Coach Greg Glassman has said, “We work with a cast of about thirty exercises where about fifteen account for 80% of the workouts. The cast of characters that comprise our routines are so potent in increasing strength from head to toe that regular exposure to any of them nearly guarantees improvements in the others. Improve your deadlift, bench, and pull-ups and your squat, dips, and rope climb will come up. The neuro-endocrine response of the major lifts is so potent that they alone will increase your strength measured by any other exercise so that seemingly infrequent exposures to some exercises is not a certain disadvantage.” (powerathletesmag)
When I read this it made me think of something else I had read. "The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients." (wikipedia)
This effect has been noticed in a variety of situations. The ratio is not always an exact 80/20, sometimes it can be 90/10 or 75/25, however the point is that a large percentage of the results come from a small percentage of causes. People tend to wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, you use 20% of your moves (e.g., rear naked choke and armbar) to finish 80% of your matches. In business, they often state that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients. Conversely, 80% of your headaches can be attributed to 20% of your clients. You order 80% of your takeout meals from the same 20% of restaurants in your neighborhood. It goes on and on.
As a fitness program that models itself on a black box system of inputs and outputs, we should look to see if indeed 80% of our outputs are caused by 20% of our inputs. And if indeed we get the most bang for our buck from 20% of our inputs then we should really be concerned about how we approach that precious 20% of our training. From my own gut instinct, I would say that the majority of adaptations from Crossfit come from Squats, Pull-ups, Presses, Lifts-from-the-floor and sprints (and all the variations of those exercises).
Another way to look at this phenomenon is through the list of 10 adaptations: Strength, Stamina, Cardio-Respiratory Endurance, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Accuracy, Agility and Balance. Of these 10 adaptations are there 2 that cause the greatest results in the other 8? The choice is obvious: Power and Speed. If we want results we need to chase Power and Speed. Chasing better performance in those areas will give us maximum results in the other 8 adaptations. Crossfit is all about chasing speed and power and that is how we drive 80% of our adaptations. Moving large loads of long distances in a short amount of time is a recipe for success.
If this is true, then perhaps the opposite is also true: that 80% of our failures can be attributed to a mere 20% of shortcomings. This means that if you have a one or two small weaknesses they can impact 80% of your workouts. Look at it this way, if we can agree that squats, deadlifts, presses and pull-ups (and all the variations of those exercises) are the foundational 20% that drives 80% of the Crossfit train, then we can call these four exercises and their derivatives "The Vital Few."
What all this boils down to is realizing the importance of the "Vital Few." If you master those fundamentals, then you will reap the rewards of the program. However, if you cannot squat properly then that greatly limits your ability to move large loads, long distances over a short period of time. Therefore, your ability to express power and speed is blunted and thus your adaptations will be slower or non-existent. So glossing over a flaw in your squat will guarantee that you are unsuccessful with the program. Likewise, failure to remedy a problem that impacts your shoulder or hamstring flexibility can keep you from performing presses or deadlifts properly. A small problem can have a large negative impact. We should endeavor to redress our weaknesses and work towards mastery of the Vital Few instead of getting distracted by the trivial many.
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They say you have to walk before you can run. Similarly, if you want to be a fire breather, then first you have to be a good air breather. It amazes me that so little attention is paid to breathing. Breathing is so vital to life and to performance that I think it requires at least a minimum of attention. Breath is life. We can stop eating and exercising for long periods of time and survive. However, if you stop breathing for 20 minutes the game is over. As far as I know there are two involuntary activities that we can voluntarily control. The first is blinking the eyes and the second is breathing. Controlling your eyelids is perhaps useful to keep you awake while reading this little article but controlling the breath can have real exciting consequences for your training and your life.
To be sure, breath is synonymous with life: the first sign of life is the cry of a baby that signifies that the baby has taken its first breath. The proposition of this article is that by taking greater control and responsibility of our breath we gain better control over our lives.
The yoga tradition has a whole lexicon of breathing exercises referred to as "pranayama." Prana is the Sanskrit word for "life air" or "life force". In China it is known as chi and in Japan as ki. The fact that many cultures have independently found their way to importance of breath practice is evidence that there is some relevance to it.
The act of breathing suffers from an observer effect such that the very act of observing how you breathe will change the way you breathe...and often for the better.
