Hey MWodies,

We’ve been saying for some time on the MWod, that we’ve got to move beyond a “one or zero”, completion/no completion, “just do it” sort of mind set.   As my friend BMac says, “you can’t hide who you are”.  If you you receive your snatch in an over-extended position, chances are we know exactly how you are going to run–over extended.  We’ve been making the case for years that athletes need to pay attention to how the perform some of the “less” complex or  ”less” difficult movements in their training.  Otherwise, it is really easy to accidentally and deeply groove some pretty wonky movement patterning that will rear its ugly head during more complex, or heavily loaded movements.   Take the innocuous double under for example.  Without thinking about it, an athlete can easily groove a few hundred reps of some really bad jumping and landing, or some weird bouncing-piking hip thrust (BPHT- btw, tm) in a matter of minutes.  Again, congrats on getting your double under, too bad you’ve wrecked your ability to ever really effectively jump, or open your hips violently.  Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice makes permanent.  Ask any olympic lifting coach how easy it is to get an athlete to stop donkey kicking their feet during transitions. They will laugh.

Don’t get me wrong.  If you are competing for world champion of the world in double-unders, get it done.  If you are getting paid to double under, get it done.  Just understand that when you are 50k reps into a crappy dead end movement strategy  (that’s only 44 miles of heel striking running for example), it’s hard to un-ring that bell.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

This episode is dedicated to a friend in Australia with chronic low back pain. (You know who you are…)

Let’s make a simple equation:

Correct Movement + Right Lifestyle (nutrition, sleep, stress) = You are a Perfect Healing Machine (PHM)

Yes, it’s really that simple.  If you set the right conditions for your body and move well, you have an infinite capacity to heal and reclaim function.  Oh, and that’s at any age.  Frankly we’ve never met a person that couldn’t improve on either the lifestyle or movement front (frankly it’s most often both).

So let’s take our Australian friend as a case study.  Good guy, good personality, eats really well, moves really well.  Still has low back pain.  Turns out he’s really sore in the morning first thing out of bed.  Strange.  This is worst time of the day in fact.

Me:  Please tell me you don’t sleep on your stomach.

Him:  How did you know?

Me:  Are you just toying with me or what?

Him: I’m not.

Me: Dewd, drink a VB as a foul and stop sleeping on your belly man! Show some respect for yourself!  How old is your bed, please don’t say 8 years old and that’s it’s really hard.

Him:  Weird! It’s really hard and it’s exactly 8 years old.  My girlfriend has been giving me crap lately about it being so old.

Me: Weird.  Marry her.  She’s brilliant.

Look, if you are an athlete, you probably need a bed that is much softer than you think.  You can’t spend 8 hours a night managing being both overextended AND unconscious.  (You are probably just barely able to manage being over extended all the time anyway.)

Look, sleep in any position you want.  As long as:  your spine is neutral, your head isn’t craned all the way to the side where you can properly breath, and you don’t wake up messed up.  I’ve spoken with two emergency room physicians that have herniated their necks after hitting the pillow and sleeping on their stomachs  (with heads cranked to the side.)  This by the way is VERY difficult to perform on your stomach.  So, it’s pretty simple.  Don’t sleep on your stomach.  It’s a pretty serious adaptation error (puts your lifestyle variable in the negative).

You should wake up stoked, not broken.

KStar

Hey Supple-legion,

Today’s MWod episode drills down on the way I think about and order movement complexity, rehab/post surgery programming, and illuminating mobility problems in my athletes.  When I first started to think about these kinds of problems, I started from the angle of spinning people back up after injury or stepping people back down to regroove/reteach motor patterning.  It turns out, it was also the way we teach our beginners.  It also explains why there are a whole bunch of older power lifters and fewer master olympic lifters.  The second part of the video explains how challenging the athlete’s torso to be more upright is another way to make movement more difficult.  Part two is coming tomorrow.

Holy Crap, this is the 400th post.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

We get a bunch of mail asking for examples of good warm ups.  So, here is the start to a series about how some of the best coaches and athletes I know warm up.

To kick off, here is Brian MacKenzie of Crossfit Endurance.

Ultimately, you will know what best works for you.  But, being that we are animals that learn primarily from mimicking other behavior, having a few examples never hurts.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

Today’s episode is a love note to some old ex-girlfriends; thrusters and pull-ups.  You’ve changed and grown up.  You are stronger and smarter now and those movements have no idea what you are capable of.  If you are going to win them back, you’ve got to be cool with some new lines.  You’ve got to impress them with your depth and nuanced understanding of movement.  Otherwise?  They will break your heart again.

Look, seriously.  You have two choices.  You can either survive this couplet, or you can crush it.  Make a good decision.  Get warmed up really well and make sure that your sticky corners are really ready.  Today’s mission focuses on a few elements that you may not be prioritizing.  If you are finally gonna make your move on Rich Froning and Kris Clever, this is your shot.

