uuuuhh...early pull much?
Today I had a few fun ones spread throughout the day. I started off with some fun ring work, working 6 rounds of 3-5 seconds of a tucked front lever. I then got a bunch random movements on the rings and ropes before spending a good 30 minutes of some deep mobility work. I found that I have a major deficiency in my hip strength. This is weird to me as my strongest area is legs. But I just realized I engage my muscles inefficiently and I need to work a whole lot more on isolating my hip flexors to allow them to pull their weight.
A couple hours later I went after some snatch work. I just added weight and did singles a handful of times at each weight getting up to 175#. Here's what I have found on this (and the same can be said of my cleans and jerks): my technique blows. I know this because when I miss an attempt, it feels like my body is about to break. But when I get one, it's the smoothest lift ever. My final attempt at 175# felt like nothing at all; but that came after 5 complete messes of misses.
My conclusion is a bit frustrating. I need to cut back on the weight and just smooth out the form of things. I know how to do it, but I just rush myself with trying to push the heavier weights because I think that I need to do so to be competitive. In my own head I feel as though if I am not pushing the heavier weights, I'll lose miserably to those people who can pull 225# and more on a regular basis. Pulling that sort of weight off the ground is easy to me, hell, strength-wise I have the ability to get 315# to my upper abdominal area for a clean, I just don't have the technique there to be able to get under it. And when I put a light weight on the bar, I can do it very well (at least for a self-taught lifter for the most part).
This reminds me a bit of my younger baseball days when I would work for hours on end on perfecting my swing, then I would see a video or picture of that thing of beauty and wonder how in the hell it could all go to crap when a baseball was actually coming at me. So how did I eventually learn to keep good technique even at the toughest point? Well, I became a pitcher. No, seriously, what I did was keep on practicing. Eventually it become complete and total second nature to function as efficiently as possible The body and mind generally don't work very well together with this stuff, so you have to get them to learn how to play nicely. CrossFit demands tons of reps, and if you are performing those reps with inefficient technique, you are ding nothing but hurting yourself. Only practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect, right? So, I need to get off my "lift crap-loads of weight", "firebreather" mentality and GET BETTER at moving.
I am pretty sure all you CrossFitter out there could do the same thing.
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
A couple hours later I went after some snatch work. I just added weight and did singles a handful of times at each weight getting up to 175#. Here's what I have found on this (and the same can be said of my cleans and jerks): my technique blows. I know this because when I miss an attempt, it feels like my body is about to break. But when I get one, it's the smoothest lift ever. My final attempt at 175# felt like nothing at all; but that came after 5 complete messes of misses.
My conclusion is a bit frustrating. I need to cut back on the weight and just smooth out the form of things. I know how to do it, but I just rush myself with trying to push the heavier weights because I think that I need to do so to be competitive. In my own head I feel as though if I am not pushing the heavier weights, I'll lose miserably to those people who can pull 225# and more on a regular basis. Pulling that sort of weight off the ground is easy to me, hell, strength-wise I have the ability to get 315# to my upper abdominal area for a clean, I just don't have the technique there to be able to get under it. And when I put a light weight on the bar, I can do it very well (at least for a self-taught lifter for the most part).
This reminds me a bit of my younger baseball days when I would work for hours on end on perfecting my swing, then I would see a video or picture of that thing of beauty and wonder how in the hell it could all go to crap when a baseball was actually coming at me. So how did I eventually learn to keep good technique even at the toughest point? Well, I became a pitcher. No, seriously, what I did was keep on practicing. Eventually it become complete and total second nature to function as efficiently as possible The body and mind generally don't work very well together with this stuff, so you have to get them to learn how to play nicely. CrossFit demands tons of reps, and if you are performing those reps with inefficient technique, you are ding nothing but hurting yourself. Only practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect, right? So, I need to get off my "lift crap-loads of weight", "firebreather" mentality and GET BETTER at moving.
I am pretty sure all you CrossFitter out there could do the same thing.
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
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