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25 thoughts on “Tue, Nov 11th”

1. I was just looking at yesterday’s mainsite workout… That WOD with the inverted burpees *and* regular burpees looks nasty.

2. Hmmm, can’t load the article on my tempermental machine. Is “the truth” that if you’re overhead squatting and snatching, you probably don’t need to stretch?

3. I’d say that’s probably my fault in relation to the link not working, if you really want to see the article simply click on the Home icon and put stretching into the search box, the first article should be the one you’re looking for.

   Was gonna pop down on Wednesday but think I’ll scoot in tonight, that WOD looks like good fun!

4. Nothing as advanced, Will. Basically:
   Don’t do Static Stretching pre workout
   Warm Up pre workout, but not too strenuously or too early
   Dynamic Stretching Helps.

5. What is this CF 10 of which you speak, please do enlighten me? If there’s a category to do with lung capacity I’d say I have you beat I’d imagine I’m in the bottom 1% of the poulation!

   Could do with a bit of increased flexability myself, so I might start joining you for post workout stretching Big Shane! I’d say I was gonna go do some yoga but Will and Colm would probably string me up from the pull-up station as a warning to others. The spicy meatball has been pestering me to start back into MMA and whilst I relish the opprotunity to moan about injuries I feel I’ll definitely need to up the ol flexability!

6. See “What is Fitness?” for the ten criteria of fitness. Or
   1. Strength
   2. Stamina
   3. Cardiovascular Endurance
   4. Flexibility
   5. Speed
   6. Power
   7. Balance
   8. Agility
   9. Coordination
   10. Accuracy

7. I’d be interested in what people consider good and bad flexibility as and how its becoming a limiting factor for them.
   I recently tried teaching air squats to people who had never done them before and was shocked at their inability to preform such a basic movement. This, for me, was inflexibility.

8. Times from last night? I’m itching to see did anyone get sub 10 or how my 20-30 minutes of frustration prediction worked out

9. Bobby,

   We had 10 down at 8 o’clock last night, so I couldn’t do the WoD as written. Took the opportunity to do some quick squat therapy, front squatting, and frankenstein squats, then a quick metcon wod. I’ll post times later on tonight.

10. Ah right. We could keep it for Thursday when I’ll be down, this saturday is a no-no, I’ve got an early christmas party to go to on Friday night.

11. The best thing I read recently on stretching and flexibility was the Performance Article that was knocking around the gym a few weeks back. I think there’s still a copy in the gym or in the boot of my car… When I’m back on Wednesday I’ll have it.

12. Performance MENU article, that should be…

13. I’ll drop in my copy of Stretching Scientifically (Great name I always thought) on thursday, I never had the wherewithall to follow the program it prescribed but a friend of mine did and is about a foot or so from a side split and about 8 inches from a front split.

14. In my pre-CF days I tried the Bikram (hot) yoga, regular yoga, yoga for athletes, etc. My flexibility improved noticeably but any such gains are now long gone so I’ve got no issue with yoga, if that’s what you’re in to. Also when started CF and tried to do OH squats I just couldn’t get it, never felt right, really hard without weight etc. I found that flexibility was the issue and by putting my heels on risers made all the difference in the world. I gradually reduced the height of the risers as my flexibility improved and got to the point I could put them under my toes (maybe 2-3 months).

    So basically echoing what Will said. Do it consistently and you’ll make gains. Ultimately my take on flexibility is if it keeps you from doing what you want to do, you are not flexible enough.

    On a very related note, then I’m trying to learn the pistol and have found my Achilles tendon to be my Achilles heel in this movement. If your heel comes off the floor at the bottom is considered a ‘technical failure’ or just bad form?

15. Once more Kyle you’ve asked another question I don’t have a definite answer for. I’ve never ever stopped to think whether bad form is down to flexibility, improper set up/position or poor muscle recruitment. It’s just been wrong to me, and we’ll go about fixing it.

    Oversimplification I know.

    As regards “bad form” vs “technical failures”. I’ll generally only use technical failure an Olympic Lift, and usually for the overhead (Jerks). This came from a conversation with Mark at CF Manc. Since Oly-Lifting has declared a pressing movement to be a missed lift/technical failure, we hold you guys to that standard.

    For a CrossFit Total, if you push pressed the movement, I guess that would be a TF as well. But if you hit a 150Kg back squat and lost your lumbar curve and came up on your toes, that’s bad form. A squat that doesn’t hit parallel, that’s just a missed lift.

    Will, thoughts?

16. Colm, I think you’ve hit on what I’m after. If I’m doing Mary my flexibility allows two options: 1) don’t break parallel on the pistol (tf) or 2) roll way up onto my toes at the bottom. Does the latter count?

17. Kyle, while studying corrective exercise and postural assessments we where taught that bad form on the like off squats is due to muscular imbalances and flexibility issues, for example, heels coming off the floor during a squat is tightness of the calves along with weak anterior and posterior tibialis muscles

18. Thanks Jonny.

    (Isn’t it terrible that my first response wasn’t ‘thanks’ but ‘YOUR FACE is weak anterior and posterior tibialis muscles’? Marston, you’ve a lot to answer for!)