One of my favorite athletes is Rickson Gracie. He embodies virtuosity in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and he is also an advocate of yoga and breathing exercises. This clip of Rickson Gracie from the documentary "Choke" is something that I always found inspirational. He is a very fluid athlete and martial artist.
Breathing is a complex muscular activity. Consider how hard you are breathing after some 400m sprints or a WOD like Fran. The muscles of the torso (abs, pecs, rhomboids, intercostals, etc.) are all called into help the process of breathing. The body devotes its resources to keeping you alive. If you know that you are going to do something that taxes your muscles in such a dramatic way, then it seems to me it would be important to prepare those muscles for their work in facilitating the breath.
A simple way to get better at breathing is to learn to simply breathe deeper. The three-part breathing exercise below will also get your lungs to work fully and deeply in a relaxed manner. In all our CrossFit exercises we consider a full range of motion as a sign of quality. If we look at the quality of our breathing through the same lens, then we can see the importance of learning to increase the capacity of the lungs. Also if we are anticipating a very taxing MetCon workout, then we might benefit from warming up the muscles that will get the brunt of the workout.
Breathing exercises are not all about relaxation. Learning to control the pace of our breath can also warm and heat the body. Kapalabhati breathing is a great way to quickly generate heat, warm up the abs, and oxygenate the system. And, as with all breathing exercises, Kapalabhati focuses the mind.
There are so many breathing exercises, but try tackling these two first and let me know what you think. Focus on your breathing for a little while and prepare to start breathing fire! Leave a comment.
Today is the last day of the "100-Day Burpee Challenge." The challenge involved doing one burpee on day one, two burpees on day two and so forth. It has been a long and tiring 100 days. Doing burpees was incidental to the challenge, rather developing the habit, the stick-to-it-iveness, the consistency and keeping your word were the real challenges. Thankfully, there were several of us that kept each other in check with blog posts, facebook messages, emails and text messages. Those of us that stayed in contact completed the challenge, those people that stopped posting and emailing fell off.
The best experience of this challenge came from the side bet that arose out of a little internet banter. My friend, Juan, posted that he had completed 93 burpees in 8:15. I thought that was particularly fast and decided I would try to beat it. I did 100 burpees in 8:10. I posted my score and thumbed my nose at Juan. A little brouhaha ensued and our friend, Samantha, decided we should go head to head in a 100 burpee showdown. The loser would be crowned "DFL 2009." Here's a little history, back in the day, Juan had earned the moniker "DFL" from me because I noticed that he had this habit of finishing the WODs Dead Fucking Last. Juan is a strong dude and a Marine so I figured he could take a little abuse. In fact I think he needed a little abuse just because I think he lacked motivation. Juan is his own man and he let the comments roll off his back. Recently Juan decided he'd finally had enough and he started busting his ass. In the last few months, Juan has gotten his diet in check and started busting ass on the WODs and posting some impressive results. Most recently he banged out 24 rounds of Cindy. This is in sharp contrast to the 11 rounds he posted several months ago that caused me to abuse him mercilessly. Anyway, now that he was on track it was time to put him to the test.
The week before the showdown we were doing our daily burpees and posting our times and talking trash. There was a pool set up and people were putting in $5 and guessing how many seconds Juan would beat me by. Apparently picking me to win wasn't even an option! I think the reasons were two-fold: 1) Juan has shown consistent improvement over the last couple of months and 2) people know that betting against me pisses me off.
We got together at the gym and Juan and I went head to head at 100 burpees for time. I won with 6:07 and he finished in 6:50. It was a hell of a race. Winning always feels good. I feel the challenge brought out the best in me but, more importantly, I think it brought out the best in Juan.
In my opinion the job of a coach and a teacher is to bring out the best in your students/athletes. The hope is that one day they will surpass you and their abilities and achievements will outshine yours. There are as many ways to elicit this response from your athletes as there are athletes. Granted some of your athletes will never be that good and some will be better than you before they stumble upon your gym. The point is that, like in all interpersonal relationships, you take people how you find them and you try to leave them a little (or a lot) better off than when they met you.
For all my ball-busting and name calling, I still want the best for Juan (and all my athletes). I want him to succeed. How I get the best out of him might require me to get dirty. Sometimes I have to be like Morpheus and tell my clients to "hit me!" So what if Juan didn't win this time, he tried his very best and got a PR. Also he is fired up to prove himself now and that will inform his training and make him stronger in the long run. My hat's off to you, Juan. Great job!
How do you bring out the best in your athletes and students? Please let me know in the comments.
