stop training completely when I have an overuse niggle?

Rarely. The usual approach is to reduce or modify the specific load that is driving the problem while continuing to train everything else, and to add targeted strength and mobility for the affected area. Full rest deconditions the tissue you eventually need to load again. See a physiotherapist for anything sharp, worsening, or persistent.

How gradually should I increase training volume?

Slowly enough that you can hold each step for a couple of weeks and still feel good. Change one variable at a time, whether that is volume, intensity, or a new modality, and rebuild after time off from the last week you comfortably tolerated rather than from where you left off.

How much exercise do I actually need for the health benefits?

Standard guidance is 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week plus two strength sessions. The important detail is that the steepest part of the benefit curve is going from nothing to something, so two sessions a week is a genuinely significant health change, not a compromise.

Three Pillars of Injury Prevention | Overuse Injury Pyramid

Three Pillars of Injury Prevention | Overuse Injury Pyramid from CrossFit BC. Training load, recovery, and prevention work. The overuse injury pyramid is the framework our Vancouver coaches use to decide how hard you train this week…

Written by:: CrossFit BC Coaching Team
Section:: Recovery
Reading time:: 10 min
Topics:: injury prevention, recovery, training load, mobility, strength, longevity
Published:: Sunday, August 9, 2026
Last updated:: Monday, August 10, 2026

The Three Pillars of Injury Prevention

This article is part of the CrossFit BC journal, written by the coaching staff who run our classes in Olympic Village, Vancouver. We publish what we teach on the floor: training decisions, recovery, nutrition, and the honest tradeoffs behind them.

Common questions

What is the overuse injury pyramid?

It is a coaching framework that groups the major drivers of overuse injury into three interacting pillars: training load (volume, intensity, modality), recovery (sleep, nutrition and hydration, hot and cold therapy, soft-tissue work), and prevention (strength, mobility, movement quality, plyometrics). It is used to decide where to intervene when something starts to hurt.

What is the most common cause of overuse injury?

A rapid change in training load, most often volume. Sessions per week or weekly running distance jumps faster than the tissue can adapt. The second most common cause is under-recovery, where the training load has not changed but sleep or fuelling has dropped.

Does strength training prevent injuries?

It is the single most protective form of prevention work we have. Stronger tissue tolerates more force, and strength work supports tendon and bone capacity so that running, jumping and lifting volume land on something that can handle them.