    Here’s a question, and it’s little more than a thought that popped into the noggin: is your inability to do a one legged squat down to flexibility? If you can do ATG squats (air/front/back/overhead/whatever) couldn’t your inability to do pistols be down to coordination/balance/accuracy instead?

    As an interesting observation, we’re far more serious down South than CF Ireland – Division North are Our comments tend to be all about the fitness and diet, whereas Jonny & Helen’s seem to mainly be of the “oh no, this looks painful” variety.

19. Yea Colm, If your other squats are technically sound then other variables like balance and coordination come into play. Wall squats with arms stretched straight above your head and toes against wall will show any weakness or tightness. If you can squat with your feet hip width apart and arms straight above head with no bend then there isn’t to much wrong with flexibility.
    But I do agree that balance and coordination play a major part with the pistol as well.

20. I’m pretty sure it’s due to flexibility because I have the strength to do them if I roll on my toes (also should account for balance) or use the door frame and lean back more. Since the pistol has the knee much more forward than the ATG squat this is where the Achilles tendon tightness shows up. Further evidenced by the WIDE difference in my right and left leg (left leg had serious Achilles tendon ROM loss due to my foot injury—lots of rehab, lots of fun).

    I’m going to try a GTG approach from both angles, full squat on my toes and partial squat as low as I can go. We’ll see what happens.

    Jonny—I haven’t given those wall squats a shot since we were up so maybe I’ll start working them into my warmup. Oh and how anyone could hurt a dog as lovable as yours looks to be is beyond my capacity to reason. Glad to hear things are going better.

21. I’m not sure that heels coming of the floor on a squat is always about flexibility and imbalances. A lot of the time people just don’t have the technique right in their heads.

    I guess really that’s just a point about causality though: are they trying to use their quads to power the movement because they have a muscle imbalance, or because they have never learned how to properly recruit their glutes and hamstrings?

    Oftentimes you can fix heel lift by just teaching someone how to initiate the movement by pulling their hips backwards rather than straight down, and getting them to think about driving their ass upwards first on the way back up.

    All of a sudden their brain says “hold on, there are useful muscles on BACKS of my legs too…this changes everything!”

    Re: Stretching – I’m with the guys who says that the best way to develope flexibility for a particular movement is to practise that movement while forcing yourself into the correct position as much as possible, using artificial means if necessary (e.g. wall squats etc).

    I think the overhead squat is just about the best damn stretch ever. Second only to the snatch.

    Kyle – If you have tight achilies tendons you’re just going to have to stretch the living crap out of them multiple times per day for months. Tendons take FOREVER to loosen up compared to muscles.

    One of those things that probably won’t be addressed very well by squatting, since you dont have enough leverage to really stretch the feckers properly.

    That stretch where you put your toes on a step and push you heel down should become your best friend. Keep a bend in your knee while you do it.

22. cheers Kyle, wee sweep is on the mend and loving all the attention.

    I agree with you as well Will, most people need trained in the proper movement because it is alien to them and as I tell them up here the best way to stretch and get into the position is by doing them to the limit of their ROM and trying to get that bit deeper each time without loosing form.

    I trained a girl who was recovering from a snapped achilies tendon and the stretch Will mentions at the bottom of his post worked wonders with her ROM.

23. “But I do agree that balance and coordination play a major part with the pistol as well.”

    One of the things I read ages ago about the pistol / one-legged squat would support this, in a roundabout way.

    Basically, the argument was that Pavel T. did a very clever thing in basically hyping up the pistol as being an exercise which would yield massive benefits in a short space of time. Trainees trying it would struggle to do a single rep at first. Then, following some of Pavel’s instruction, they would begin to see big gains in a comparatively short period of time in the number of reps they could complete.

    …But were they getting stronger in a short period of time, an idea that was encouraged by Pavel, or were they just improving in their technical execution of the movement thanks to a few key points from Pavel. I think the latter, there’s a huge co-ordination and balance element to the movement.

24. Apologies if scores are off, took an off focus shot of the whiteboard. My bad!!!
    Robert: 46-41-45
    Susan: ?-32-37

    Ames: 5; 87-87-76
    Deirdre: – ; 48-?-60
    Emily: 10 ; 60-51-52
    Jez: 60,34,9,4,4(last four knees behind elbows); 116-113-87
    Kyle: 19,57,31,35; 110-110-99
    Mark: 22,19,12,25,35 (knees behind the elbows); 109-102-103
    Pixie: 17,11,12,18,16; 97-83-58
    Paul: 4,4,8; 97-88-89
    Pistol: 7, 6; 66-56-42

    Tabata:
    Ames: 14,13,11,9,8,10 (Sit Ups)
    Jez: 8,5,4,3,2,1 (45Kg Thrusters – how silly was that!?)
    Kyle: 13,11,8,6,7,7 (Pull Ups)
    Mark: 7,7,7,7,6,7 (Box Jumps)
    Pistol: 15,12,??? (Squats)
    Paul: 8,3,3,3,3,4 (Pull Ups)
    Pixie: 19,16,13,8,9,10 (Squats)

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