The Devil Is In The Details

Common Deadlift Errors. Common mistakes you need to avoid to minimize risks of injuries when doing Deadlifts.

• Hips Too High. Use your knees: it’s not a Stiff-legged Deadlift. Put the bar against your shins with the shoulder-blades directly over the bar.

• Hips Too Low. It’s not a Squat. Put the bar against your shins with the shoulder-blades directly over the bar. Shoulders in front of the bar.

• Bending Your Back. Increases the pressure on your spine thus increasing risk of injury. Keep your chest up at all times & look forward.

• Hyper-extending Your Back. As bad as bending. The Deadlift ends when your hips & knees are locked. No need to arch at the top.

• Rolling the Shoulders. Dangerous & inefficient. Your hip muscles move the weight, not your shoulders. Extend your knees & hips, stop.

• Shrugging at The Top. Unnecessary.

• Pulling with Bent Arms. You could tear your biceps by pulling with bent arms. Keep your arms straight, tighten your triceps.

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The Truth

The Truth

by Jon Gilson, Again Faster
Everyone has their caveats. This is the warning reasonably intelligent people deliver after every definitive statement in an attempt to cover their ass.

"Yeah, fasted cardio is the only way to get your body fat below 8%. But, you know, that's only true for most guys. It might not work for you."

The caveat absolves the speaker of any responsibility for the effectiveness of their advice, shifting the blame for failure to the listener. In the world of athletic training these cop-out statements are often necessary--there's not a whole lot out there that's strictly black and white.



Nonetheless, I was lying in bed last night wondering if there are certain unalienable truths out there, statements about training that require absolutely no caveat. In my mind, every pursuit has an essence that lends itself to description and explanation. Fitness is no exception. Here, I humbly present the truths of training, caveat-free:

1.) You will not get stronger without overload.

This one is simple. Training has two guiding principles--volume and intensity. The first refers to the number of repetitions performed, while the second refers to the relative demand those repetitions place on the body. Over time, you must expose your body to gradually increasing volume in order to reap fitness benefits. You must keep intensity high throughout.

I like to track this in my workout log by recording the total amount of weight lifted in any session divided by the number of repetitions performed in that session. This calculation gives an average weight per repetition. This number must increase over time, or you're just spinning your wheels.

2.) You will not get bigger without eating more or smaller without increasing energy expenditure.

My buddy Eva Claire loves this one. All the girls want to get smaller and all the boys want to get bigger. Most women try to get smaller by eating less when they would be better served by increasing their energy expenditure. Most men try to get bigger by increasing their energy expenditure, although they'd be better served by eating more.

Each gender should take a page out of the other's playbook.

Eating less only serves to lower your metabolic rate, meaning your body will attempt to conserve every precious calorie for future use. What goes in stays in, stored as fat. Rather than lower their metabolic rate, women would be better served by lifting heavy to maintain lean muscle mass and exercising with high intensity to ramp up fat-burning.

In the same vein, lifting heavy and often will only increase lean muscle mass if the attendant caloric intake will support the new tissue. The boys need to take in more food, not lift more. Nonetheless, they'll spend three hours a day in the gym, burning off those stray calories that would've turned into new tissue if energy expenditure had been a little lower.

3.) Steady-state cardiovascular work will not lead to fitness.

The body uses three distinct energy pathways, each employed based on the demands placed on the body. Two of these systems (the alactic acid system and the glycolytic system) are called into play when the rate of muscle contraction exceeds the body's ability to produce contractions using oxygen.

These two systems, collectively known as the anaerobic systems, are not trained during steady-state cardiovascular work. Steady-state work utilizes the aerobic energy system, which is only capable of producing muscle contractions in the presence of oxygen.

Unfortunately, the anaerobic systems are critical for high to moderate power output activities, such as the squat, the clean and jerk, and the 400-meter sprint. If they aren't properly developed, the corresponding activities suffer.

Road jocks aren't worth a damn when it comes to performing anaerobic activities, because they haven't developed the contractile strength that comes with heavy anaerobic training. Primary practitioners of steady-state cardiovascular work are incomplete athletes.

