Genevieve

On Tuesday, Coach Wes posted a meme that was the perfect intro to today’s article. He had no idea what I planned to write about, but the fact that there is a meme about it says it’s a common occurrence.

In the midst of all the New Year’s resolutions and the hype of The Open coming up there tends to be an added pressure to ‘perform’ in the gym. People’s focus turns to the numbers on the board and the actual work being done becomes secondary. This leads to mediocre training just to get that score and very little actual progress. I challenge you to find a way that that is going to serve you in the future.

In my opinion, as a coach and an athlete, training is very rarely about the score. It’s much more about the quality of movement and the development of the skills so that I can progress. That’s not to say I don’t push my people or myself, only that if it’s a shitty rep, we’re not counting it. Yes, there are those who straight up shave reps (see below video), but in my opinion, it’s just as bad to count reps that you know aren’t up to par when you are trying to. Here’s why:

Let’s say I’m working on my toes to bar. I can get close, every once in awhile my toes get all the way up there, but for the most part I just do the work and say “eh, that’s close enough” with a good 8 inches between my toes and the bar. How am I EVER going to get better at the skill if I settle for mediocre? What do you think would happen if instead, during every single WOD with toes to bar, I held myself accountable and only counted the reps where my toes truly touched the bar? I’d probably progress more quickly because I’d get pretty damn tired of doing all those extra reps that didn’t count.

Another option I have here, is to take a step back in the progression. Maybe I never actually get my toes close to the bar, but I can get my knees to my elbows almost every time. What’s the better option here? Do shitty toes to bar reps or do proper knees to elbows reps? At least in the second option I’m practicing proper form and I’m going to develop the skill and my strength. Once I’m efficient in that progression, I can move back up and continue my progress. Poor practice makes for poor performance.  Proper practices makes for improvement.

Now let’s look at those rep shavers. ‘Karen’ is on the board (150 wall balls for time).. I’m scanning the scores from the earlier classes and I see that ‘John’ did it in 5:15. Well… I’m going to do it in 5:00! 3-2-1 go… rep after rep (let’s say for the sake of this scenario that all my reps are legitimately good).. I’m getting tired and no one else is counting my reps, but me….. Rep, rep, rep… oh jeez the clock says 4:45 and I’m only at 119… eh screw it, I have to beat John so I just call it at the 5:00 minute mark even though I only completed about 130 reps. No one will know. I report my score, Coach gives me a high five, and no one is the wiser.

A few weeks down the road, ‘Karen’  comes up again and we do it with a partner who helps keep count. Where am I now? I shaved 20 reps last time to get that score and I’ve done nothing between then and now to improve my ability in this WOD. I’m in trouble because there is no way I can repeat that score with a proper rep count… busted.

Guys, regardless of what your scenario is, it all boils down to integrity and diligence in your training. If you truly want to improve and succeed you have to hold yourself accountable. We as coaches do our best to give corrections and cues throughout, but I can’t stand next to you and count every rep or watch to make sure your toes hit that bar every time. There is always room for improvement and I am the first to admit that sometimes fatigue, injury, or whatever else affects the movement. If that’s the case, do your best at the proper progression, but don’t come report RX when 90% of the time your toes were 8 inches from the bar.

If you need help with a progression, ASK US. We are here to guide your progress so if there is something you’re struggling with or you don’t know the proper way to progress, get with your coach and we’ll figure it out, but don’t settle for mediocre movement for the sake of the score.

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Be excellent.
-Coach Gen

Today marks our final sunny day of January, and hopefully all of you are in hot pursuit of more fitness “wins” in 2017. Now that said I’m sure many of you like myself left a few things on the table in 2016.  The inconvenient truth is we all set out to accomplish something last year only to fall short (or maybe not even start at all).  

Most times this is less a product of effort and more a product having a flawed approach.  Often times people think that to improve at a specific movement they just need to keep practicing whatever movement it is they want to get better at. While the reality is there’s much more below the surface that needs to be corrected for that movement to progress. Confused? take the conversation below:

Athlete: “I want to add 20 lb. to my clean this year. My best right now is 200 lb.”
Coach: “What’s your 1 rep max front squat?”
Athlete: “I think around 210 lb. Why does my front squat matter?” It’s my clean I want to get better at.”

