Jan 27, 2012

Technique, is your style the best? That is the question every athlete asks themselves. Unfortunately the answer to that question ends up being an undoubtable yes. If I just described you, stop and think about your train of thought. Is your technique really the best? Better than all those international athletes that do something different? I bet not. I bet the difference between a top competitor and a merely good athletes is that the top competitor has mastered his/her style. So long as the technique does not introduce massive inefficiency, the best technique is the one most practiced.

Find a technical style, find a coach, and practice as hard as you can until you master that style. The more time you spend talking about how great your style is, the less time you spend training.

Jan 9, 2012

Today I learned something new, a new way of using the pvc pipe to improve your technique. I usually use the pvc pipe to warmup with some basic mobility drills, and I have seen people start their warmup set with the pvc pipe if the barbell constitutes a moderate load. But I had not heard of using a pvc pipe to help teach a proper back position until I read this article from EliteFTS. This article does a great job of describing how to cue a tight, properly positioned, back by placing the pipe (or broomstick) against the back of someone who needs help finding the right position.

It’s a pretty simple technique that works by helping the trainee to feel what a good back position is. The ability to know where you body is and what it is doing during sport is a crucial skill for all athletes. Knowledge of body position is also a skill that many non athletes lack. The more athletic experience someone has, the more likely they are to understand what their body is doing. Sports like gymnastics done at an early age tend to produce athletes that are the most aware of body position. These types of athletes will learn new movements faster than others. This pvc pipe teaching method is great for those trainees who don’t have a large athletic background and therefore need a little help to find the right back position.

How are you feeling today? I’ll feeling pretty slow and weak. Why? Because I just had a week of max effort training. All of that intensity work has left me tired and tight. There are quite a few ways to recover from a week of intensity both in and out of the gym. I know you’re thinking that it shouldn’t be possible to recover in the gym, but not only is it possible I would say it is crucial to learn how to recover in the gym.

In order to counteract the tightness and soreness that results from a period of hard training, light barbell complexes are your best friend. I find that my shoulders take the biggest beating after heavy snatch and jerk training. I’ll use a complex of 5 Sotts press from the back in a snatch grip followed by 5 Sotts press from the front in a jerk grip. I usually use just the barbell and I go for a few sets of that until I feel my shoulders have loosened up. Overhead squats are another another good option because they are a great flexibility movement that loosen up the legs and shoulders.

I will add in these light complexes before and after workouts when I’m feeling very fatigued because they help me stretch and increase blood flow to fatigued areas, helping recovery. Experimentation is your best friend with these complexes. I’m still looking for the best way to help me recover in the gym and the only way to improve is to try different movements. Try it out for yourself and see how in the gym recovery changes your performance.

I’m not talking about the animal; I’m talking about the skills we so often encounter in Crossfit that seem impossible to do. The goats I’ve been working on are hand stand push ups, muscle ups, pistols, double-unders, and ring dips. My list is long and each movement varies in skill level and strength required to complete them.

I’ve been chipping away at each one little by little working on one skill before or after class. Starting with a scaled version of each exercise to build needed strength and over time I begin to scaling up to challenge what I’ve been working on. The rep scheme and the level of scaling varies according to individual strength and the movement itself. So ask your coaches about how to scale appropriately for you. With consist practice I find that the skill that once seemed impossible becomes less difficult over time and eventually I attempt them in WODs and see how far I can go.

Try making a list of skills you want to work on and set goals for yourself. Then tackle them one at time. We’re all stronger than we think we just have to prove it to ourselves.

As it is starting to get colder in some parts of the country, I think it’s appropriate to talk about gym apparel again. Warmup pants are a necessity when the temperature goes down. Why? I always wear mine to protect my knees. A warm knee is a happy knee, a happy knee is a safe knee. As the temperature outside goes down, longer warmups are needed in order to be safe while lifting heavy weights. The warmer your knee is to begin with, the less likely you will be to hurt it when you forget that your warmup needs to be longer now that it’s cold outside.

What does wearing warmup pants do? It keeps your knee warm, of course. When the knee joint is kept warm it is more pliable and therefore less likely to tear under load. Pants, in addition to knee sleeves/wraps, are crucial in keeping your knees warm, safe, and happy. Even if the temeprature inside the gym is appropriate, even a short walk to the gym will probably be enough to make your knees cold enough to be injured. Don’t be that guy, wear your warmup pants and keep your knees safe. I usually keep my pants on for most of the workout just to insure that my knees stay safe and warm.

Where are your elbows on the backsquat? Are they pointing down to the ground? If so, you have a wonderful technical deficiency to correct. In order for you to be able to carry the weight optimally during the backsquat, you must have you elbows pointed backwards (although not parallel to the ground).

Why? In order to fully support the bar, your elbows must be angled backwards to that they create a shelf for the bar to sit in. When your elbows drop, it allows the bar to roll down your back. A higher elbow position will feel much more stable and will make it easier to feel balanced under the weight.

If you have trouble getting your elbows into the right position then mobility work is a must. I know that I have to do shoulder flexibility work so that I can move weight overhead and lift more in both the front and backsquat. A temporary fix while you are waiting for your hard mobility work to pay off is to widen your grip on the bar. This lets you point your elbows back further, although it may make it harder to keep your back tight. I find it much easier to squat with a wider grip on the bar, and with a little focus the loss of back tightness won’t effect your lifts.