Importance of Knowing how to Bail

In the box we coaches always strive to reinforce proper and safe movement patterns, but what if lets say a lift doesn't go smooth. Well were here to show ways to "bail" or "dump" the weight in a safe manner that will reduce the chance of an injury. Take for example myself for instance. As an athlete I grew up racing in Motocross. I was scared of falling until I learned how to fall properly. Same goes for our various exercises in the box. Our confidence is only as strong as our knowledge in what can occur.

 

Lets start with the ways how to dump simple movements such as the act of dropping the weight forward and stepping back, which are a great option for a failed front squat, clean, snatch, and overhead squat. The act of dropping the weight backward and stepping forward can be used in the back squat, snatch, and overhead squat as well.

 

Now the importance of mobility in our rotator cuff will become very apparent when dumping the bar behind us in a snatch. Please take note that this isn't the most ideal way to dump the bar. We recommend bailing in front of your body so you can keep an eye on your weight. This will reduce the chances of the barbell becoming a homing missile launching towards another athlete around you. The pass through movements with the pvc or bands will mobilize your rotator cuff and GH joint thus reducing the likelihood of dislocating or damaging your shoulder when dumping the bar.

 

Try out the above ways to dump the weight with either a pvc or light manageable weight. There will be a video posted along with this journal entry covering the proper ways to bail.

Should We Start With Strict or Kipping?

CrossFitMobJournal:

For most of us when we attempt a new movement such as a pull up we have the question "should I build muscle to do a strict pull up or should I learn to do a kipping pull up?". The answer varies with the athletes goal in mind. Lets say your goal might be just to get a pull up. Then the kipping version can be the way to go since it requires less isolated muscle strength and can be learned relatively fast.

 

The kipping pull up requires the body to have sufficient strength in the forearms for grip, the rotator cuff for the transition between the forward and backward swings, and the lat dorsi that creates the downward pull. This version requires adequate technique and full body power to create the swing. The strict pull up only requires muscular strength in the biceps, lat dorsi, and the forearms to take yourself from the hang to the bar.

 

From an energy standpoint the kipping version will tax our body less thus allowing ourselves to do more reps. Since we are using our whole body to move through the exercise, we are distributing our energy expenditure throughout our body. The opposite can be said for the strict since it requires full muscular isolated strength. If you may be doing a WOD the kipping version can most likely be the way to go. This will accomplish the most work in the amount of time allotted.

 

If we were to look at an estimated duration in which a beginner will train for optimal strength regarding a strict movement. It can take weeks to even months to accomplish. Keep in mind that the time will vary with every individual. Ideally for most athletes it is recommended to build a sufficient amount of strength to reduce the likelihood of an injury, but it is just as important to practice the techniques available. We always recommend to ask your coach to find out which technique is best to focus on which will improve your fitness.

 

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Fitness Trackers

CrossFitMobJournal:

 

Topic: Fitness Trackers

 

Fitness trackers, they can come in many forms. From high tech wearables to an old man holding a clipboard and stopwatch theres a way to track your fitness. In this article we will cover a few beneficial platforms to try out and use.

 

If we were to start with wrist trackers such as a Fitbit or apple watch we will see a real time/ on demand tracker that will not only record our steps walked, but our heart rate, estimated calories burned, and distance walked. These type of fitness trackers can be very beneficial for the heart rate function which can track from our wrist or chest. Most of these can have a functional display on the watch to see our progress. Keep in mind that smart watches differ from specific fitness watches regarding fuctionality and uses because of the purpose of the product. The down sides of using such technology is that they can get in the way and can be sometimes fragile. In other words we don’t want to snatch a kettlebell on the watch. Plus depending on our exercises and our WOD's we may need to use wrist wraps thus replacing the tracker.

 

Next are fitness workout apps such as "SugarWOD". Most of these are free including Fitbit which can pair to an external source such as a watch, but we are looking at the workout tracker functionality portion in this section. Apps such as SugarWOD can provide us with a platform to record our PR's (Personal Records) and WOD's (Workout of the Day). This also provides a scoreboard for athletes to see where they placed among other fellow athletes in the same workouts. Plus these will show a detailed analysis of our progress in specific movements. Having the ability to track your scores are not only helpful, but it also makes finding those scores easy and quick!

 

Finally are the uses of applicable phones that track steps such as samsung and apple phones. Since these are an object that will be in your pocket, tracking steps for example will not be the most accurate estimate since the object will bounce around. As you can see these won't be the best option to use, but it is still available.

 

If you decide to track your fitness in any of the ways mentioned above be sure to tell us in the comments section.

 

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Fueling For Performance

CrossFitMobJournal:

 

Topic: Fueling for Performance

 

When we think of reaching our fitness goals we usually think of two things. Exercising and nutrition, but for many of us we tend to forget about the nutrition aspect of our fitness. In fact nutrition can represent nearly 85% of our progress.

 

In this article we are only addressing the need and when to properly fuel for performance. We are excluding the area of diets and meal plans in this article.

 

For those of us beginner, intermediate, or even seasoned athlete we can all agree that we must eat/drink in order to be able to function at 100%. This goes especially if you are training in the morning versus later in the day.

 

Lets take for instance the snack before a training session. "Should it be consumed or not and how long before the session should it be taken?". In general it is recommended to consume some protein and healthy fat 30 minutes to an hour before hand. This obviously depends on if you have a specific diet and/or meal plans that you follow.

 

There is nothing worse than "tanking" a workout because of not having enough energy to do something. This recommendation not only supports the need to fuel, but it also helps us not reach the limit of where we can hold down our food. This is a possibility for many of us. The dreaded meeting with "Pukie" as Coach Glassman says. Since we are consuming a light snack 30 to 60 minutes before we train, we are allowing our digestive system to break down our nutrients with an adequate amount of time. This will further allow us to reach a balance between the amount of nutrients ready to be digested and those that are already in our blood stream.