Read Moon's account of the burpee showdown here. Watch the video here.
Gladwell makes an interesting point that society often sees the young prodigy as the gifted genius. However, as Gladwell points out, there are many cases of late bloomers that shine far brighter as they get older. As I approach thirty-eight I am especially interested in late bloomers. I myself am in the best shape of my life and still improving. I have witnessed many clients that have come to me and have little to no athletic background. People that were picked last to play on a team, people that were chubby as kids, people that were shy and awkward come to Crossfit and achieve extraordinary levels of fitness especially considering they are what many would consider past their prime.
Picasso was considered a prodigy.
This shows that society's idea of youth and vigor might be wrong. Instead of the notion that after age thirty or forty we start to decline, Crossfit has shown that many of us are just getting started. I have witnessed women start Crossfit after having three kids and achieve better fitness and better bodies than they had before their first child was even conceived. I have witnessed men that looked their age transform into younger, more handsome and more virile versions of themselves.
Cezanne was considered a late bloomer.
Gladwell also points out that these late bloomers are different from prodigies in that late bloomers often have support. While a young prodigy is immediately recognized and showered with fortune, a late bloomer has to undergo many years of "fermentation." These late bloomers must have a strong support team to get them through those formative years. That is another the great thing about Crossfit: Crossfit is a support center for the late bloomer. Yes Crossfit immediately recognizes and rewards the prodigies. However, Crossfit takes equal pride in the blossoming of an older athlete. Joining the Crossfit community is joining a support group that will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible. Just read some of the testimonials if you don't believe me. Nothing is impossible. Are you a late bloomer or a prodigy? Please post your thoughts to the comments.
Would You Rather Be Right Or Would You Rather Be Fit?
Written by Keith
Sunday, 12 October 2008 21:11
I am one of the most stubborn people I know. I have strong convictions and those serve me well. I have strong opinions and they sometimes irritate other people. However, it is my stubbornness that gets in the way of me really getting results both as an athlete and as a trainer.
There are some things that I refuse to do. I will avoid things that make me look bad. If I suck at an exercise I might come up with a bunch of good reasons to avoid doing a particular workout. Also even if I am sick I might refuse to rest and do a workout because I just feel like I have to. In both cases I am setting myself up for failure. When will I learn?
The fact that I have this quality as an athlete makes me recognize it immediately in others. I can immediately recognize qualities I hate about myself in others: stubbornness, laziness, foolishness, etc. I try to be compassionate about it but sometimes it gets under my skin as a coach. I find my inner voice often becomes my outer voice. The harsh criticisms I usually direct at myself are sometimes projected outwardly towards other stubborn athletes. I mean well. I hope people know that.
I have been coaching long enough now to see a great many people stick with the Crossfit program and get great results. I mean I have seen some real hopeless cases that have turned into strong, fit athletes. The common denominator (other than my impeccable coaching) was that they kept coming. They did not quit. Even though they couldn't get it right in the beginning. Even though I tried so hard to get them to squat properly for months and it seemed like they were hopeless. They eventually got it. They figured it out. I have to remember that over time people get it and my screaming will not significantly speed up the process.
I am also stubborn when it comes to training people. I love Crossfit and I take great pride in being able to teach exercises well. However, every once in a while I find a case that is really impossible. There are some people among us that cannot squat or deadlift or move their bodies in a way that is conducive to high intensity exercise. I have recently begun to think outside of the box in terms of training some of these people. My yelling can only take me so far. What I have to do is be more creative in the way I train people.
I have some clients that no matter how much I tell them to arch their backs when they deadlift, they simply cannot do it. I mean I have spent years with some of them doing every manner of back extension exercise and whenever I try to put a barbell in their hands and get them to deadlift it goes wrong. What's a trainer to do? I recently fell in love with the Sumo Deadlift. After hearing Mark Rippetoe recite an anecdote about someone that had such interesting anthropometry that he had to have her do sumo deadlifts, I decided to give it a try on some athletes that seemed to have chronic issues with deadlifting. It worked. I was able to fix two people's deadlifts immediately simply by putting their feet wider and their arms inside their legs. This is not the first place I would start but these were two athletes that had been Crossfitting for a while and could never get it right. Because I am so fixed on doing things "by the book" and doing things "right," it took a long time for me to consider changing what I was doing with these athletes. My goal is to make these athletes stronger and get them to lift more weight safely and if their bodies cannot do a standard deadlift correctly, then I have to find another way to make them stronger.
