Proper Technique Is The Key To Success

     Proper technique is essential during your daily warm-up, technique portion and building up to a heavy lift. It matters - all of it. Crappy form in the warm-up will affect how you perform those movements in a WOD. Back when we were building on pullups, pushups, situps and squats every day in our warm-up; our dedication to technique was evident in our WODs. That holds true for every movement you perform. If you don’t quite have the flexibility or you are injured, strive to hit correct form within your ability. Don’t hurt yourself or worsen your injury. My point: we are not asking for perfection. We are asking you to strive for perfection. This applies to technique for every movement we perform.

     If you allow yourself poor form in the warmup, you may be short changing your body. Warmups help increase your heart rate and get you moving, but they also strive to take your muscles and joints through a full range of motion (ROM) in preparation for the WOD. If you shorten your squat ROM, over time your lack of effort will be glaringly evident when you add weight and/or hit intensity. In the squat you must hit your full ROM at the top and bottom, contract your glutes, tighten your core, chest up, eyes forward for EVERY rep. Just because you don’t have a bar in your hands doesn’t mean you get to perform crappy reps. Practice correct form.

     When building up to your heavy lifts, perform the movement correctly. Let’s use the back squat as an example. While your coach is going over technique focus on details: elbows up and back, wrists straight, feel the bar wedged between your hands and your back, head/neck neutral, contract your glutes, tighten your core, take a deep breath, hit the bottom and top of your ROM. Do this for EVERY rep in the instructor-led technique session.

     After your technique focus, get an empty bar and do a few reps. Again, strive for perfection. Walk up to the rack and address the bar by getting your hands in the correct grip. Get your feet in squat position directly under the bar. Wedge the bar between your hands and back. Look at your wrists. Are they straight? Once you’re set, lift the bar off the rack. Take a couple of steps back away from the rack, take a deep breath, contract your glutes, tight core and perform as close to a perfect squat as possible. When you are finished with your set walk the bar forward and squat the bar back on the rack. Do this EVERY time. As you start to add weight to the bar, repeat the above process EVERY time. Get in the habit of constant correctness.

     When you get to your max range you want to think as little as possible. You really don’t want to be focusing on keeping your wrists straight when you are attempting your 1RM. You want to use your habit of lifting with perfect form to be natural, so you can focus on lifting the damn weight, and hitting your PR.

     This holds true for heavy lifts, Olympic lifts and kettlebell swings. In fact, whenever you pick up or put down a kettlebell, deadlift. This holds true for anything you wish to lift off the floor: keys, kids, groceries, bars, dog food, coolers, 12-pack. If you don’t develop the habit, there is a higher risk of injuring your back, knees, shoulders- you name it.

Do it right in the warm-up, technique session and building up to a heavy lift. Do it right every rep. Our sport is CrossFit. Practice how you play.

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