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Let’s be honest, the overhead squat is a constant headache for most CrossFitters.  Yes, there are plenty of other skills that are much more complex, such as the muscle-up, hand-stand walks, and all that other jazz, but  the general population involved in CrossFit to simply get in shape will not be doing those movements.  The overhead squat is different. This is a movement that we see everyday in Met-cons, from Level 1 Foundations all the way to Level 3 Competitive. We are exposed to this movement a lot, which means a higher percentage of people doing it wrong.  You way be looking in the wrong spots to become more proficient at the overhead squat.

Ankle Flexibility

This is not typically the one that people look at first, but being an Olympic Weightlifting Coach and knowing what the Weightlifting shoes do for people, this is usually my first observation.  One of the hardest things to do in the overhead squat is to keep the torso upright.  To some extent, we can get away with the torso being slightly forward in the traditional back squat or front squat.  In the overhead squat the torso angle directly affects the shoulder angle in attempting to keep the bar over our hips.  The inability of the ankles to properly dorsiflex will cause the hips to rise when attempting full depth, which will push your torso forward and put your shoulders in a less than desirable position.  An easy fix for this would be raising the heal with a 5kg plate or the use of weightlifting shoes.  No matter what, you must continue to work on ankle flexibility.  I have had some fantastic luck with voodoo floss around the ankles and inch-worms.

Thoracic Spine Mobility

Many of the athletes at CFA have heard this over and over, but it is important.  Often tightness and hyperkyphosis here will make the overhead position impossible. You can also identify if you have a “pivot point” in your spine.  Athletes will commonly get extension from a certain location on the spine, which neglects the other vertebrae.  To test this lie on your stomach and press up with you arms.  You should theoretically have a nice fluid curvature of the spine, but sometimes you will see the back angle more aggressively (usually in the lumbar spine), and other locations with much less extension (usually the thoracic spine).  If you see this in yourself, chances are you are trying to get extension from your lumbar spine that you should be getting from your thoracic spine.  By simply getting into that position for 30 minutes a night while you watch T.V. and focusing on letting your t-spine and shoulder blades relax , will make a difference.  You can also try getting a half foam roller or a rolled up towel and lie on it with your spine perpendicular to it. Start it at the bottom of your T-spine and work your way up to the top, lying flat and trying to relax your back around the roll. Lastly,  regular foam rolling up and down the T-spine will help mobilize it.

Strength

This last one is probably the most important.  The fact is that you have to be strong to do this movement.  I have seen plenty of individuals with the flexibility to get into great positions, but can barely support the PVC pipe.  This takes patience. You must build up your strength and mobility before pushing your self into a position that you are not prepared for.  If you force bad positions simply to get full range of motion in a work-out, you are heading backwards in your fight to be a bad-ass.  In the world of CrossFit there is a constant pressure to become proficient in many movements, really fast.  That’s not the way it works for most individuals.  So remember, Air Squat>Back Squat>Front Squat>Overhead Squat.  When you work through that progression and you find difficulty in a certain movement, THEN YOU STOP.  If you have overhead squats in a workout and you do not feel comfortable enough, especially at high intensity, then work your way down the progression until you do.  This goes for all movements in CrossFit.  In your off time work on your strength and flexibility at a low intensity, and you will be there in no time.

-Coach Thomas Lower

Programming update for the next 4 weeks

Today’s article is short and sweet. We enter into the final 4 weeks of our 8 week cycle with a focus on work capacity. More specifically, we focus on our ability to work through fatigue, manage blood lactate, and push outside of our comfort zone.  This cycle will also mark the 2nd week of Olympic lifts focused on the “hip” position, as well as continued  skill work on kipping pull-ups and overhead squats. Below is a day by day overview of what our next 4 weeks will look like.

Monday
– Olympic Lifts from the hip
– Conditioning aimed to improve aerobic capacity at higher intensities, efficiency, and resilience to fatigue

Tuesday
– Overhead and Gymnastics skill work
– Conditioning aimed to improve aerobic capacity at higher intensities, efficiency, and resilience to fatigue

Wednesday
– Olympic Lifts from the hip
– Short and hard  interval work designed to improve top end work capacity at higher intensities, as well the ability to actually work at higher intensities

Thursday
– Full body strength work with a focus on squatting, bending, and horizontal pressing

Friday
– Fundamental skill work
– Longer conditioning bouts aimed at improving resilience to fatigue, the ability to recover, and the ability to recover actively

Saturday
– Longer conditioning bouts aimed at improving resilience to fatigue, the ability to recover, and the ability to recover actively

Lets get ready to work, folks.  Should be a great 4 weeks!

-Coach Wes

On Tuesday’s podcast we spent a full hour on how to start “building a base” for your fitness. By the end we agreed on a theoretical continuum for the concept that basically amounted to the following:

Great Movement Quality  —> Strength —-> Aerobic Capacity

Today I want to start focusing on how to build a base for great movement quality. One of the most common mobility issues we see in the gym is a lack of dorsiflexion at the ankle. In common terms, the dorsiflexion is the ability pull the top of your foot closer to your shin.