I watch the TV show "House" where the main character is an antisocial doctor. He is also a genius and only gets the most problematic cases that nobody else can diagnose. He and his team use a Black Box method to figure out what is wrong with these patients. Every episode involves Dr. House trying three or four treatments on the patient that nearly kill him or her (very dramatic!), but in the end stumbles upon the right diagnosis and treatment. He tests the inputs and the outputs until he gets the output he is looking for. What is also admirable is that he really is willing to try anything that might work as outlandish as his colleagues think it is.
With Dr. House in mind, I have even started to play with some inputs that the Crossfit world might consider wrong, but when dealing with individuals with unique injuries and movement pattern I am forced to try different things. Recently I have had to incorporate some isolation movements with certain athletes that have certain issues that I cannot adequately address with compound movements. One of the athletes that I switched to the sumo deadlift also has a tendency to jerk the weight off the floor with his arms. In fact, he has a lot of spastic behavior when he performs exercises which leads to recurring injuries. I have had to slow him down and start doing some isolation movements in order to get him to use the muscles that I want him to use. I had to make him do leg presses because he was not getting the concept of using his legs on the deadlift even though I finally got him to arch his back. He used to be a competitive climber and has a lot of upper body strength but cannot finish his pullups so I have him doing some seated rows and other isolation exercises to get him to use his upper back muscles and utilize a full range of motion. Gradually I will get him doing the exercises that I really want him to do, but in the meantime I am trying to get him fitter, stronger in a manner that is safe and reduces the occurrence of dangerous habits that lead to injury.
The point I am trying to make is that sometimes we have to give up being right in order to make ourselves and our clients better. The greater goal is to make my clients stronger and more fit and if they cannot perform the exercises I want them to do safely, I better find some exercises that they can perform safely in order to get the job done. Thankfully my clients are willing to stick around because they know in the long run they are going to be in the best shape of their lives.
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Let us play a little thought experiment. Imagine a computer game with two battling athletes. You are able to create an athlete in this game and endow him or her with points for all 10 adaptations: strength, cardio/respiratory endurance, stamina, flexibility, speed, power, agility, coordination, accuracy and balance. Let us imagine that the computer can simulate anything from a CrossFit WOD, to a military mission, to a police arrest, to a straight up fight between the two athletes. There are a limited number of points that you can give each athlete, let’s say 70. Depending on how you allocate the points one athlete will win sometimes and the other will win the other times depending on which adaptations are favored for the chosen task. In a computer-simulated fight, two identically endowed fighters will fight infinitely long or kill each other. In a simulated CrossFit event, two identically endowed athletes will complete the WOD in the exact same time. [Let us put aside the differences based on height and gender as those characteristics are not within the athlete’s or coach’s control. Bodyweight is a relevant variable to some degree but let us assume that ideal body weight and/or composition is a result of an athlete’s fitness and not an adaptation that drives fitness, i.e. improved fitness can lead to better body weight/composition, but merely having good body weight/composition does not mean you are going to be a better performer.]
If you knew what tasks the computer would pick for the athlete’s you might re-allocate your points, but not knowing the tasks that they will be put through, you would opt to be pretty decent across the board: sevens. A score of 7 out of 10 on each of the 10 adaptations would be likely for your athlete to make it through the simulation fairly well. In fact, according to the CrossFit model the computer athlete with sevens across the board should win more times on average than any other configuration.
Given our genetic limitations, we will not be able to achieve scores of 10 on all 10 factors at once. There are limitations to what our bodies can do. There are limitations to how many hours we can train productively. There are limitations to how much energy we can output. However, finding those limits is what a true elite athlete must do in order to excel. And a good coach should be able to train his or her athlete to get as close to those limits as possible.
Scarcity
Seven out of ten seems slightly above average for everything so it feels like a safe bet. What if you were only given 50 points to divide up? Would you still divide it evenly giving the computer athlete 5 points per adaptation? What about 30 points to divide up? Would you give your computer athlete a mere 3 across the board?
Point scarcity, which correlates nicely to resource scarcity like training time, will often cause people to choose to bias their allocations. One person will feel the need to allocate more points to strength and some will allocate more points to stamina. People will try to outsmart the computer or their opponent. Similarly, given a mere 15 minutes in the gym one person will choose a cardio machine while the other person will choose dumbbell curls. Few people would choose to 7.5 minutes of each.
