Please be careful with your weights. Control the weights on their descent
I know that many of us, myself included, started working out not to become a better athlete necessarily, but just to get in better shape. The more I do this, though, the more I feel that inner athlete yearning to get out. What we do is a sport, and one of the most exciting ways to participate in sports is to test yourself. Of course we do this each time we work out – but did you ever want to get out and see what you could do outside of our walls? Go try a 5k, Mud Run, mini Tri-Athalon, or join a Basketball or Volleyball league or Martial Arts.
“Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction.”
- William James, American psychologist and philosopher
You hear a lot of people in CrossFit talking about training their weaknesses, and while this is great in practice (who, after all, really wants to have “chinks” in their armor) it’s really fun and exciting to work on the skills at which you naturally excel, love doing, and consider to be your strengths. I for one love when a workout comes up that hits all my strengths, and while this may not do as much for me in terms of training my weaknesses, damn it’s fun – and also usually really hard! Remember that training strengths is how specialists become the best in the world – they find the one thing that they’re great at, and do nothing but train in those areas that will make them better at that one skill or sport (Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, etc).
Since there are so many areas that go into making an elite level CrossFitter, you will naturally have strengths in certain areas. Have you identified them? Have you set a goal? Are you training in those areas? And are you seeing progress?
Some one had a good workout. The left their sweat ghost behind..lol
What inspires you? What makes you work harder and think bigger when it comes to CrossFit? For me – I’m reminded to think big by the brand new students. It’s SCARY to walk in this place. Maybe you have never seen this kind of equipment before. Maybe you have never done Olympic lifts. Where are the mirrors? Where are the machines? For people to step outside their comfort zone, walk into a gym like none they’ve ever seen, walk into group of strangers and do something that requires, at its core, NOT looking good — that is a big and courageous step. I am constantly re-inspired by the new students that walk in the door and take on CrossFit. Despite any trepidation, they know that something bigger is out there on the horizon for them. For us all!
Why are you always hearing those words when you squat, “Hips back! Hips back!” Well, using the overhead squat as an example, the plane of the bar should bisect the body. Meaning, if you were split in two by the bar, half your weight should be in front of it and half behind it. In order to accomplish this, you need to push your hips back behind you. This engages the muscles in the backs of your legs, plants your weight in your heels, and positions your weight evenly underneath the bar.
In the photos below, you can see on the left what happens when you do NOT push your hips back. Your weight ends up in your toes, your quads are working overtime, and your knees are pushed far out in front. Most of your weight is in front of the bar. This is a precarious and unstable position.
The photo on the right is much closer to a proper overhead squat. The knees and hips are back and the shoulders are much more open. Although, to achieve a more solid connection between the heels and the ground, a good pair of weight lifting shoes would help get the squat form even closer to perfect!
If you’re anything like me, you don’t stretch enough. It’s not glamorous. It’s nothing like picking up a barbell, doing “Fran” or running a 5k. Stretching is something you do for a few minutes to warm up your joints, swinging your leg, and arms, or rolling your neck.
But what about performance? If I told you that by stretching, and gaining an improved range of motion that was “already there”, low lying fruit that by taking five minutes before a workout, you would capture, and subsequently increase your back squat or deadlift by 30+ lbs, increase the load you could hold overhead in the bottom of a snatch, or improve your “Fran” time by 30 seconds. Would you do it? For me, that answer is YES. No, it’s HELL YES. What about you?
Some of you have already had the pleasure of working out with Marcela. For those of you that have not….here she is. Marcela has been with us for a few weeks now and is adapting to CrossFit pretty well. Marcela is a Nurse Practitioner, wife and mother of 2 children. When she is not CrossFitting, she likes to Skydive and Bunjee jump. Marcela also shared that she is a very competitive and very dedicated individual…..Two traits that work well with CrossFit. Welcome Marcela!
Everybody has a movement that drives them crazy. A movement that makes them groan when they see it being written out on the whiteboard, and they think, “WHEN will I ever get better at this?” For many people this movement is the double under. As a coach, I see no other movement that can turn a perfectly happy student into a grumpy individual faster than a double under.
So, what’s your “double under”? And WILL you ever get better?? Well, all you have to do to answer that question is ask yourself one more: Are you practicing this movement regularly? If not – then the answer is, at best, possibly a long time from now, or at worst, never! That’s no good at all.
Make a commitment to love your “double under” and make it your strength. Practice twenty reps a day for eight weeks and see what happens.
One of the central claims in CrossFit is that the fitness you get by participating is “functional.” Well, what should the measure of functional be outside of the gym? In 1926 a gentleman by the name of Earle Liederman published a book in which he claimed that every man should be able to save his own life (sorry, ladies – back in the day women couldn’t save their own lives), and he included the 5 benchmarks that would ensure that you could count on yourself in the event of an emergency – they include standards for swimming, running, jumping, pull ups, and dips. Liederman claims that “If [a man] can accomplish these things he need have no fear concerning the safety of his life should he be forced into an emergency from which he alone may be able to save himself.” Look here to see how you measure up. Ladies too.
Fitness doesn’t just have to be about training hard in the gym. In fact, one of the most important parts of fitness is to get out there and do stuff… fun stuff… adventurous stuff… play games, sports, be active. After all, what’s the point of all the hard work if you’re not going out and using it in the rest of your life!
What new sport are you gonna try?
World Class Fitness in 100 Words
1. Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
2. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch.
3. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.
4. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.
5. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.
6. Regularly learn and play new sports
