What do all these photos have in common? They are all of an unbelievable athlete getting their range of motion verified. On a daily basis during your workouts we focus on increasing your range of motion, making sure you are doing each move safely and to the extent of your ability. Very, very rarely do we ask you to repeat a rep because you didn’t squat deeply enough or get full hip extension and lock out at the top of each clean or you took your hands off the bar and dropped a deadlift. Are you careful each time you work out to perform the exercises to the very best of your ability and to the furthest extent possible? If you don’t, you are cheating yourself of some real progress, and in the spirit of fair competition (and who has the fastest time on the board) it is only fair to perform your workouts with virtuosity. It will be a very humbling and frustrating experience for you if you have been a little sloppy or lazy when you are called on it. You also just won’t become as incredible an athlete as you might otherwise. In the bottom photo is my most difficult moment of judging the Great Basin qualifying games. Peter Egyed, an unbelievable athlete from Utah, is doing his HSPUs. He was in third place after the first workout. The criteria was full lockout of the arms, head touching the ground and legs straight. It was not counted if the athlete was falling away from the wall during extension. Peter had strong HSPUs, no problem with being strong enough to do them, full range, but difficulty hitting the locked out position at the top. He grew increasingly frustrated and I really felt for him. The photo is after I asked the head judge to verify that I was making the right calls on whether or not to count the rep. We finished with Peter together and it was a hard experience for everyone. Peter probably did an extra 15, nearly perfect HSPUs that were not counted, costing him several minutes of extra time. If any of you have ever grown frustrated with your trainer during your workouts it pales in comparison to how much I must have frustrated Peter. Imagine your next workout here and imagine your trainer next to you asking you to repeat every single thing that isn’t perfect. Would you do things differently?
This is definitely food for thought. In addition, I think there is a difference between rehabilitation, learning, training, and competition. Our gym is young and I have observed that nobody is perfect at every skill… yet. Many of us, especially me, can’t even do many of the skills (such as the clean or overhead squats or multiple muscle ups or..). I think that competition is for people who have really put the time into mastering the entire set of skills and can perform them on demand. In the learning phase we do not always have the range of motion or strength to perform the tasks. Intro crossfitters should push themselves to their limits, but at the same time, not expect perfection and not risk injury. I think that the hardest part of working out in a group setting is staying within oneself. However, I believe the benefits of the crossfit culture far outweigh the costs. My personal goal (a couple months into my crossfit experience) is to achieve The Flow in my workouts. That is, I seek a workout that I can just barely complete properly. If the workout is too hard or impossible it is frustrating, and if it is too easy it is not engaging. To me, crossfit is not yet about competition or perfection, it is about seeking the the elusive Flow in each workout. With that said, it is difficult to compare the scores on the board because we are not equal in our skill sets. Some workouts are delegated to ‘learning’ while others are at a competition level. Everyone has their perfect workout. I am still waiting for the WOD drywalling, pullups, and pontification.
That must have been difficult, Jen. At least you were down there at level looking and explaining to him what he was missing; it sounds like some judges didn’t explain. I can’t imagine the pressure.
-Court
Eric,
That is well said, and your goal of “seeking a workout that I can just barely complete properly” is and should be the goal of everyone who walks through the door. The effort put forth should be the same whether you are still using PVC for your snatch or snatching 135lbs. Those of you lucky enough to have been in Mike Heinz classes on an Olympic Lifting days know the difference between practice and slopping through a workout with too much weight. And I’m sure many of you have had Me, Jen or one of the other trainers come over and tell you to drop weight, many times back to an empty bar, body bar or PVC. The best Olympic Lifters in the world are still seeking perfection in their lifts and so should we, and I can’t say this enough… I don’t care whether it’s with PVC or Rx’d weight… “Form and Consistency” must always come before “Intensity”. And, speaking of “risking injury” Eric was nice enough to hang his rock climbing finger board in the gym for those of us interested in improving our “grip and forearm strength”, but using it without having your fingers in the proper position can definately lead to an injury you don’t want, so make sure you ask Erik or one of the trainers for pointers before giving it a try.
Sorry Erik. I spelled your name wrong 66% of the time in my last post. I will get used to that “k”. I promise! I feel like Jen’s post is very timely as many of you are approaching your 6th – 9th month of CrossFitting so I’m looking forward to what you guys think about this subject. Please speak up… we all learn from one another. See everyone Saturday at 2:00pm!