How are “Fitness” and “Performance” related to these 10 adaptations? Are they merely umbrella words to describe them all? Let us make the bold assumption that our "Fitness" is defined as a product of all of these adaptations. How would that play out?
In order to maximize the product of a set of numbers while keeping their sum constant their values must be equal. What? If I have only 12 points to divide between two adaptations, then I want to give 6 to each adaptation in order get their product to be greatest. 6x6 is greater than 11x1, 8x4 or any other combination that adds to 12. If we have to divide our 12 points among 3 adaptations then 4x4x4 is better than any other combination. For four adaptations points should be allocated evenly into 3x3x3x3. If our Fitness is indeed a product of these ten adaptations then the best way to maximize our Fitness is bringing our individual scores all to the same level across the board 5^10 is larger than any other product of ten numbers that add to 50. Thus our computer athlete with 5s across the board will on average out perform and be fitter than the athlete with a 6 on Strength (STR) but a 4 for Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance (CRE).
Conclusion
This thought experiments suggests we should seek to be balanced in all areas of our fitness. The reality, however, is we are not computer characters and we do not have readouts that tell us how many STR or CRE points we have. The reality is that people have genes and emotions and biases and motivations that often make training more art than science. Being able to look at your strengths and weaknesses objectively is critical to achieving a balanced fitness. Being able to work on your weaknesses requires being able to leave your ego at the door. Finally, developing this balanced fitness requires being able to stay the course when sometimes there are people faster and stronger than you. A balanced fitness means that on average you will come out ahead but there will be lots of time when you might appear merely average. That can be tough pill to swallow. Ultimately, there has to be a balance between being balanced and doing what we are good at and what makes us happy. Was this article helpful? Please let me know what you think in the comments.
My friend Samantha does not know when to quit—A commendable quality for a Crossfitter! We have not yet finished the Burpee Challenge but since she just managed to get her first pullup she is throwing down the gauntlet for a whole new challenge. With apologies to the burpee challenge authors, we present to you the 100-Day Pull-Up Challenge.
Pullup Challenge Rules:
1. For one hundred consecutive days perform an additional pull-up per day. On day one, 1 pull-up; day two, 2 pull-ups; day three, 3 pull-ups; etc.
2. You can use any legitimate CrossFit pull-up variation: kipping, butterfly kip, deadhang, weighted.
3. You may use any grip: pronated, supinated, mixed or false.
4. You must use a full range of motion. At the bottom of your pull-up your arms must be fully extended and your shoulders must be elevated around your ears. At the top of the pull-up your chest should touch the bar (or at least be as high as the bar if you are butterfly kipping).
5. If you cannot do a pull-up, use the smallest possible jumpstretch band with which you can complete a pullup.
6. You can complete each day's pull-ups all at once, or broken up and done at different times throughout the day.
7. If for some reason you miss a day, you have to make up all the missed pull-ups the following day.
8. If you do not start the challenge with us today, October 7, 2008, you can "buy-in" at any time by doing ALL the missed pull-ups for the days prior to your start day. For example, if you “Buy-In” on day ten, then you must make up days one through nine (45 pull-ups) and 10 for day ten.
9. Any pullups you complete during your regular workout can count towards that day’s Challenge pull-ups, if you want them to.
Full extension at the bottom.
Not quite there.
Oh so close!
Bingo!
Please let us know if you are willing to take the challenge with us. Leave a comment!
Probably the most common condition that hinders athletic performance is tight hamstrings. Short tight hamstrings impede athletic performance in one simple but important way: they restrict the closing of the hip joint, i.e. they limit the anterior tilt of the pelvis. This restriction on the movement of the pelvis results in the muscles of the lower back taking up the slack. The negative impact is twofold: 1) the range of motion of the hips is restricted which reduces the power that can be produced by the hips; and 2) the lower back is put into flexion and thus susceptible to injury.
The hamstrings are an extremely important muscle (The hamstrings are actually a group of three muscles: the Biceps Femoris, Semimembranosus and the Semitendinosus) for athletes. The common misconception is that the hamstrings' main purpose is knee flexion. However, the real job of the hamstrings is opening the hips...strongly and explosively. The hamstrings connect to the pelvis at the Ischial Tuberosities and control the movement of the hip joint, i.e. where the femur meets the pelvis.
The restriction of pelvic movement often results in a condition defined as "Muted Hip Function" in the Crossfit vernacular. This will show up in lots of athletic movements and Crossfit exercises: The push press, the squat, the deadlift and their more explosive variations.
