Gymnastics Progressions for your Mid-Section

So, how about those abs?  Can they hold up your own legs?  One of the geniuses of CrossFit of course, is that the methodology is real life movements, compound movements that do not isolate muscle groups.  It is always important to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses.  Are your handstand pushups nonexistent because your arms are weak or because you are too floppy in the middle to hold up your legs?  Is your deadlift child like because your posterior chain is like your Grandma’s or because your core is like putty?  As you all experience every day, we take a little time each workout to target something specific.  When it is mobility and flexibility some of you are crying and some are saying “I don’t feel anything”.  When it is heavy lifting some of you are cheering and some of you are worried about getting BIG.  Well, this time it is going to be your middle region.  I don’t think that any of you will be happy, but I don’t think you have anything to complain about either.  This is the part of you that rounds during deadlifts, hurts after thrusters, sags during pushups, doubles over during wall balls and breaks during a press.  Get control of the middle region people!

As you are aware, we are primarily concerned with power output during a timed crossfit workout, so we use kipping pullups and swinging/kipped knees-to-elbows and toes-to-bar.  Good for power output, but not so useful for holding your spine erect and safe during your shoulder press.  I’d like to draw your attention to this mid-section you possess.  Our spinal erectors and abdominal muscles are primarily isometric in their work load.  They stabilize us.  They aren’t workhorses like the hamstrings or the quads or the biceps or the traps.  They stabilize.  If you break, round, flop and hurt you very likely are not stabilizing adequately.  Tonight and in the future you will be asked to perform non-kipping, non-swinging knees-to-elbows, l-raises, and toes-to-bars.  Look what might be in your future…