Early Mornings

Wow! 60+ views in two countries and counting! The pressure is on...

Anyways. Sometimes I go to a gym in the next town over before school to get a workout in, and today was one of those days. Here's a quick overview of what we did:

Light/moderate overhead squat skill work. 
Then...


Against a 5 minute clock:
- 1000m row
- Max set of pullups in the remaining time

Rest 5 min.

Against a 5 minute clock: 
- 1000m row
- Max set of handstand pushups in the remaining time

On the overhead squat, everyone spent a while going over technique with the baby weight to dial in form and get comfortable with the move. An overhead squat, for those of you new to weightlifting, is basically a push press to overhead with a barbell, followed by a squat, all while keeping the bar perfectly aligned over your body. It's an incredibly demanding core exercise (one of the best in the world, if you ask me), which requires finesse and a level of athleticism to complete successfully. Sounds easy, right? Notice I didn't mention that you had to be exceptionally strong to overhead squat. Like many aspects of Crossfit, it is mostly form based. Which brings me to my main point here:

The perceived lack of emphasis on form and good mechanics in Crossfit is a
reason it gets a bad reputation in the media.

Hearing about this from people who bash Crossfit always gets on my nerves. One of the most common myths about Crossfit is that it is all about sacrificing form for speed in crazy-looking workouts. This leads to high injury rates, which makes potential crossfitters apprehensive to try. For the vast majority of cases, this is not true.

Exhibit A: this morning's class. As I was working with my brother in one of the dustier corners of the gym, I saw one of the coaches go up to an individual who was having particular trouble with the movement. He went through the motion with the guy, giving him cues where he needed to position the bar, how wide to place his feet, etc. Although there wasn't much instantaneous improvement in
his squat (completely understandable) I could tell by the look on his face that the guy felt a lot more confident in his squat, because he knew exactly where he needed to improve. This was only one out of several similar cases, all with identical outcomes.

This is the kind of thing that happens all the time in the community. That look someone gets when they break a personal record in a lift, or get their first pullup, their first double-under - the feeling of success - that's what I love about Crossfit. Being able to help new crossfitters who I work out with to improve is the most rewarding thing about running my gym.
But wait! There's more! The fun doesn't stop when you start to get good. Even seasoned competitors PR lifts, learn new moves, and improve their times in certain workouts. No matter how good you are at Crossfit, there's room to improve. And when you improve, you get that indescribable feeling of success. You want more of that feeling, so you improve yourself, and the cycle starts again. It's a beautiful thing.

I know I kind of went off on a tangent from my original point, but hey, it happens sometimes.

Tonight, if you have a little extra time, I suggest working on the bottom of your squat position. Air squat - no weight. A lot of people have problems with it because it's not too common of a position to be in. Try to get your hips below your knees, but don't sacrifice your back to do that. Just play around with it. Get comfortable squatting - we'll be doing a lot of them during Sunday's workout at 1pm.

Here's a video with a good example of an air squat:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a_fb6Kz7FQg

That's Chris Spealler in the video so you can bet your top dollar that you're seeing impeccable form. The music is pretty catchy too.