Why Certain Movements Challenge Trauma Survivors
One way to understand the difficulty some trauma survivors experience with certain CrossFit movements is through the lens of vulnerability and evolutionary biology. Consider the thruster: weighted bar overhead, throat exposed, torso vulnerable, psoas lengthened. Evolutionarily, this position may register as radical. Animals expose themselves to intimidate, but when we hold weight above our heads, we’re unable to defend ourselves, and the body may read this openness as risk.
This could explain why movements like thrusters, overhead presses, handstands, and bench presses feel particularly challenging for some trauma survivors. When the body experiences fear, the psoas complex contracts and pulls the torso toward the legs to protect the viscera. It’s the fetal position, the defensive curl. CrossFit appears to demand the opposite: lengthening the psoas, keeping the body open under load, potentially asking the nervous system to override its protective instincts.
One athlete described turning into a ball every time her alcoholic father raged. Coming out of that ball and standing tall with her chest open was her greatest challenge. The thruster became that challenge. Another athlete spent years in the fetal position grieving painful losses. Learning to open her body took three years. “There is power in being open,” she said, “instead of being closed.”
Then CrossFit adds another layer: perform these vulnerable movements under metabolic stress. Jump off the airbike breathless and execute a single-arm snatch with precision. Run a mile, then climb a rope. The body floods with adrenaline, breath shortens, but the mind must stay sharp. This pairing — high arousal with cognitive execution — may be what separates CrossFit from running on a treadmill or lifting in isolation, creating conditions where the nervous system must adapt rather than avoid.
Community as the Container
None of this works without safety. Not the absence of challenge, but the presence of support. Good coaches cue breath during engine work. Workouts have time caps and scaling options. The box becomes a place where intensity is expected but survivable, where effort is witnessed but not judged.
Community matters because trauma isolates. Research on “recovery capital” — the sum of resources, relationships, and beliefs that sustain recovery — shows that transforming trauma happens in connection. CrossFit builds this across physical, social, and communal domains. Athletes show up not just to get strong, but to belong. They face challenges together, adapt together, and prove to themselves and in the presence of others that they can handle what once felt impossible.
The Unintentional Intersection
CrossFit was never designed to treat trauma. Early leaders weren’t thinking about the nervous system’s response to violence or the aftermath of interpersonal harm. They designed a program to build adaptable human beings who were strong in body, focused in mind, and able to tolerate discomfort and uncertainty.
But that mission intersects profoundly with what trauma recovery requires. The workouts demand presence, regulation, and the willingness to stay engaged when every instinct urges withdrawal. Done with awareness and optimized by therapeutic support, CrossFit becomes more than fitness. It becomes a rehearsal for a different life: one where stress doesn’t equal danger, where challenge builds capacity, and where the body learns it can remain open, act with strength, and emerge not just surviving, but growing.
For Coaches and Gym Owners
You don’t need to become a therapist. What this series offers is awareness: understanding that when an athlete freezes, withdraws, or pushes relentlessly, there may be more happening beneath the surface than a bad day or poor mindset. Your role remains the same — create safe, structured, and respectful environments, offer scaling options, cue breath and presence, and respect each athlete’s autonomy to engage at their own pace. The rest is between the athlete and their recovery process.
For Athletes
If this series resonates with you, trust that instinct. Trauma and recovery look different for everyone — what triggers one person may empower another, and that’s OK. You don’t need a trauma-informed gym to begin using CrossFit as part of your recovery, but you do need an environment that feels safe. If your current one doesn’t, find a different one. Look for a gym that challenges you without overwhelming you, feels genuinely supportive, and respects your autonomy.
Start by paying attention to what movements feel difficult — not just physically, but emotionally. Notice when your body wants to shut down or push past its limits. Scale appropriately. Breathe. Show up, even when it’s hard, and honor your body’s signals when it needs to back off. Both things can be true at once.
If you’re working with a therapist, share what you’re noticing in your workouts. If you’re not, consider whether professional support might help you process what surfaces. The body can heal on its own through movement and community, but conscious engagement with a trained professional can deepen and accelerate that healing. You deserve both the challenge and the support.
About the Author
Dr. Stephanie Arel specializes in trauma and the body’s role in healing. She holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University with a focus on trauma, and has clinical training in somatic experiencing, psychoanalysis, and trauma rehabilitation.
For over 20 years, Arel has developed rehabilitation approaches for people with traumatic injuries, including brain injury and PTSD. A former competitive ballroom dancer and lifelong movement practitioner, she brings an embodied understanding to trauma recovery that bridges clinical theory and lived experience.
Arel teaches at Fordham University, and works with chaplains, ministers, and private clients navigating severe physical and psychological trauma. She integrates somatic experiencing, psychoanalysis, and meaning-making to help individuals and organizations heal the body, psyche, and spirit as an interconnected whole.
Learn More
In this episode of the CrossFit Podcast, host Jocelyn Rylee sits down with Dr. Stephanie Arel, whose work bridges religion and psychology. She holds a master’s degree in religion and psychiatry, and a Ph.D. in theology and trauma studies, along with clinical training and experience working at an eating disorder hospital. Drawing on her academic research, clinical work with trauma survivors, and personal journey as a CrossFit athlete, Arel explores how CrossFit’s methodology intersects with trauma recovery.