'Nancy'
5 Rounds for Time
400m Run
15 Overhead Squats (42.5/30kg)
Staying Injury Free at Inner West CrossFit
CrossFit IS safe IF you do it sensibly and in a correct manner. It is NOT safe when you push your bodies past it's capabilities and start using incorrect form. I wanted to clarify some thing’s with you today that I hope will inspire you to the importance of technique/form/scaling and ROM (Range Of Motion). Starting with THE WARM UP.
Warm Up:
This Is ESSENTIAL to every class. It is not to fill in some of the hour or chat about the weekend before we get into the WOD, It needs to be done and done properly. I design the warm up to coincide with the days WOD, however if you are feeling particularly tight in any areas, or need to pay a little more attention to a specific part, please speak up in the warm up or alternatively after the group warm up please feel free to warm up by yourself whilst listening to my instructions of the days WOD. Every athlete in the world has to warm up before a work out, this is the starting point of most injures.
WOD:
As most of you know by now this means Work Out of the Day. When it comes to the WOD, the work out I post on the whiteboard each day is RX'D this means the weights/time/reps according to the CrossFit main page. This is NOT what you have to do, nor do I want you doing. I CAN/WILL get you to the RX'D point, but please give me 6/12/18 months. This goes for pull-ups/ weights/ double under's any thing really. You can not be expected to do it straight away and I do not expect this from you. So please leave your ego at the door. I would much prefer to get you to the RX'D point in 18 months time rather than you staring at the bar through a WOD because you simply can only get 1 rep out at a time, or even worse you are out of action for 2 months due to injury. In short a work out is not a work out if you spend half of it staring at the object you have chosen to lift/push/pull etc... Therefore we continue on to my next topic:
Technique/Form:
Two very different things. Technique is the way in which you complete a movement. Form is whether or not you are using the technique correctly. It is the 10 minutes I go though with the wooden dowel teaching different techniques, There are many different techniques of doing the same exercise, it is using bad form that makes these techniques dangerous and potentially could stop your CrossFit experience. Bad form is due to many many things, you are new to the movement, lack of practice, too heavy weight etc... I teach the technique YOU practice your form. I am there to tell you how to correct your form, I am there to tell you when you are using bad form and stop you from potentially injuring yourself. What I need from you guys is practice, practice, practice no one is great in every thing. If you need to correct your squatting form, your press form anything I need you to practice, at the gym, at home, at work, however always with a wooden dowel guys, you should never practice form with weight! If you have a question on form please ask me do not be afraid to bring it up in class, other people probably want to know the answer too :)
Scaling:
As I have mentioned before I do not want you to do a WOD with a weight that is too heavy, or a movement you can not do or have just got (Gemma with her kipping for example :P) There is no point doing a work out if you spend half the time looking at the bar! This is for 1) Productivity of the work out 2) Safety!!!! If you are lifting a too heavy weight or doing a movement wrong it will show in a WOD, as soon as you are put against a stop watch or in a race type situation to some extent you may lose your form, in a WOD this shows massively. As I have mentioned please give me 6/12/18 months, however long you need to work on getting you to your desired weight, I do not want to lose any of you to injury, though incorrect form :)
Now if I see incorrect form in a WOD I WILL stop you mid work out to either discuss form and even drop your weight, if I do this, it is not to be mean or to embarrass you, it is simply for your best interest. I do not want to stop any one mid WOD, so I would much prefer you chose your weight/reps/movement sensibly before we begin and I promise you, after a year with me you will see a massive improvement/ weight increase or else I am not doing my job properly! :)
If before the WOD you want to discuss what you would like to do, and what I think you should do, please come to me. I can scale for you:
i.e Gemma has just got her kipping pull-ups however not to full capability just yet, so in a WOD that requires 5 rounds of 10 Pull ups I may get her to alternate 1st round kipping, 2nd jumping pull ups, 3rd kipping, 4th jumping etc.... but this needs to established before a WOD starts, I really do not want to or have to scale during a work out. So think about it before you start!
On the other hand however: I feel strongly that if you are doing most WOD’s unbroken i.e you find you are not having to break throughout the reps, I feel you have cheated yourself out of using a heavier weight and have not fully pushed yourself in that work out.
ROM:
Range Of Motion: NOT NEGOTIABLE! This simply means I want to see full range of motion: fully opening your hips in a squat/box jump, extending your arms in a push press/ squat press etc.... Using full ROM is using good form. Performing movements without using full ROM is using bad form and is therefore unsafe as we have already discussed. During the workout if you are only going to partial ROM then I will count no rep, no rep, no rep and you will have to continue that until you achieve full ROM. Its hard, but if you do not achieve full ROM you are cheating yourself out of a fully beneficial work out. Some of you, may want to compete in CrossFit competitions and in fact all of you are more than capable of competing and creating a great hardworking team for Inner West CrossFit!!! Whether that is something you want to get into or not (ask Katrina how much fun it is, you literally buzz from the adrenaline and achieve new standards that you didn’t think were possible) I still want full ROM in your work outs :) :) :)
and finally.........
The Cool Down:
Again essential after a work out, you are athletes now, you need to cool down and stretch as to not provoke injury and cramp up! I realise some mornings we may run out of time, but if you have finished your work out early move to the EVA Grey flooring area and start stretching down yourself , if you have to leave please make sure you stretch down at home, on the train where ever! :)
Well I know that’s a lot to take in, its just some thing I am extremely passionate about, CrossFit is my life and I would hate to lose any of you due to injury that could have been prevented. The reason why so many of you come and continue to come back is to improve your fitness and CrossFit it the best fitness program on earth at doing so!
Hope this has helped, and please to ask me any questions you need answering to make you the best you can be :)
See you at the next Work Out.
Dave and Gemma
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