> I’m thinking an intense workout with good form and control vs. a standard CrossFit workout

A standard CrossFit without is done with good form and control.

Most CrossFit gyms aim for good form and control. All workouts can be scaled, if you can't lift a certain weight, or perform a certain movement you scale it down to a weight or movement you can do comfortably.

For instance, if you were asked to perform a workout which required handstand push-ups and you couldn't do them, you could scale to a box and do a more triangular movement, or you could grab some dumbbells and push-press. If a movement said 100kg deadlift and you can only comfortably deadlift 40kg then you would use 40kg instead.

Most coaches will talk through this and if you have questions, they'll mostly be happy to answer. Of course there are some coaches out there which aren't doing their job correctly, but most of them are really good at what they do.

Crossfit now aims for good form and control.

That wasn't true several years ago during the Uncle Rhabdo phase, and Crossfit only changed its tune because of the overwhelming bad press about injury rates. Back then, it was about doing exercises as fast and as many times as possible.

and as any other transition, it takes time to incorporate. A lot of gyms and coaches I still see those days know/care very little about proper form and exercise individualization, periodization to make it safer.

Since you have such specific demands for a study that will satisfy your prejudices, I think you should find it yourself instead of demanding other, more resourceful and open minded people find it for you.

Powerlifting is probably the most dangerous weight lifting discipline, because of the bench press[1]. Almost all of these are due to lifting alone, without a spotter, and without proper safety mechanisms (like a rack with crossbars). This seems to be a downvote happy thread, but this needs to be said: Don't bench without a spotter or safety gear. Ever!

[1] https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2003/05001/U_S__...

I don't bench that often, but I do it without a spotter or safety gear. I use normal grip (not the thumbless "suicide" grip), never go to failure, do medium-low weight/medium-high reps (8-12), and most importantly, I don't lock the weights, so worst comes to worst, I can always just tilt the bar and drop the weights...

If the worst comes to worst, push the bar down to your belly. You have saved your neck this way, giving yourself the chance to tilt the bar in a controlled manner after a breath. If you are already failing, tilting the bar might be too much without more O2

Sure, but "failure" isn't "dropping the bar on your throat"... that would be catastrophic failure that shouldn't really happen (and not even a spotter could save you). When I lift, "failure" is usually just "can't lift the bar to the top" so there's more than enough strength to lower it a bit to tilt it...

I always had both of those things (and a coach).

My personal injury was a pinched sciatic nerve brought on by a session of improper deadlifting. I made the mistake of rushing through a workout near when I was lifting my heaviest. Took about 3 months for the pain to go away.