 Every Sunday is a rest day from the gym. We encourage everyone to take it easy, get outside and play, and take a nap. While a rest day is super important to prevent over-training, rest alone is not enough in an effective recovery program. CrossFit is the sport of fitness, meaning it is more than just an exercise program, it is a sport in its own right. Ask any athlete about rest vs. recovery and they'll tell you rest is the absence of of effort, movement or exertion, while recovery is a set of specific actions that aid the body, mind and spirit in recuperating from current training and prepares us for our next training session. We all have heard about the deleterious affects of over-training, e.g. fatigue, weight gain, performance decline, sleep disruption, pain, and a lack of excitement for training. In reality, over-training is really under-recovering. The folks at Whole9 Life describe recovery as, "...the restorative process by which you regain a state of 'normalcy'; health and balance. (If your 'normal' is not 'healthy,' perhaps you should spend some time considering that.) Recovery is far more than just taking a day off from training. Genuine recovery includes adequate rest, proper nutrition, hydration, and also must include the engaged, deliberate execution of a cogent plan to offset the (physical and psychological) cost of your training. Foam rolling, yoga, soaking, massage and mobility are all practices that will help you recover for your next workout. Rest is simply taking a day off from exercise or sport, napping, chilling on the couch, watching movies or TV, and going to bed nice and early so you get adequate sleep. All of that is fine and good, but resting is only one small part of true recovery." Are you actively and deliberately recovering from your CrossFit workouts, competitions, and other physically stressful events? Answer these 10 questions from the Whole9 Life folks to see if you're under-recovered from your CrossFit workouts. Today we are doing a version of the 2018 CrossFit Games Regional Event 6. This workout should be fast and furious! Here's a video of the women in our Western region doing the the Games version of Event 6. Can you keep up with our scaled version? What if you scaled it so you could? Good luck!
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 Coach Heidi split snatches in the shadows when we were half the gym we are today. By now I should no longer be surprised one someone assumes that lifting weights will make you bulky and inflexible. However, after several years of talking to people about CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting I understand many folks don't understand the difference between weightlifting and lifting weights. Weightlifting is a sport, in fact there are two competitive weightlifting disciplines. Powerlifting which consists of the deadlift, back squat and benchpress, and Olympic weightlifting which consists of the snatch and clean & jerk. Olympic weightlifting is an Olympic sport and is governed by the International Olympic Committee. Powerlifting is not an Olympic sport, and has several national and international regulatory committees. Lifting weights is not a sport, but rather a fitness pursuit. We do not lift weights. We practice the sport of weightlifting. Like any sport, weightlifting requires flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy, power, speed and strength. All of these physical characteristics, along with stamina and endurance are specific adaptions we try to illicit through the demands of our training program. Flexibility (which we often call mobility) is a physical trait that can be trained and it is ESSENTIAL to the sport of weightlifting. You simply must have full range of motion of your ankles and knees to squat to depth. You must have full range of motion in our shoulders, elbows and wrists to support and receive the bar. One of our favorite methods for flexibility and mobility training is the physical practice of yoga. Yoga asana (the poses) develops flexibility, balance, coordination and to some extent strength. If you don't believe me, take a look at Dmitry Klokov's warm-up in the video below. You will recognize the plow (halasana), seated forward bend (paschimottanasana), wide-angle seated forward bend (upavistha konasana), and the squat (malasana). Klokov is a Russian Olympic weightlifter who won Silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics. His flexibility is so good he can do the splits. So, tell me again why you don't want to lift weights because it will make you inflexible.  Noah works on her mobility and her flexibility.
Flexibility is one of the 10 General Physical Skills we seek to develop through our strength and conditioning training. However, everyday in class we devote a section of time to developing our mobility. What is the difference between flexibility and mobility? Flexibility is the ability to maximize the range of motion of a joint and/or muscles. Mobility is the ability to move through a functional range of motion while maintaining balance, strength, alignment. Functional movement uses more than one joint and muscle group and is movement we do "naturally." Squatting, overhead pressing, pulling, pushing. throwing, running, walking, rowing, are all movements we naturally do. In fact, we start off in life with the ability to squat below parallel, raise our hands overhead, and do all manner of movements uninhibited. As we age we stop playing, stop moving, and develop movement limitations that prevent us from doing all the things we were born to do. We spend 8-10 minutes at the beginning of every class working on mobility and flexibility. We stretch our muscles to improve flexibility, and use bands to change our joint position to improve mobility. At the end of class we use foam rollers, lacrosse balls and other implements to work on the physical structure of our muscles to improve our mobility. We do this work on our tissues after we workout because that is when they're warm and are best able to be physically changed post-workout. Flexibility is a physical trait that is improved through regular training. While, we regularly train to improve our flexibility in class, to truly improve flexibility it takes daily training. A few minutes in the morning, a short mid morning stretch, a post lunch flexibility session, and pre-bed calming stretches can improve your flexibility. Want to touch your toes, which is normal range of motion, you need to work at it daily. Mobility can also be improved through regular training and practice. Sometimes it just takes focus and concentration to improve your position and alignment. Spend the time improving your functional movement and watch the rest of your sports, e.g golf, skiing, climbing, etc. improve.  Brian F. has excellent overhead squat mobility. Some of us have to work a bit harder to get into a good position, but the work is totally worth it. We spent 28 days in April working on our overhead squat mobility. We threw down a daily mobility challenge and congratulations to our winner, Tami McCauley! Tami did her daily OHS mobility, sent me a photo once of week of her doing her OHS mobility at home, and added 25% to her overhead squat. NICE WORK TAMI! If you missed our April OHS mobility challenge, no worries. Today's Mobility Monday post is from the Barbell Shrugged dudes and it's all about improving your overheard squat. You can expect do to these drills in class today, and if you're super motivated, like Tami, you might even try them at home. Have fun and get ready to overhead squat today. |
Special EventsMarch 26 - May 3 OCR Training with Coach James
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