I am going to play off of Haley’s “I’m never going to be able to do that” post and Alec’s “Grease that Groove” post. First off, Haley and Alec, great posts; and Rob, you look like a different man. Well done! Now, what I wanted to talk to everyone about today are the benefits to a well thought out warm-up. I’m not going to go into the nitty-gritty details about energy systems and how to prime them properly pre-workout because lets be honest, no one who is reading this blog really cares. What I really want to stress is time management. How many of us show up to the gym 15-20 minutes early, walk around for a few minutes, grab a foam roller, find an open space on the floor and then take a seat right on the foam roller? Come on we all do it. We just sit there. Maybe we roll forward and backward two or three times if we are lucky but we really get nothing accomplished.
Here is what I propose to all of you. Better yet, here is my challenge: I want everyone to pick two goat movements. Goat movements meaning something that may be holding you back from complete CrossFit dominance, or something you are just down right terrible at. Take a minute and seriously think about it… Do you have you’re two movements? Okay great, let’s move on. Now to the challenge. Every day you step foot in the gym, dedicate those five, maybe ten, maybe even twenty minutes (if you want to get crazy) to those goats. Those movements that you once thought you could never do can quickly become a reality when you put the time in. These few minutes will quickly add up and make a huge difference.
Yeah, Bish, this all sounds great in theory, but how do I go about it? Well it’s pretty simple, believe it of not. Like Alec said, “grease the groove”. The more QUALITY time you put into something (without over training) the deeper that motor pattern will be ingrained. The key is staying fresh, Now depending on how many days a week you make it into the gym, I want you to alternate goat movements. Example: If you workout Monday, Wednesday and Friday you hit goat one Monday and Friday and goat two Wednesday. The following week you switch goat two to Monday and Friday and goat one on Wednesday. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
Now I understand some goat movements are more difficult than others, for example: Muscle ups. If you dream about floating on the rings and cranking out muscle up after muscle up but you can’t do an RX pull-up then we need to reevaluate your goat. There is a key here – I said goat, not dream. You will get there with the proper progressive goat training. CrossFit is about scalability and improvement. Every movement we perform in CrossFit can be scaled in a number of different ways in order to ensure you are enhancing your fitness every time you step foot in the door. You need to crawl before you can walk. If muscle ups are your dream but RX pull-ups are your goat, you need to work on pull-up strength first. Once you have the pull-up strength, make sure you have the deep-dip strength on the rings. Once the pull-up and dip strength is there then you start working on transitions.
I understand some of you may have no clue on how to start attacking your weaknesses, and that’s fine! Come talk to any of the coaches, we don’t bite (well, except for maybe Chuck). We will be more than happy to assist you in coming up with an action plan to tackle your goats. Just remember, goat training can be difficult physically and mentally because lets be honest, no one like doing things that we aren’t the best at. It can make you frustrated beyond belief, but trust me if you stay diligent and grease the groove, the end will justify the means. Go get ’em!
Strength
Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3
WOD
3 Rounds
20 Wallballs (20,14)
30 Kettlebell swings (1.5,1)
Level 2 – (1,0.75)
Level 1 – (0.75,0.5)
ADV – (30,20)
Ca$hout
50 Hollow Rocks or 25 GHD Situps
50 Supermans
Mobility Class:
Upper Body