Clearly this person doesn’t see the same opportunity their coach does to improve the clean via squat strength improvement. That’s not an indictment of the athlete. It’s a simplistic example of the gap in experience and knowledge between a coach whose job it is to know this stuff inside and out, and an athlete who may be excited about what’s in front of them but hasn’t dug deeper to understand their own limiting factors.

Another example:

The athlete who can’t perform on overhead squat but wants to improve his snatch and thinks the answer is to spend an extra 20 minutes after class each day hammering away at snatches.

The better approach is to work with his coach who can provide him homework—probably a bunch of tedious seemingly unrelated drills, stretches, and fundamental movements that make him wonder how this will translate to the snatch—to help him gain stability overhead, and mobility in the hip, ankles, and upper back.  A far better approach than just hitting snatches four days a week hoping something will eventually click.

And since we’re on the cusp of the Open:

Athlete: “I want to get a muscle-up this year.”
Coach: “How many strict chest-to-bar pull-ups and ring dips can you do?”
Athlete: “1 or 2 ring dips and I don’t think I can do a strict chest-to-bar pull-up.”
Coach: “Well let’s start by improving your strict pulling and pushing strength before we get thinking about a muscle-up.”
Athlete: Makes a sad face.

The point is simply to say that getting better at cleans or snatches or muscle-ups or toes-to-bar involves way more than just logging time flailing around on the rings or a bar. It involves diagnosing what’s preventing you from improving—is it strength, is it positioning, or is it just a small technical correction?— then removing the limiting factors and building the necessary movement qualities to help you achieve that ultimate goal.

You can spend years using trial and error or spends hours a week researching on the internet trying to self diagnose why you still can’t do certain things. Or you can work with a great coach and start knocking those goats off your list systematically, and successfully. Let’s do it different in 2017. Get a coach, get a plan, and start winning.

Patience is a virtue. Ever hear that? You undoubtedly have, but how does this apply to exercise?  If I wait around to move, I won’t get stronger, leaner, insert any other goal-oriented adjective you’d like….

The patience I’m referring to could be viewed from two different, yet very similar situations. Let’s take a ride with John and Jane through their respective situations.

John is brand new to the world of exercise. He played football in middle school and has been pounding away at the keyboard with a steady diet of Cheetos and Mountain Dew ever since. He wants to get moving and is on fire right now for his New Year’s goals. He has done his research on local gyms and decides that going the 1-on-1 private training route is the best place for him to safely learn and begin.

He goes through 15 private sessions and decides he’s ready to move into group classes. John and his coach talk about being smart, and not getting in a rush when he transitions to the faster paced group classes. He takes several months, progressing at a slow, steady pace. He decides after a few months that there are a few movements that he is ready to tackle, and schedules another private session with his coach. The coach assesses, and decides that John is not ready for the next level movement just yet, but assigns certain drills to aid John in his progress toward his goals. John is diligent with his homework and patient with his progress. This patience pays off, and he’s rewarded with successful completion of his first set of kipping pull-ups!

Jane is the exact opposite of John. She is an ex-collegiate athlete, with weightlifting and gymnastic experience. She is a STUD! Jane has done CrossFit for nearly 2 years, when work transfers her to a different state. Jane is a social butterfly and quickly gets involved in the Social Sports group scene in her new city…and blows out her knee in the first month. After surgery, rehab with her Physical Therapist, and a few sessions with a trainer bridging the gap between the therapy room and weight room…Jane is itching to get back to her old self. She goes light and moves smart in her first week back. Jane is feeling GOOD. The following week she decides that she is ready to attempt close to the same weights she was moving prior to surgery as well as moving at the same pace/speed. Wrong! Crack,snap, pop. She’s back on the floor because she rushed her recovery which sets her back another 6-8 months. In the meantime, ‘ole John is cruising at his pace, and surpasses all of his goals for the year!

All that to say, no matter where you begin…you have to listen to your body and respect the weights/movements that you are attempting. You can’t rush progress. It is a compilation of correctly-focused work and drills. The CrossFit Open is right around the corner. Keep Jane in mind, and be like John. Constant quality begets longevity!

Play smart,
Coach Tim