Thursday, October 22, 2009

CrossFit 864 – Today’s Schedule:
5:15a.m. / 9:00a.m. / 12:30p.m. (Heavy – advanced only) 4:30p.m./5:00p.m./5:30p.m./6:00p.m.

Day 32 of the “100 burpee challenge”

WOD

3 rounds for time:
15 KTE – Knees to Elbow
20 KBS – Kettlebell Swings/American (35/53)
25 Box Jumps (20/24)

FORM!

“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
– Psalm 40:8

Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.
– Sir Wilfred Grenfell, 1865-1940

In order to achieve any fitness goal, you must strive for Full Range of Motion (FROM) in all your movements. Sacrificing full range of motion to finish quickly or try to get more reps faster isn’t safe and isn’t contributing to overall fitness. Sure, we all want to go faster (especially when someone’s yelling at you “Go faster!”), but we aren’t getting any better if we’re shortening the range of motion. Maybe more importantly, making ROM errors puts you at risk for hurting yourself.

It matters not if you goal is weight-loss, better general fitness, or increased endurance and speed…the bottom line, the end, the “period”… if you want to be more fit, you need to prioritize range of motion and proper form, end of story!

Why?1) Power (Force) = m x d/t: This means that the greater the d (distance) the greater the force you are applying. Said otherwise, the more Powerful you are. Said otherwise, the more calories you are burning! So go for FROM…move your body a greater distance…faster!
2) I’ll briefly summarize what CrossFit guru Mark Rippetoe says about bad form and limited ROM…a) it shoves your joints into positions those joints ought not be in.b) when your joints are in compromised positions, you are using muscles in ways they ought not be used. (read full article here)

Hence, this is why performance suffers and injuries are more prevalent when we let limited ROM detract from good FORM.

What are examples?
1) Rounded back or on toes on Air Squats.
2) Butt above parallel on Air Squats. Not getting low enough.
3) Not going on toes or getting air on Wall Ball/Push Press (full extension).
4) Short-arming, turtle-necking push-ups.
5) Staying bent over when coming up in a Bend/Thrust (squat to standing)
6) Staying bent arm on pull-ups, or not going C2B.
7) Shortened range on sit-ups
8) Not dropping knee on a lunge – going halfway down.
9) Not utilizing hips on kettlebell swings, sdhp, etc.
10) Rounded back on deadlifts
11) and the list can go on and on…..

Why?1) Insufficient strength, balance, flexibility. This is fine…that’s why we come…to get better.
2) To go fast. Boooo…Hiss! Pain – That makes us uncomfortable.
3) It’s easier and doesn’t hurt to do it halfway – Boooo…Hiss #2! No excuse. That’s not the CF way, and technically, it’s not easier. Bad form and limited ROM works the body inefficiently! Inefficiency is the enemy of endurance. Just consider the Air Squat, people with exquisite form can go all day while those who bend and go half way down run out of steam quickly.

FORM and FROM = Efficiency = More Movement = More Calories Burned and More Endurance Built.

The point is….go half the distance, get half the results….go FULL ROM and get full results. Are you settling for just half of the results that you could achieve because you do not take the time to work on getting full range of motion or because sometimes it hurts more to do the exercise properly? Do you do it your way or the right way? Just something to think about while doing your next WOD.

Let’s get STRONGER together.
Have a great day!
Jay and Janice

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