Here is a little test to illustrate my point. Go to your local Crossfit affiliate and grab two jumpstretch bands: a thin one and a thick one. Tie the two bands together and tie one of them to a fixed object like your squat cage. Now try to stretch the thick band. You will notice that the thick band is almost impossible to stretch. The thin band is the one that does most of the stretching. These bands are like your muscles. The thick band represents your hamstrings and the thin band represents your lower back. Most of the time when people stretch, they try to stretch their hamstrings but all they really do is stretch their lower backs. The tighter your hamstrings the more your lower back will do the majority of the stretching.
Most people try to stretch their hamstrings by doing toe touches but if you look closely you will see that there is a lot of lower back stretching going on in the typical toe touch stretch. If you keep doing your stretches this way you will train your body to always stretch your lower back when you are trying to stretch your hamstrings. We want to avoid training our body with (and thereby reinforcing) bad movement patterns.
So if one wants to really stretch their hamstrings without stretching their lower backs, then they have to figure out a way to keep the lower back from taking up the slack.
I offer the following solution to the hamstring problem. This stretch, done correctly, immobilizes the hips and spine and allows the athlete to isolate the stretch into the hamstring muscles.
You will need the following props: a strap and an Abmat. You can also use a belt, jump rope or jumpstretch band in place of a strap and can use a towel or rolled up yoga mat in place of the Abmat.
Lie on your back and place the Abmat or rolled up towel or rolled up yoga mat under your lower back. You want to support the natural lordotic arch. By keeping your butt and shoulders on the floor and your lower back supported, you will limit the stretch into the lower back and limit the movement of the pelvis due to the pull of the hamstring.
Take the strap across the sole of your foot and lift your leg as far as you can without lifting your butt off the ground. The non-stretching leg should remain straight and the toes should stay pointed straight up. Press the sole of that foot into a wall. This will help keep the leg engaged and help keep your pelvis grounded and even.
Do not pull too hard with the arms. Try to remain relaxed and let your shoulders come back towards the floor and the weight of your arms passively pull the strap. Rest your head on the floor or on another Abmat.
Do not be discouraged by how high you lift your leg. This is a difficult stretch and it will reveal the true length of your hamstring. Try not to cheat by lifting your butt. Keep your butt glued to the floor and work on slowly lifting the leg.
Try to notice where exactly you feel the stretching sensation. You should feel the sensation in the belly of the muscle at the midway point between your butt and the back of your knee. Be careful! If you feel sore in the area behind the knee or the buttocks then you might be overstretching the tendons and not the muscle fibers. Try bending the leg slightly at the knee but still keep pushing up through the heel of the foot.
Try to do this stretch daily after your workout while the body is still warm. Do each leg for at least a minute or longer. Breathe slowly and deeply and try to visualize the hamstrings slowly relaxing and releasing.
Was this helpful? Please post your thoughts and hamstring questions to the comments.
Thank you to Allison and Jacinto from The Black Box for modeling.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 September 2008 20:46 )
Get Down With The Dog
Written by Keith
Friday, 19 September 2008 08:23
I get a lot of questions about stretching. I assume this is because I am yoga teacher and because I am more flexible than most of the people I come in contact with through Crossfit. Apparently, many people find stretching to be boring and painful and something to be avoided. Unfortunately, without a daily dose of stretching many Crossfitters out there will never be able to perform some of the basic moves in the Crossfit lexicon competently. Crossfit involves a lot of squatting, overhead lifting and some basic gymnastics moves. If you are tight in the shoulders, hips and hamstrings, then most of these moves will present a problem for you unless you stretch regularly.
Most people ask me for one or two stretches they can do that will fix them. Here is THE high pay-off move that will address the most common problems associated with crossfitters and provide lots of other benefits as well: Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana in Sanskrit).
This is a list of reasons why you should do downward facing dog everyday:
It stretches your shoulders, hamstrings, calves and ankles;
It prepares your body to be upside down for handstands:
It helps you develop midline stabilization;
It is peaceful and relaxing;
It builds heat in the body and warms you up; and
It is a starting point for more advanced moves.
Here is how you start. Hit the deck and get into a top-of-the-pushup or plank position: your heels over your toes and your shoulders over your wrists. Without moving your hands and feet, start to stretch your heels back and down while lifting your butt high in the air. Push with your arms and let your shoulders open up as the arms come up by your ears.