I do think that it is important for everyone to be working on improving their skill set when they are training here. At the same time not everyone is physically capable of performing the movements we practice to the full range of motion that would be required at THE GAMES. That being said I think that all of us have at one time or another done a workout at something less than our capacity. There is a difference between not doing a full squat because of an injury, or lack of flexibility, and not doing a full squat as a way of geting a faster time. I would like to see everyone working at their capacity, for some that might mean 1/4 squats, but for those who are capable, I’d like to see them going as deep as they safely can. Indeed, perfect form on things like the olympic lifts is an elusive thing that we all can aspire to, and no one will come by easily, but that doesn’t mean it should not be a goal of ours. I think that this is true of even the simplest movements we practice. We all can, with practice, improve on all of the exercises we do, and that should be a goal of ours. In the mean-time, we are all inhabiting different bodies, with different capablities. For this reason, although we keep track of everyone’s times and weights on the board, these numbers are largely meaningless when making comparisons between people. I think everyone here realizes that these numbers are for our own record-keeping: to make sure that everyone is improving and challenging themselves. We can use the board as a way to motivate ourselves and keep accountable, but without a judge for every person and every movement, the numbers are not much more than a record. If two people are doing the same movements, but different ranges of motion, or different weights, then they are not comparable, but that does not mean that they are not both going to get a great workout as long as they are both working to the best of their abilities.
Jen,
I like what you said about “performing the exercise to the best of your ability and to the furthest extend possible.” This is definitely true in the spirit of fair competition, especially with yourself! Most of us will never compete at the Games, but that shouldn’t stop us from executing each workout with the best form possible, and to the best of our ability. Exercising this way WILL prevent injuries and improve our LIFE!
-Jenny
Oh my goodness, I love this discussion. I really think this is the whole deal wehind crossfit, as I see it. I really love my crossfit community. I can totally relate to Erik in that I am waiting for that perfect WOD that is the three skills that I am great at and can therefore totally kick a** but in all honesty I don’t know that that WOD exists and anyway I thought the point of crossfit is not to strengthen the skills that we already have but to make us so well rounded that we can do any WOD and kick its a**. I love this stuff and I hope you guys are all prepared for my “enthusiasm” on Saturday at the games.
Ellie
I love this thread as well. Such a great topic. As many of you know I have been quite restricted in my workouts and for the looks of it I will be for a while yet. SO form perfection is one of the only things I have to cleave to. Can I make each thing I do the best I can and not over do it. One of my proudest moments was a week or two ago squating all the down to the tiny 9 pound ball with 135 pounds on my back- way past paralell, yep that was me. So dream big and who know what you can do. Can’t wait to cheer you on at our version of the games on Sat. Make it good or we may make you do it again
. Nik (PS Jen, on my screen it seems like the 5th picture in a row makes things all wanky and hard to read until the post doesn’t show up anymore. This last post made everything wonky again- can you fix it???) Just asking.
Hi Jennifer, Is this where we post about our zone project? I would like to find some recipes on VEGGIES. I get soooo freekin’ bored with them- I need help to make ‘em tasty and interesting. Any ideas?
In regards to the topic above: this is good for me to hear right now because I get panicked in the workouts trying to follow someone else’s pace. I’m a bigger dude, competetive, and favor the strength workouts but want to get better at everything, so I think I just need to chill out and work through at my own pace. That doesn’t mean going easy- I love working out alongside others and hitting it hard. Crossfit definitely exploits our weaknesses.
Jen,
Nice interview on the main page! If you guys haven’t seen it, it’s the first video on the April 25th post, about half way through. Also just wanted to say congrats to Eri”k” (I had been spelling it wrong too!) for getting his muscle-ups! We witnessed him doing three in a row and I think he got about 10 today! Way to go Erik, it’s a huge milestone!
-Jenny
thanks for changing thepics, much easier on the eyes
PS: Just watched the video(s) Jenny mentioned from the main crossfit site on the games last weekend. (there is a link on our hoem to to the main page site) So inspiring. Also so interesting to me that only 3 women finished the first two workouts as prescribed at the games. Gives a whole new feel to the idea of scaling and that there is no shame in it. Some great shots of our own Jen as well doing her thing
. Yeah for us.
Chauncey,
yes, this is the place to post. I will put veg recipes up this coming week and all of you put your favorites up too.
Jenna,
You are going to dilute the cranberry juice A LOT. Even so, the 2 brands that I normally find are Knudsen and Mountain Sun and both have less carb than the one you found even at full strength. Which one did you look at?
Jen