Sunday 7.24.11

Matt is using his superior flexibility and coordination to create a "picture-perfect" golf swing

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstands, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.”

I came across CrossFit’s “World Class Fitness in 100 Words” while searching for topics for my first blog post, and the last six words reminded me of a discussion I was having with another coach this week: Why don’t more of us play sports outside of The Compound? I grew up playing as many sports as I possibly could. Whether it was competitive baseball in high school and college, or pickup basketball, golf, wakeboarding, ping-pong, badminton, etc., you could always find me filling my spare time with athletics. But as I became a better athlete after discovering CrossFit a funny thing happened: I quit playing other sports. 

The extra energy I used to expand playing golf on the weekends or waterskiing at Lake Berryessa was being used for extra training beyond our normal SWODs and Metcons at The Compound. However, after reading through the “World Class Fitness” definition a few times, I began to realize that it should be our goal to put the 10 Attributes of Fitness (cardio, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy) that we develop each day through our CrossFit training into application by engaging in other athletic activities. A good example of this would be the guys and girls who play weekly on The Compound co-ed soccer team, or playing in a golf tournament as Matt, Brad and I did a few weekends ago.

With the addition of the benchmark whiteboards in the gym, I have noticed the competitive level in our classes has increased dramatically. The goal of the boards was to give all our athletes high standards that they could compare themselves against to measure their progress. Similarly, playing other sports provides us with a gauge that we can use to measure how much more generally athletic CrossFit has helped us to become. As we progress in our training, we should notice that we can keep a faster pace on our weekend run, drive the golf ball a little further, have a little more range on our three-point shot, or even more accuracy when throwing darts or bowling. 

We shouldn’t be training daily just to be “better at CrossFit.” It’s important that we test the skills we’ve learned in other athletic settings, including those we haven’t tried before. So with the gym being closed today, take the opportunity to go for a bike ride, play soccer at a local park (yes, I actually am encouraging you guys to play soccer), or go swim some laps in your backyard if you are lucky enough to have a pool. I challenge all of you to test your increased athleticism in a new way today. Not only are you probably going to enjoy yourselves, but it’s going to give you another bit of motivation to train harder and become a better athlete this week! -RS