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Sunday, April 24, 2011

10 Things I've Learned The Hard Way - by Ken

10. It's OK to work on stuff outside of the WOD – in fact, it's encouraged.  So are you bad at dips? Why not do them more than once every 4 weeks.

 

9. Athletes make decisions all day at their jobs and in their homes.  When they come to the gym (or field, in our case), the overwhelming majority want to be told what to do. This is a gym, not an episode of "choose your adventure".

 

8. Remember that nutrition and sleep should be the base of your "wellness" pyramid. I've never done a WOD w/ under 5 hours sleep for the past 2 nights and 2 really crappy meals and said to myself, "Man, that was kick-ass!" You're much better off getting your own house in order before coming to ours. So get your rest. Straighten out your diet.

 

7. Almost everybody dislikes working on flexibility and mobility. But a lack in both will almost always prevent you from maximizing the other dimensions of your fitness: strength, power, speed, endurance, agility, etc.

 

6. Form is expected to degrade towards the end of most WODs. It happens with the most elite crossfitters. There are times to say "F it!". But the best almost rarely choose to sacrifice form for better time/reps/loads.  What does this mean for you? Sacrificing form doesn't make you a better crossfitter. It just keeps you from being efficient and achieving your full potential.

 

5. Understanding AND adhering to the standards of any movement is important. W/o them, any guy working out of a  garage gym with no instruction doing half-ass lazy air squats and muted push-ups will score better than you. This pisses me off to no end. You too? But really, it doesn't matter. You are or are going to be more fit than that guy.

 

4. Unless given better options from a smart coach, people's default goal is to do things RX'd. In most cases, this is a really crappy goal.

 

3. When a class is more than 15 people, and there's only equipment for 5, a coach spends more time doing logistics than actually coaching.

 

2. Ignorance in athletes is not blameworthy. Ignorance is coaches is – particularly if coupled with arrogance. If you see the former from me, call it out. It is my responsibility to learn from others and/or educate myself. If you see the latter, beat me over the head. I will wipe my tears away later.


1. Deadlifts are to be respected ALWAYS. When your back starts to round, just drop it. No sense in crushing your L4/L5 disc. You have a day job, and you need to walk to get there.




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