By Dan Finck
Since the CrossFit Games were introduced in 2007, the popularity of CrossFit has grown exponentially every year. In my opinion, the Games have been both good and bad for the larger CrossFit community. The popularity of the Games has brought CrossFit to the forefront of the fitness community. It’s mainstream popularity has allowed small gyms, such as ours, to open up all over the world and has given good hearted people a place to grow and hangout with other like minded people. Unfortunately, the world is still full of naysayers and it feels like some people have taken it upon themselves to discredit CrossFit and insult anyone who believes in our community along the way. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I believe that the majority of anti CrossFit people don’t get that there’s a difference between the 5% of the community that make up the “Games” athletes and the other 95% of the community that are trying to enhance their quality of life through a CrossFit affiliate and its community.
Training to become a Games level athlete has become a full time job. Like any other sport, these guys and gals are spending a lot of time in the gym perfecting their skills and pushing their bodies to the limit. This high volume, high stress type of training that these Games athletes and, unfortunately, a lot of non Games athletes are doing is unhealthy over a long period of time. I think this is part of the reason why we’ve seen blog articles on the dangers of CrossFit.
The other reason these bloggers are discrediting CrossFit is for our “lack of technique” combined with our high intensity workouts. I get why some people may have this impression. Watch the Dave Lipson vs Josh Everette video above and compare it to the Kendrick Farris video. All three of them are doing the same workout, “Isabel.” Lipson and Everette are CrossFit competitors and Farris is Olympic Weightlifter training for the Olympic Games. The first time I saw the Lipson vs Everette video a few years ago, I thought it was impressive; 30 snatches in a minute, wow that’s fast! A few months ago I saw the Farris video and I was blown away. Even though his time is more than double the time that of Lipson and Everette, Farris’ “Isabel” is way more impressive! Every rep is perfect, every rep looks like a real snatch. Farris’ last rep looks the exact same as his first few. I went back and watched the Lipson vs Everette video again and my heart dropped. Maybe our haters have a point? Why do we cut corners? Why does Lipson’s and Everette’s snatchs look like crap?
How we perform a movement in a workout is up to us. As coaches, we try and do everything we can to make sure everyone’s technique is perfect. We give cues during workouts to help keep your technique good and you safe, but at the end of the day you have decide what’s more important: your safety or your score? Leaving your ego at the door and processing the “risk vs reward” in the middle of a workout can be tough. Go back and watch the videos again. Notice how exhausted Kendrick Farris is at the end of his workout? If you were at NoCoast a few Fridays ago and did 30 Clean & Jerks for Technique (not for time), you know how physically demanding perfect form can be. Just because you slow down a bit to have better form, doesn’t mean you’re getting any less of a workout.
What if, instead of slowing down and resting in the middle of your workout, you take a little more time on your barbell lifts? Most of us need to rest during our conditioning workouts anyway, so why not be smarter about it? Slow down during the more technical movements and bust ass through the burpees and other movements that aren’t as technically demanding. The rewards from CrossFit are glaringly obvious, but for a lot of us the risks are not so evident. Slow down, listen to our coaches, and listen to your body. The only way to increase work capacity is to first stay healthy and allow yourself the opportunity to train tomorrow.
We all need to realize that there’s a difference between Games level programming and programming for fitness. At the end of the day, most of you are looking to increase your fitness, not make a run at the podium in L.A. this summer.
For anyone who's been through our LiftOne program, you’ve heard our Technique vs Intensity lecture; for those of you who bypassed LiftOne, here’s a brief review. When you are learning a new skill, it is important to learn and develop the technique first. This may take time depending on how complex the skill is. Once you learn the technique, you must practice it until you develop consistency. Consistency means that you are able to repeat a skill correctly multiple times; you know you’ve become consistent when you no longer have to think about every aspect of the skill, your muscle memory takes over. Once you’ve developed consistency, you can add intensity. And, just because we add intensity, doesn’t mean we can forget about technique. In order to add intensity, we can allow technique to side a little from 100% efficiency to maybe 85%-90% efficiency. If our technique slides beyond 85%, we need to slow down refocus on technique. It’s a tug of war and its your job to balance technique and intensity.
For anyone who's been through our LiftOne program, you’ve heard our Technique vs Intensity lecture; for those of you who bypassed LiftOne, here’s a brief review. When you are learning a new skill, it is important to learn and develop the technique first. This may take time depending on how complex the skill is. Once you learn the technique, you must practice it until you develop consistency. Consistency means that you are able to repeat a skill correctly multiple times; you know you’ve become consistent when you no longer have to think about every aspect of the skill, your muscle memory takes over. Once you’ve developed consistency, you can add intensity. And, just because we add intensity, doesn’t mean we can forget about technique. In order to add intensity, we can allow technique to side a little from 100% efficiency to maybe 85%-90% efficiency. If our technique slides beyond 85%, we need to slow down refocus on technique. It’s a tug of war and its your job to balance technique and intensity.