You are going to want to develop enough endurance to stay in this position for at least a minute or two. The way to do that is to breathe deeply and audibly through your nose, like Darth Vader meditating. If you get bored, then come back into plank pose and do 15 pushups and then press back to Downward Facing Dog.
In order for this to have any functional benefit to your overall fitness, you must learn to focus and develop the same things that we work on in Crossfit, for example, Midline Stabilization.
Maintaining a neutral spine with some lordotic arch is key. The hamstrings will be fighting you but that is the point. Keeping the spine strong against the pull of the hamstrings will force the hamstrings to stretch and is good practice for everything else you do in Crossfit.
Carefully observe the two photos below. The girl in the first photo has a horrible back position. You wouldn’t squat like that and you shouldn’t do your downdog like that. It does not help that her hands and feet are too close together. If you brought her into a plank position her shoulders would be about a foot forward of her wrists. The girl in the second photo has a beautiful, long straight back position. That’s what yours should look like.
Bad dog! (via) Notice the rounded lower back. Do not do that.
Good dog! (via) Notice the long straight back. Have a treat.
I was planning on writing a lot more about the details of this pose but while researching realized there is a wealth of good information already out there. Please read this basic primer and also this article on maintaining a straight spine. My next article will give you some ideas how to incorporate downward facing dog into a warmup or a cool down that is Crossfit specific.
Natasha Rizopoulos shows you how to fix your downward facing dog.
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A couple of years ago my now-fiancée, Erin, told me I should read this book, "The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp. Tharp is one of the most prolific and acclaimed choreographers of all time. I thought the book sounded interesting and I would eventually get around to reading it. Well I finally did get around to reading it and it is amazing. I wish I had read it a couple of years ago when Erin first told me about it.
There is a lot of information in this book that appeals to me as a former musician and a current writer/blogger. However, there is also a lot of information that appeals to me as an athlete and coach. Being creative, according to Tharp, is about forming good habits and rituals. Being creative is about work and consistency and skill. These traits are no less important for athletes and coaches, in my opinion.
Let us start at the end. In the "Acknowledgements" at the end of the book, Tharp first thanks her agent and collaborator. The second person she thanks is her personal trainer!
"I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 A.M., put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, an my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours."
This is a woman who loves to move and to sweat and every day begins that way for her. It is her ritual and it something sacred to her. Her creative expression is often through her body so exercising her body every day is a way to keep the creative juices flowing. If only we could get her doing Crossfit! Imagine how much more of a badass she could be!
Another point that Tharp drives home is skill. The artist must know her craft. "Prima ballerinas work as diligently and carefully at the barre as any novice. (Actually they work more diligently on basics that lesser dancers might consider beneath them.) The great ones never take fundamentals for granted."
The parallels to what we do are evident. Focusing on the fundamentals is important for all athletes at all levels. Skill is necessary to build intensity. Tharp highlights this fact with an example from da Vinci.
You double your intensity with skill.
Leonardo da Vinci
"In his notebooks, in discussing the power of the crossbow, Leonardo da Vinci makes reference to doubling its degrees of 'fury' through applied technique and dexterity. This is a useful metaphor for your creative efforts: You double your intensity with skill."
Practice and skill alone are not enough, however. Artist's need to focus on their weaknesses because they can make great gains there just like athletes.
"Every artist faces this paradox. Experience--the faith in your ability and the memory that you have done this before--is what gets you through the door. But experience also closes the door. You tend to rely on that memory and stick with what has worked before. You don't try anything new."
Tharp advocates that one should constantly be expanding his or her skill set. She not only advocates learning new physical skills but also reading and educating yourself on many varied topics. It is clear from reading her book that she is extremely well-read and knowledgeable in many areas of life. Thus you do not need to be a dancer to appreciate her and benefit from her ideas.
Never have a favorite weapon.
Miyamoto Musashi
Maybe by now you are convinced of the benefits of working on your weaknesses and improving your skills and deepening your knowledge of various subjects. Excellent. However, be cautious of one major pitfall: multitasking.
"The irony of multitasking is that it's exhausting; when you're doing two or three things simultaneously, you use more energy than the sum of energy required to do each task independently. You're also cheating yourself because you're not doing anything excellently. You're compromising your virtuosity."
I, for obvious reasons, will not argue with that. Do not, under any circumstance, compromise your virtuosity!
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