Lack of dorsiflexion affects several movements. It primarily affects our ability to squat and run efficiently, and to a lesser extent our ability to get into a strong set position for a clean, snatch, or deadlift. Why is this problematic? Simply put, when you lack health appropriate range of motion (ROM) in a joint your body will try and find that ROM elsewhere.  That can be anything from the low back, knees, or shoulders depending on the movement.

So that raises the question, what can we do? For starters be patient! Immobile ankles aren’t a quick fix.  Go into the journey to supple ankles knowing that consistent effort over the long haul is going to yield the best results. Also, to improve make sure you’re wearing the appropriate foot wear. A discussion on proper footwear is outside the scope of this article, but know that high heels, flip flops, vibrams, and cushiony running/basketball shoes aren’t your friends when it comes to proper foot and ankle function. Go for a combination of a low profile cross trainers, like the Reebok Nano or the Nike Free, and a good set of weightlifting shoes.

In terms or exercises for the ankle, we want to take a 3 pronged attack:

1. Self myofascial release (lacrosse/soft ball rolling and foam rolling)

2. Flexibility exercises for the calves

3. Direct mobility work for the ankle joint

Here are simple videos for each category of attacking you ankle ROM. Doing these 3 simple things daily will dramatically improve your ankle function. Enjoy!

1. Self myofascial release

2. Flexibility

3. Mobility

-Coach Wes

In pursuit of programming mastery, my weekly readings have been centered around the subject of “fatigue”. I believe If someone can understand the mechanisms of fatigue they could program workouts to bypass its effects or, at the very least, delay them.  In doing so athletes will become stronger and produce more power consistently over a wide range of durations.  I have compartmentalized fatigue into two categories.  Survival, which is the basis of how fatigue happens, and Thrive, which is how to adapt and surpass fatigue.

Survive
Instinctually we are hardwired to survive. Our bodies want to be safe.  In fact your Central Nervous System  (CNS) is constantly monitoring everything in real time just to make sure of it.  So it’s no surprise that the CNS is the control center for fatigue.  This might come as a surprise but fatigue doesn’t originate in your muscles.  Your muscles only send messages via the nervous system saying they are “working hard”. Your brain gives you the “feeling” of fatigue by decoding the messages received. Yes, fatigue is a “feeling”, just like being sad or angry.  You can read more about this theory from the great mind of Professor Noakes here.

We will use “Fran” as an example to explain further,

Fran
21-15-9
Thrusters 95#
Pull ups

By the time you hear 3,2,1… and throughout the entire WOD your body is monitoring your emotional and mental state, hydration, oxygenation, ATP production,  how recovered you are from previous workouts, prior experiences with the weight prescribed, duration, movements, motivation, self-belief, respiration, movement rhythm, heat, etc.  Every second during the workout the CNS is making decisions based on what it takes to survive the stresses placed on the body.  The CNS is very conservative when making decisions!  Only allowing 30-50% of muscles to be recruited during prolonged exercise and 60% during max efforts. In other words, it doesn’t let you get close to dying, or achieve max power output.  But,  in rare cases, this survival mechanism can be manipulated or inhibited.  Take the following news story about a 22 year old girl lifting a 3,500 pound jeep off her dad.  The limits of the human body is still in exploration.  This is even true for us, no matter how old we are.

Thrive
How do we thrive in the face of fatigue?  From a programming standpoint, I can trick the body into working harder by manipulating sets, reps, and rest ranges, or coupling certain exercises together to get max power output.  As for athletes, it is a choice they must make. Below is an excerpt from Professor Noakes article:

“In the case of a close finish the CGM (Central Governing Model) was clearly successful – neither athlete died. But if the second runner did not die, why did he not run just a little faster and so approach death a little closer? For surely he could have sped up by just a fraction without dying? Yet he did not. Why not?

My unproven hypothesis is it is that in the case of a close finish, physiology does not determine who wins. Rather somewhere in the final section of the race, the brains of the second, and lower placed finishers accept their respective finishing positions and no longer choose to challenge for a higher finish.”

“Accepted their respective finishing positions”…

This statement is haunting on many levels, not only from a psychological perspective, but also how it mirrors our experiences in the gym on a daily basis. Such as, making choices mid-workout whether to pick up the bar, go faster, get in one more rep,  or succumb to the feeling of fatigue.  With that said, it is not about what place you take in a workout, but the choices you make regarding “effort” that matters most.

I would like to say nobody will notice what you choose, but that would be a lie.  Plato said it best, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”  I have seen athletes time and time again make the conscious decision to push themselves to unimagined limits.  Regardless of what place they are in during a workout or competition, it is always noticed and many times becomes a catalyst for others to do the same.

