Saturday, October 24, 2009

Insight into Why I Constantly Correct You

This post was taken directly from CrossFit Asheville's blog. Sound familiar?


Read this for a deeper understanding of why I yell and why.


“Get back on your heels!”  “Shrug those shoulders!”  “Land soft!”  “Yes, now do it again.”
If you don’t hear me yell these phrases 6,374 times a week you’re not in the gym enough.  You may find yourself curious why I am yelling at you and your friends.  Wonder no more.
Mechanics, Consistency, Intensity.  I am constantly balancing these three factors in my head when I watch a room full of motivated individuals pushing their bodies to the limit.  Is that done correctly?  Can they repeatedly do the same thing?  Is it heavy, fast, or far enough?  Your success requires a balance of those three factors and my job as your coach is to help you achieve that balance.

Mechanics: To be safe and efficient with your movement, you must do things with a technique that properly loads your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones and joints.  This technique allows you do get the most work done for your energy as well as protect yourself from injury.  Your mechanics must be optimal.

Consistency:  Notice this does not say perfection.  You must CONSISTENTLY do things to a high degree of precision, but not always (unless you’re injured).  The un-injured athlete has a buffer zone which allows for mild deviations in form and is a natural fact of life and training.  However, excessive stray from the realm of optimal mechanics will destroy your buffer zone and leave you hurting. 

Intensity:  The reason we train is to improve your mode and work capacity (fancy way of saying “do anything you want and be better and faster than those around you”).  This means you must push yourself to the brink of physical and mental breakdown.  Notice I said “BRINK”; not past breakdown, not before breakdown, but right at the brink, the balance point.  Does your push jerk always hit overhead immediately?  You should be moving more weight.  Do you never falter in your depth of a squat?  You need to squat faster.  If you are always doing something perfect and in your comfort zone, you will be slow to make progress, if any.  You must push the limits of your ability; get out of your comfort zone and struggle to perfect those extra reps, added pounds, and final seconds.  You might screw some of them up – find that point and improve.
Your success is about balance.  Find the balance between mechanics, consistency, and intensity.  Each day we bring your body and mind to the point where you begin to falter and require you to intensely focus on that subtle change that gets you 5 more pounds, or 2 more reps, or 15 fewer seconds.  Our yelling is the attempt to find you that balance.  Go hard, do it right, just be awesome.
-Corey"

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