4.) Mental focus is more critical to training success than physical ability.

We are limited by our bodies, but our true limitations exist in the mind. Flat-out lying to an athlete about weight on the bar will often get them to lift a personal best, absence any organic change in the body. I attribute this phenomenon to the power of belief. "Knowing" that you can do something will instantly bring you closer to doing it. Combine an ardent belief with months of training, and you have a recipe for excellence.

On the flip side, God-given ability is easily negated by a poor outlook. I've seen otherwise-talented sandbaggers spend a lot of time claiming inability, giving them a ready-made hedge against failure. These folks fail a lot, and they remain in the realm of the novice athlete for years.

5.) There is an inverse relationship between the complexity of a piece of exercise equipment and its effectiveness.

The most effective implements for building lean muscle tissue and shedding fat are heavy, blunt, and simple. They have few or no moving parts, and they don't plug into the wall. A barbell, some weights, a few dumbbells, and a pull-up bar are all you need to achieve world-class fitness. Everything else just adds variety.

By their nature, these things require effort to use. You've got to pick them up off the ground and hoist them around. They don't give you a place to sit, and they don't read your heart rate every ten seconds.

If your exercise regimen involves blinking lights, vibrating seats, or imbedded televisions, you're doing yourself a disservice. Find the stuff that's cold and heavy and made of metal. It's the only route to fitness.

There they are--five unalienable truths about training. You could disagree with my assertions, and probably make a good case of it, citing fifteen scientific studies and the extensive knowledge of the over-certified polo shirt-wearing pseudo-trainer down at the local Y.

The problem is you'd have to use an awful lot of caveats.

 

http://www.crossfittherack.com/

Always Look To Improve Yourself Inside and Out of The Gym

Through CrossFit most of you have experienced what it feels like to achieve the "unachievable". Such achievements indicate that many of your physical limitations are mere misconceptions -- they are learned impediments on the psyche, not the physique. Your PR's, increased range of motion, greater work capacity, and greater self-confidence are just a few of the things that can attest to the power of mind over body. Yet there are also those among us who have profound physical potential, but don’t push themselves nearly enough mentally; or avoid lifting heavier weight because they think they can do no more. As a result, many of these individuals never reach their fullest potential. This is unfortunate. An old mentor of mine once said, "Don't give up ten seconds before the miracle." Those that quit may never actually know how close they were to achieving their goal. And even if you do initially fail, remember it’s OK -- there is growth in failure. Failure is not an end. People who fail can recreate themselves by learning from, and improving upon, previous setbacks, people who quit cannot. No matter what endeavor you pursue in life, whether it is a new PR or something outside the box, always believe that you are capable of just a little bit more than you’re currently doing. The eventual payoff may be bigger than you think.

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The Open (February 22 - March 25)

The Open is a worldwide competition consisting of five workouts over five weeks. Last year, more than 26,000 athletes competed, and this year will likely be a multiple of that!

Each week, the workout will be announced on Wednesday at 5 p.m. PT (starting February 22). Everyone will have until the following Sunday at 5 p.m. PT to complete that week's workout and submit their score. You can do the workout at your local affiliate or film your attempt from any gym, a garage, or park.

Once you submit your workouts to the Games site, you'll be able to find your rank, both worldwide and in your region. You get one point for each place (i.e. five points for 5th place) for each workout. Your overall score is the sum of all the workout scores, and lowest total points wins. You can compete both as an Individual and on a Team. Individuals are divided between men and women, and Masters are divided by gender and age.

The individual athletes and teams that perform the best across the five Open workouts, in each of the 17 regions, will be invited to compete at the second stage of the Games, the Regionals. The top 20 Masters in each age and gender category will earn an automatic spot at the Games in July.