Things to Consider
– Are you exploring new limits or enjoying your current level of safety fitness?
– Is setting goals helping or hurting?  Is setting goals limiting what we can imagine?
– Does “Fitness” mean the absence of fatigue? Or is “fitness” learning to tolerate/desensitize ourselves while experiencing more fatigue in an effort to achieve self exploration?
– Are you Thriving or Surviving?

-Coach Aaron Davis

The Olympic lifts, or the Snatch and Clean & Jerk, have been getting a lot of attention the past few years. Some of it is due to CrossFit, maybe a little more to do with the fact that strength and conditioning professionals are becoming more educated. In the fight against squat-suited up muscle heads and Richard Simmons step class bodybuilders, how do we stand a chance? First, lets get a little background.

The sport of weightlifting has been traced back more than 5,000 years to the walls of ancient Egypt and Chinese transcripts. Many of the apparatus’s used included stones, dumbbells, and other heavy objects, but almost always were from the ground to overhead.

The first weightlifting competitions were held in the late 1800’s in Europe, and the first world champion was crowned in 1891. It was simple and pure. The goal was to find the strongest man, so there were no weight-classes. It began with a two-hand and a one-hand lift, which later progressed to the press, snatch, and clean & jerk. Today we know it just as the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. With the surge of CrossFit and the reinstatement of the lifts in the strength and conditioning world, people are beginning to see the benefits of lifting weight from the ground to overhead, which had already been discovered 5,000 years ago.

So what happened years ago when Olympic weightlifting began to decline and powerlifting and bodybuilding were on the rise? It’s pretty simple really, they are easier to do and easier to master. The movements that are required can be achieved by everyone, especially at the rule requirements for range of motion. Now before you testosterone filled, shirt bencher’s start throwing your computer across the room, I believe that I can say this, because I was a powerlifter for a majority of my strength training career. In Nebraska we did not have Olympic Weightlifting, or any qualified coaches to teach it. I lifted with and around some of the best in the world. B.I.G. Iron Gym and South Side were right around the corner from where I went to college, with people like Shawn Frankl, Jim Grandick, Becca Swanson, Kenny Rueben and Tim Anderson, and legendary coach Rick Hussey. I competed in the sport for 5 years, still hold American records, and loved it. The truth is that powerlifters are strong, but were uncoordinated, inflexible, or too slow to be sufficient in the Olympic lifts. For obvious reasons this made the conventional powerlifting movements, or squat, bench, and deadlift very attractive for the general public and strength and conditioning coaches. They are easy to teach, especially to a big group, and can get people freaky strong. Now we are seeing the Olympic lifts being done on an everyday basis. So what brought these beautiful movements back to life, and what are the benefits of doing the lifts instead of just squat, bench, and deadlift?

Can you see what these four pictures all have in common? If not, we have some problems. The Olympic lifts require rapid extension of the hip, as most sports do. In the pictures above, either bilaterally or unilaterally, the athletes are aggressively opening their hip, which makes these movements very beneficial. For athletic performance, the goal is to increase the athlete’s ability to produce force at higher velocities, which is known as “power.” Olympic style training involves “using heavy loads that are performed at a high velocity resulting in a high power output” (Hoffman, et al 2004). So once again, very beneficial to athletes with a lot of carry over to specific movements performed often in sports. I bring this up because in many strength and conditioning facilities as well as CrossFits we train EVERYONE like athletes. I approach a general population client just like I would approach an athlete. Athletes are looking to perform better in a sport or activity. An every day Joe is looking to perform better in what ever it is he or she wants, it’s all performance. I don’t just want my clients to be able to get around the grocery store; I want them to strut up and down the aisles, and then tell the high school bag boy to take a seat while this bad a$$ soccer mom loads her own car while feeling like a champ!

Powerlifting often argues that absolute strength is most important when looking at athletic performance, but what really carries over? Absolute strength is very important to the sport of powerlifting, because that is what is tested in the sport.  Olympic lifting “may be superior to traditional powerlifting training because the exercises, while using heavy loads, are performed at a much higher velocity, which leads to a higher power output” (Hoffman et al 2004). Athletics require muscle synchronization, balance, flexibility, and coordination as well as strength, speed, power, and metabolic development. These are all assets that I would like everyone to obtain and excel at, not just athletes. Olympic weightlifting provides development in all these areas. It’s as simple as saying athletic movements build better athletes, and the Olympic lifts give the individual the opportunity to train a very athletic movement at a high velocity with maximal weights.

Not all people are going to be able to do the full-lifts, and that’s just reality, but everyone can do variations. I’m not saying that you should never squat, bench, or deadlift either. As lifters we squat, pull, and press everyday. Do you absolutely have to do the lifts or have them in your programming to be successful? No, but they will make you that much better, and when done properly are one of the most fulfilling achievements you will obtain in the gym.

-Coach Thomas

*Hoffman, et. al (2004) Comparison of Olympic vs. Traditional Power Lifting Training Programs in Football Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 18:129–35.