Category — Exercises and Movements

PRs for Leah FF, Majid, and the Siborg. Right on people!

There’s a tendency to get lax with air squats. Some people view air squats as something unnecessary of their full attention. They let the chest fall, the knees come in, the heels come up…who cares, it’s not weighted.

DEAD WRONG

The Air Squat is your foundation. Nearly every movement you execute is a derivative of the Air Squat. Treat this exercise with the respect it deserves. Fight for a perfect Air Squat every time and you will be rewarded with PR’s and compliments on form. Not to mention a longer, safer athletic career.

Great video that shows the differences between the Press, Push Press, and Push Jerk.

Crossfit is comprised of functional movements. What qualifies a movement to be considered “functional” is it’s real world application. The deadlift is damn functional, but why it is may not be your first guess. Yes, we do pick up stuff from the ground on a daily basis and it would behoove you to know how to pick these things up correctly. But the deadlift is functional for another, even more primal, reason. The deadlift is second to none in it’s ability to develope core strength. With every properly executed functional movement we perform in CrossFit and in life being “core to extremity”, having a solid core is paramount. Your core strength is your foundation. Deadlifting is like pouring concrete.

Mark Rippetoe - purveyor of the deadlift.

Rippetoe on the Deadlift – “… it’s very hard to imagine a more useful application of strength than picking heavy sh!t up off the ground. “

At CFSR, class always begins with a general warm up – like a run or row – which is to get your blood flowing to your muscles and literally get you warmer. Following the general warm up is dynamic stretching. The dynamic stretches we prescribe are based on what the exercises are in that day’s WOD. We want you to move through a range of motion and hopefully increase that range through the stretching exercise, preparing your muscles and joints for the workout ahead.

We discourage static stretching before a workout. Why? Here’s a quick piece written for the general public that explains. Static stretching actually decreases the strength of a muscle in the immediate period after stretching. As the article notes:

Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. – Stretching: The Truth, NY Times Magazine

Static stretching is, however, appropriate after a workout. With a good cool down and stretching period post-WOD, you’ll have less soreness and be more limber when you walk in for class the next day.