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Proper Bench Technique

CrossFit Journal video

The first cue is to set your shoulders back in their sockets, pinching shoulder blades behind you so your shoulders are well supported to reduce the risk of injury. Get under the bar and lift it to hold it over the chest, not the eyes. From there, use a straight-line path for the bar as you press over your chest.
On the way down, act as if you're going to break the bar. On the way up, spread the bar. Pretend like it’s a rubber band and you’re trying to stretch it—your hands aren’t going to move, but you’re pulling as hard as you can.

The stance is wide legs and foot position.

You should be pushing into the ground, spreading the floor with your feet.
This video demonstrates common faults with the bench press, including set-up, and provides points of performance to maintain safe lifting.

The key to no shoulder injuries is proper positioning.  It takes the pressure off the shoulders and lowers your injury rate dramatically … and it allows you to create as much power and torque as possible.

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Why CrossFit Will Save America

A decade ago, Robert Putnam’s groundbreaking book “Bowling Alone” presented Americans with a serious challenge to our sense of community and connectedness, arguing with vast data that we have suffered a precipitous decline in the time we spend engaged with family, friends, neighbors and our democracy.  He dubbed this fabric of connections “social capital” and suggested that our very society would eventually crumble if we didn’t work to reverse the trend.

Contributing factors to this decline in social capital over recent years include long work commutes, television, computers, and changes in the family structure.  In addition to this recent loss of social capital, Putnam also noted that we suffered a similar decline about 100 years ago as well – noting contributing factors such as rapid industrialization and urbanization. Though different forms of “industrialization” and “urbanization” from 100 years ago, one could essentially argue that our most recent decline in social capital is driven by the same trends – major shifts in technology and, therefore, how we live.  Each of these changes, albeit with many new advantages, have brought unintended consequences that unravel the fabric of our connectedness to one another and to institutions, whether they be churches or bowling leagues.  (For example, Putnam notes that Americans are still bowling at high rates but not as part of leagues.  In other words, they are bowling alone…not together!)

In my experience as an avid CrossFitter and follower of The Paleo Diet, I see a fascinating similarity among the trends driving our loss of social capital and those that have caused us to lose our healthy ways of eating and exercising. We all know too well the rapid rises in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease over the past several decades. When I first read “Bowling Alone,” it was through the lens of public policy – long before I came to CrossFit and The Paleo Diet.  In reading more about “paleo” eating and the guiding principles behind it, I was stunned by the similarities between “how we have forgotten how to eat” and “how we have forgotten how to be social, connected…human beings.”

I've seen testimonial after testimonial about the fitness benefits of CrossFit and the accompanying benefits of eating paleo.  Most of these are posts about weight loss, drops in cholesterol and blood pressure, and incredible gains in fitness standards.  Sprinkled throughout these testimonials, however, are comments about the incredible “community” of CrossFit too.  We don’t necessarily measure the community benefits as clearly as we do our WOD performances, but if we did I argue we might reveal – what would be considered by far – the most powerful aspect of CrossFit.

It’s hard to deny the superior individual fitness results that we all achieve through CrossFit, but the bigger-picture game-changer may be CrossFit’s effect on social capital. In fact, I’m not sure I know of an institution or organization anywhere in America that has stronger social capital than does CrossFit.  We all experience it every day – whether we are physically in the box, travelling, WODing from home, or just browsing a post.  We relate, we engage, we cheer, we encourage, we care, we support.

The attributes of CrossFit and paleo are at once revolutionary and archaic, sophisticated and simple.  There’s nothing high-tech about it, yet it forces us to change the way we’ve always thought about nutrition and fitness.  Ironically, the revolution has nothing to do with technological and industrial breakthroughs and everything to do with going back to the basics…way back to the Stone Age basics in fact.  CrossFit exercise is revolutionary in its design but it requires no cutting-edge equipment…just simple “old-school,” Rocky-Balboa-style exercise with body-weight movements, kettle bells, ropes, boxes, bars, etc.