 

If we were to look at the possibilities of not eating food before training lets say from a couple hours to even a full night before, we can see some negative outcomes. We could become dizzy and light headed depending on the intensity of the training. We could also potentially work a different energy system than which we wanted to target and potentially failing at movements in which we are capable of achieving as well.

 

In conclusion you can see the need to fuel for our performance does play into our ability to reach our goals and possibly those PR's. Just note that these possible side affects may not occur with everyone since our bodies do respond very differently. Try it out and tell us if it helped you perform at an improved level or if it potentially decreased your work output.

-Christopher H

 

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How Scaling Can Be Applied Effectively

We all know that when it comes to training there are movements that need to be scaled in order to create a more positive and productive training hour. These scalable options can be minimal or a gross modification. None of which are bad, but can improve our current level of abilities. Most common ways to scale are by reducing the weight used, adding assistance bands, decreasing total training time, reducing reps/sets, and adjusting based on the equipment used. All are viable options to receive the most bang out of your workout buck.

This concept can be applied to our WOD's (Workout of the Day) to maximize the training effect. For example if a WOD is aimed to take around 4 minutes to complete and a CrossFitter takes 20 minutes to finish, most likely either the athlete or coach didn't scale properly. This can drastically change the energy system we are looking to target. Same goes for the opposite, scaling too much can lead to finishing a workout too early and/or not receiving the CrossFit stimulus in which we are looking to achieve. This could also possibly lead to not improving our overall fitness as effectively in the time used. A couple ways to figure out a base idea of where to start at is by knowing your 1 Rep max numbers and current level of movement abilities.

As you can see scaling is an important part of our training and should be carefully thought of. If help is needed I recommend talking to your coaches to find the best way how to scale a particular exercise.

-Christopher H.

How the Cooldown can be Beneficial

The Post workout cool down. No I am not talking about turning on the A/C in your car, but the post workout mobility and stretching techniques. This post workout cool down not only can improve our flexibility in our tight muscles, but it can also bring our bodies back down to homeostasis in a sense. This means a gradual reduced heart rate and less veneous pooling of blood in our extremities. Those with asthma can see this as reducing the possibility of an attack or episode and will make breathing easier post exercise. This can also be seen as to help flush the lactic acid in our muscles from the intense WOD (Workout of the Day) that we just finished. This lactic acid is the feeling of muscle soreness that we receive from the stimulus of progressive work. We can experience this directly after a WOD or it can be the next morning when we wake up. This feeling of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is what will determine our ability to perform in the next workout or perhaps in other everyday activities. As you can see the importance of the use of mobility work is vital to our well being and performance. I recommend trying out a few stretches or light conditioning post workout to aid in our progress. This does not actually have to take a whole 30 minutes, but perhaps 5 to 10 minutes for optimal applications. Some examples of stretching techniques and active cool downs can be used as follows;

 

Static stretching- Holding the stretch for 30 to 45 seconds per side.

 

Active Isolated stretching- Holding a stretch for 1-2 seconds for 10 reps on each side.

 

Self myofacial release- Rolling for 30 seconds to a minute per side. When a muscle knot is felt/found, hold pressure and create a slight wiggle effect to loosen up the bundle of fibers. This includes foam rolling, stick rolling, using a lacrosse ball, and smashing by using weight on a muscle.

 

Use of conditioning- Walking or biking for a selected amount of time or distance such as for 5 minutes or 400 meters.

 

-Christopher H. 

Stress and How It Effects Us

Stress… it can come in different forms. Such as bad stress and good stress. Take negative stress for instance. This can be stuck in traffic when you're having road rage or when you may be at work and suddenly you just realized that you are not going to meet a deadline on time. These are instances of the environmental stressors that can actually effect us not only on a mental conscious level, but actually on a molecular level. When we encounter this type of stress which is called the "flight or fight" response our heart rate can skyrocket sending adrenaline to our working muscles. This can be useful in certain circumstances, but only for a short duration. Over time this can cause a build up of plaque in the arteriole walls of the heart possibly leading to atherosclerosis and a shorter life span. As you can see this is not beneficial to our overall health.

 

This response is caused by the sympathetic nervous system. The "fight or flight" system that causes stress. The other is the parasympathetic system which causes relaxation and digestion. This parasympathetic system is responsible for bring our minds and bodies back to ease and creating the rebuilding processes in which have to constantly be done. For most people they do not reach this system unfortunately. Even in sleep this system should be utilized. Some examples of ways to activate this system is by meditating which can be from 5 minutes to an hour, participating in a nice yoga session or any other mind body class such as Pilates, and just sleeping for the recommended amount of time of 7-9 hours. This can include short power naps to restore energy and the body's ability to focus on tasks throughout the day.

 

One way how to manage stress can be seen in a variety of ways such as going for a walk break during long task duration at work, cleaning up your nutrition, not looking at social media as frequently or using technology as frequently, and by participating in a core-strength training program. This benefit of exercising will not only provide you with bone strengthening movements that will improve health for over a lifetime, it will also provide the use of the "good" stress.

 

This "good" stress can come from a training program such as CrossFit because of the safe, always changing, and dynamic time durations. From the WOD'S (Workout of the Day) that are provided which usually lasts between 8 to 15 minutes can condition our heart to improve our heart rate, ability to utilize oxygen, bone density, and other beneficial health markers.

 

So as you can see there are certain ways how we can gain stress and utilize it to be effective and beneficial instead of only diverting to the negative version. I recommend trying out some of these benefitting suggestions to utilize the parasympathetic system and to harness the "good" stress in which we are always capable of attaining!

 

-Christopher H.