Toni Pérez, Physiotherapist: “Hyrox Is the Perfect Sport”

Sedentarism is no longer fashionable. Now the goal is to sign up for physical activity. And that is good for health, but an excess of motivation when it comes to loading dumbbells can take its toll. The physiotherapist and science communicator Toni Pérez, @fisioteduca on social networks, author of the book “Don’t Get Injured Anymore” and one of our guests at WeLife Festival 2026. 

With two million followers on social media, he has taken his crusade against physical harm caused by poorly planned and poorly executed sport very seriously, enough to enroll in a degree in Exercise Science and Sports Studies to complement his training and broaden his approach to treatment and prevention. . 

Healing the Aftereffects of CrossFit

It’s not your imagination: more and more people of all ages are taking up sport, and you don’t need to detail one by one the physical, mental and even sociological benefits of movement. The dark side of this fitness fever is that injuries have increased.

However, Toni Pérez does not see it as worrying, but as a natural evolution. What does concern him is that amateur athlete who overdoes it, who overtrains and whom he frequently encounters in his clinic. “I don’t like to talk about ‘injury-prone’, because nothing is. Although in CrossFit I have indeed seen many people dive in headfirst without a basic level of coordination or athleticism.

Walking into the box and wanting to emulate those who have been training for months or years is subjecting the body to a level of muscular effort and coordination for which it is not prepared. Starting in a sport like CrossFit at an Olympic-athlete level “is like shooting yourself in the foot. It’s a fixed injury. It is a discipline for which you have to be a top-tier athlete”, he explains.

There Are Too Many ‘Experts’ and a Lack of Quality Information

Un scroll rápido por redes sociales nos permite localizar miles de perfiles con nula formación que prescriben entrenamientos sin parpadear. Por no hablar de quienes se plantan en el gimnasio con un plan de entrenamiento generado por su IA favorita. O con la rutina de tal o cual influencer. De ahí a la lesión van dos tiradas de dado.

“There are many variables that must be taken into account before embarking on a new discipline, starting with considering how our lives are structured and what role physical activity plays in them. Those who are not professional athletes lead everyday lives with factors that add weight to that “backpack” which can lead to an injury. Among them are work, commuting, responsibilities, and, of course, stress.”

But what a trainer can spot at a glance, the influencer cannot even sense. AI, simply, does not see it. That is why it is so important to trust a qualified trainer to help us progress gradually. 

No Pain… No Gain?

Toni Pérez advocates dispelling a very harmful myth: the already worn-out No Pain No Gain (no pain, no gain).

First, he emphasizes that we must start by learning to distinguis h between soreness and the pain that signals possible damage. “Soreness is not some broken crystal, nor lactic acid, as has always been said,” he begins. “In reality, they are micro-injuries. It’s important to note that if, after seven days, they persist, we can talk about a small muscle tear,” he adds.

Range of motion is another reliable factor to distinguish an injury from soreness. When a muscle hurts, we inhibit that movement. “If, for example, in five days you can’t extend that arm without pain after working the biceps, then we may be dealing with an injury.” And needless to say that, even if your favorite influencer keeps insisting you should keep going to the gym with fervor, prudence suggests giving the affected muscle a rest. One day or several days of active rest do not compromise training results and do help prevent a small crack from turning into a serious muscle tear.

Training Is Not About Pushing Yourself to the Limit

Warns about that terrible belief that if there is no physical suffering, you have not trained well. “As a future trainer, I can tell you that I find a lot of misinformation in this regard. The goal cannot be to reach failure and not be able to do more repetitions. It is much more important the speed at which you move a load than the point you want to reach. Overloading the muscle also overloads your nervous system. You should conceive of this system as an electrical network in our body. If you load it too much, it suffers,” he adds.

He warns against the opposite extreme as well. “It will always be more dangerous to train too little. If you never exercise, you fall into a loop that’s very hard to get out of. If you injure yourself by moving, you will recover. Always (always) it is better to get injured.”

Hyrox and Tennis, the Winners

Every so often a sport becomes popular and begins to be practiced en masse. First running, then CrossFit, and more recently Hyrox.

If he has to choose one, Toni Pérez does not choose one, but two. “For me Hyrox is the perfect discipline. Moreover, I think sooner or later it will become an Olympic sport. I like it because this hybrid training combination of endurance and strength is healthier and more forgiving for the body,” he concludes.

His second option is tennis, one of the sports that most promote longevity.  “It is very enjoyable at the amateur level because you can play it with a minimal physical base,” he says.