And the real strength of CrossFit lies in the “group nature” of it.  I do a WOD on my own and it’s a great workout.  I do one at CrossFit The Rack and it’s a whole different ball game. People cheer each other on with the same ferocious intensity that they compete against each other.  Everyone is welcome and the only thing asked in return is for you to give 100% every day.  In no small way, the expectations we set for each other and the standards we expect of one another in CrossFit are what drive the tight bonds in this community.  Give it your all and you’re loved indefinitely and indiscriminately.  Where else can you find that these days?

Just like the trend of more Americans bowling alone, I’m sure there has been a similar increase in Americans exercising alone.  That’s what takes place every day at the Globo Gym – do your thing on your own and get out.  No meaningful conversation – perhaps a “hey dude, can you spot me” here or there.  No real friendships.  No real commitment.  I did that for a while and felt lost.  I’m convinced that no matter how many CrossFit WODs I would do at a Globo Gym by myself I would never be as fit as I am doing the same WODs at CrossFit New England.  The “x-factor” is social capital.  One place has it; the other does not.

As the CrossFit community grows exponentially in the years to come, it will be interesting to see whether it might gather enough momentum to help us reach a critical tipping point in the repair of social capital in America.  Can its attributes spill over into the broader fabric of American culture – whether you are a CrossFitter or not?  Work ethic, getting back to basics, caring about one another while we push each other to higher standards….  We could fix a lot of problems in America today if this takes off. It certainly has this potential. We all know it and we all work to share it with others every day.  Keep up the great work!  We’re on the verge of much more than elite fitness.  We are America’s social capital!

http://www.crossfittherack.com/

Make Every Rep Count!

There are so many times when I look at the whiteboard and see my time or rounds and think I could have done so much better, but then I think about speed compared to really doing the workout correct.  Keeping my hips planked on pushups, truly breaking parallel on squats and following through at the top, full lockout on the elbows at the top AND the bottom of every muscle-up, full overhead on thrusters, following through on every movement. These are the important things.  Think of it as having a little judge in your head at every workout and make sure that you make every rep count!

When it comes to CrossFit as a competition, I can give you an edge over the other competitors. This is a simple tip. I won’t even charge you for it, even though you will start performing better. It doesn’t involve a super secret training regimen. It’s not a crazy concoction of supplements that will give you superhuman strength. It definitely does not involve you following a strict nutrition plan. I can assure you that it isn’t performing multiple workouts in a day.

You gain a competitive edge by simply training with integrity in your movement. It’s simple really. What does it matter if you “kill” a workout, but your range of motion within that workout was half ass? Think about what I am saying here. Do you have a Facebook account? Do you check the comments section on www.crossfit.com? Everyone and their mother posts these outrageous workout results. Where are they when competition time comes around? Most are wondering why they can murder “Fran”, but their judge keeps “no repping” them and they are at the bottom of the pack.

Here are some simple tips to be better at performing full range of motion movement within your workout:
1. Know what “full range of motion” means. Learn that first, then finish reading the rest of this post.

2. Concentrate more. Stop getting WOD drunk. Slow down a bit in your training and pay closer attention to your movement. Remember that you have to walk before you can run.

3. Have someone watch your movement and call you out on it when you suck. Make sure that you get someone who isn’t afraid to tell you that you suck. Make sure that you can handle being told that you suck. If you can’t handle being told you suck, you suck so please don’t compete.

4. Buy a cheap video camera and film your workouts. I train a lot by myself, so I do this all the time. It’s eye opening to watch your workout after you are done. I always armchair quarterback myself. It’s a great way to see your movement, and it’s an even better way to learn about what you are and are not capable of when you start to fatigue. This is one of the ways I learned how to more efficiently strategize my workouts.

5. Don’t try and PR every workout, and don’t treat every workout like it is a competition. I’m not saying that you should NEVER go balls to the wall, I am just saying don’t do it day in and day out. Not only will your movement get better, you’ll be less prone to injury. It’s also an easy way to avoid CrossFit burnout. Yes, there is such a thing as CrossFit burnout. If you haven’t experienced it yet, you haven’t been CrossFitting that long.

So there you have it. Five surefire tips to make you a more successful CrossFit competitor.

http://www.crossfittherack.com/