Kstar

Hey Mwodies,

Today’s episode is to evaluate your ability to create an external rotation torsion force (stability, good mechanics, safe joint positioning) in the bottom of your squat (full compression).  Many of us have to turn our feet out a bunch in order to get to full depth.  While this is clearly functional, it’s not optimal.  If you are having to spin your feet much past 15 degrees, chances are you are compensating for poor motor control, missing internal hip rotation, a tight anterior chain (quads, etc.), and stiff ankles.  The further out your feet go, the less effective your hip rotators are at resisting the valgus forces created by the body (read: knees in).  Somewhere between 5-12 degrees is sort of a magic area where you can still get to depth and create freakish amounts of torque.

Give this test a try and see for yourself.

Kstar

Ps. Diane ain’t nothing.

Hey MWodies,

Today’s MWod episode is about thriving in a heavy duty, pre-shoulder fatigued  Muscle Up environment.  As we prepare for complex motor skills and competition of any kind, we need to select moving strategies that are more nuanced and complex than; Pain- yes/no, and Task Completion  yes/no.  As you think through your game plan, you’ve got to be constantly assessing how you are going to put yourself into a good position to to succeed in the most difficult aspect of the game you are about to face.  For example, in 12.4, you will get to the muscle ups, but how you get there is really going to matter.  Anyone can buffer bad positioning when they are fresh, but how is your crappy positioning and technique going to serve you when you are tired?  Answer:  Not well.  Even the best powerlifters know that the meet isn’t over until the deadlift has been pulled.  Those strength athletes regularly make hard tactical decisions about putting themselves into the best positions to be strong at the end.

Keys:  Keep your torso upright during the wall balls and save your shoulders.  Make sure your anterior leg chain is good to go and that you are saving it for the hip extension demands of the muscle up.  Prep rotation like it’s your business.

Think of this workout like a totally realistic war movie.  The wall balls and double-unders are like the two heros that hate each other and are about to fight.  The clock is the tough Sergeant Major who yells at the hero’s, “save it for the enemy you two. You gotta kill those dirty rotten muscle-up  bastards.  That’s the enemy.”

Be sure to watch Carl Paoli’s excellent games prep video here.

kstar

Hey MWodies,

Here are some thoughts on maximizing your output for WOD 12.3.

Summary:  Be well warmed up;  Really well.  Think about the positions that are going to most challenge you.  Put your mob time there.  Be efficient early on.  The difference at the high ends will not be work out put, but efficient mechanics.

Slay that chupacabra.

Kstar

Hey Mwodies,

Today’s episode highlights some of the more subtle problems of missing range of motion.  When an athlete is mission crucial movement ranges, they end up paying for it in spades.  Missing shoulder IR? Watch what happens to your neck.  And then your nervous tissues at the shoulder.  And then your elbows are wonky.  And sorry about your crappy wrist pain.  Doode.  It’s simple.  You need to be normal. No more, no less. You are a system of systems.   Need normal shoulders?  Fix your up stream and down stream business.  Need a normal neck? Fix your down stream business.  I mean, how you gonna win if you ain’t right within? (thanks Lauryn Hill, Fugee Leopard. )

Kstar

Hey Mwodies,

Today’s mission is to examine your post-training practices.   Too many times I witness really good athletes perform an excellent warm up, perform heroic feats of strength and wattage, then well, do nothing.  People, after strenuous training, you’ve got to take care of yourself.  If you are competing in a brutally short event, you’ve got to do some cool down.  If you are an endurance athlete, you’ve got to do some cool down (obviously not 2x your workout length) .  If you are a strength athlete, you’ve got to perform some kind anti-stiffness protocol.  A ton of the problems we see start out as non-cool down adaptation errors.  How do you think you got so stiff?  Why didn’t you “recover” from your last workout?  We need to control the things we can control.  For crying out loud, go to any olympic track and see how many of those athletes “cool down” on the other track.  Watch the swimming events and witness how many laps the athletes swim after they compete.  Even racing horses are cooled down for crying out loud (they are typically better cared for than you btw).  Obviously you don’t have to cool down for 40 min after a 20 min sprint piece.  But, are you performing any cool down?  Are you drinking and eating anything in the first 20-30 min window? Or, do you simply go back to work or the couch? I know, I know! Time is crunched.  It’s hard to fit it all in when you train at elite levels of intensity.   In this video, I’m referencing the fact that my athletes were about to compete in a 10 minute effort.  A simple guideline is for them to spend 15-20 minutes cooling down.  This could include walking, rowing, mobing etc.    Do it for a week.  Budget some time to actually cool down and see how you feel.

kstar