CrossFit, like all worthwhile pursuits, takes time and sustained effort to improve at. The athletic pedigree, injury history, genetics, and training background you bring to the table will certainly play a large role in the trajectory of your learning curve as well. No matter where you fall on the continuum of these parameters, the master key to long-term success is “coachability”. Why is coachability so important? Because of the impact it has on so many other attributes impacting your athletic development.
Coachability is the willingness to listen, be corrected, learn, and to act on that correction. The 2 variables that most determine your coachability as an athlete are effort and attitude. In any situation, you are always in control of these two things, and should strive to optimize them. Effort isn’t about the leaderboard or your score; it’s about working hard, embracing discomfort, and genuinely giving your best effort. Coaches notice and will always reward hard work and sweat equity in the weight room. Attitude is about staying positive, being open-minded when it comes to feedback, and willing to adjust your technique and approach in the pursuit of improved execution and performance. Being a coachable athlete ultimately is a choice you make that is determined by your mindset. In order to make the most of your time in the gym, you need to trust in the advice and judgment of your coaches, stay present and engaged, and work hard.
Inherent in the coach-athlete relationship is a division of labor: the coaches job is to coach, the athletes job is be an athlete and train. As coaches, we are concerned with the long-term development of the individual, from novice to seasoned CrossFit athlete. Getting good at CrossFit and all the various disciplines involved takes months and years, not days and weeks. There are no shortcuts to learning the nuances of kettlebell exercises, basic gymnastics, barbell lifts, etc., only countless repetitions. It is easy to fall prey to the idea that we are unique and able to skip the fundamentals, jump from the boring “basics” to the more novel complex lifts that they see more experienced athletes perform. The flaw in logic here is that they didn’t see the countless number of workouts the advanced athlete performed in order to earn the privilege to tackle the more advanced movements.
With all this in mind, it is essential that you play an active role in your pursuit of improved fitness, health, and development. As the Danish proverb goes, “he who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.” Ask questions, be inquisitive, experiment, and rely on the advice and guidance of individuals that are more experienced and accomplished than yourself in the areas you seek to improve upon. If you do that, and are willing to put in the work, success will take care of itself!
In case you hadn’t heard, our in-house Weightlifting Team, El Jefe Barbell, competed this past weekend at the Black & Red Open in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This meant that your beloved CrossFit coaches had to throw on their Barbell hats and spandex for the day and coach/lift the team to victory!
The day began with Christian Villalas on the platform bright and early at 8:00am. For those who aren’t aware, an 8:00am start time means a 6:00am weigh-in… the lighter guys have it tough! Christian had a tough day and couldn’t put the pieces together on the platform to hit his lifts, but valuable lessons were learned. Always a good sport, he stuck around to help our lifters in the the next session.
The 10:00am session was a busy one for EJBB. Katie Weddle and Nivana Campos were on the “Red” platform and, at the same time on the “Black” platform, Marshall Knight, Justin Jeng, Marcos Hernandez, and Lukas Hernandez were all lifting. That’s six (6!) athletes at once. Thank goodness Josh and Chris were able to keep control of the situation because, out of this time slot, the team came away with three medals. Katie and Marcos each got gold and Lukas received the silver medal for their weight classes. Katie and Marcos also came away with third place finishes in the entire meet!
Honorable mention to both Justin and Marshall who went 6/6, not missing a single lift. This achievement is remarkable! With a crowd of people all watching, they hit big personal records on both the Snatch, Clean & Jerk, and Total, and had their best competitions to date. Make sure to congratulate them the next time you see them!
After wearing himself out coaching six lifters it was Josh Dempsey’s turn to show what he could put together. Going against the top two lifters in the entire meet (adjusted for bodyweight) he came away with the bronze medal, the team’s fourth medal of the day.
Last but not least it was Caitlin Seaton’s turn to go lift something heavy. She had been dealing with a tweaked shoulder but was able to fight through it and adjust her technique enough to come away with a personal record in both lifts! It just goes to show there is a lot left in her tank and it’s only a matter of time until she brings home hardware for herself.
Thanks to everyone who came out to support the team! Your support means a lot and some of those lifts were only made because of how loud you cheered. Everyone knows the noise makes the bar lighter on gameday!
Courtesy of Ben Bruno
1. Thou shalt not train through pain.
2. Think of strength training as your entrée and cardio as the side dish. Both have their place, but divvy your time and energy accordingly.
3. The hard exercises that you hate doing are generally the ones that work the best. Sorry.
4. You can always make an excuse not to train, but at some point you just have to make time for it. Or be weak and out of shape.
5. Thou shalt train thy legs.
6. Mobility work is boring; do it anyway.
7. Remember that outside the gym, no one cares what you did for your workout, or about your diet. Keep it to yourself.
8. Similarly, nobody cares how much you lift. Drop the ego, drop the weight, and do it right. Form matters.
9. Train the muscles you can’t see in the mirror (glutes, hamstrings, back, etc) more than the muscles you can see (pecs, biceps, etc). It’s good for you, and just because you can’t see them, everyone else still can.
10. Don’t overcomplicate things. Always be learning, but at some point you have to put down the books and pick up the weights.
By: Josh Dempsey
The whiteboard tells an incomplete story when it comes to workout performance. Think of the whiteboard simply as a scoreboard:
• What level did you do?
• What was your time / score?
• How many rounds did you miss?
• How much weight did you lift?
While these are useful bits of information, they are purely objective, quantitative measures of performance and output. What they fail to capture are all the subtle, subjective, and qualitative aspects of a training session that can’t be conveyed by a score. How you deadlift is more important than how much you deadlift. This can easily get overlooked when chasing a particular score on the leaderboard. Constantly pursuing higher intensity levels as movement efficiency and quality erode is foolish at best, and injurious at worst. Luckily, there are other ways we can measure workout quality and improvement that are both safe in the short term, and sustainable in the long.
Shift your focus to moving with intent each time you set foot in the gym. Moving with intent means moving deliberately, purposefully, and with appropriate aggression or control, depending on what is required at that time. Intent means conscious thought as to how you approached the barbell and set yourself into position to perform a heavy (or light) deadlift. Where do you place your feet? Your hands? What is your breathing / tensioning strategy? What is your desired bar path / body proximity once you start pulling? How mentally aroused and aggressive do you need to be at this particular weight? These are just but a few thoughts that may run through your head when you shift your focus to moving with intent. Don’t simply go through the motions as you perform your warm-up and working sets; be present and concentrate on your execution in all phases of the lift so that you can steadily improve your technique, rep by rep.
Generally speaking, everyone that lifts wants to lift heavier weights over time. However, not everyone understands the intertwined nature of precise, flawless technique and lifting progressively heavier weights. One cannot exist without the other. This same concept applies to conditioning workouts as well – your ability to maintain a high output during a WOD is largely going to be determined by your efficiency in each individual movement component of said workout. Additionally, you cannot hope to achieve the full benefits of any exercise (the real benefit of training), if you don’t perform the exercise with the right intent. A couple examples: picking up a slam ball slowly, then passively dropping it to the ground using all arms on a ball slam vs. ripping the ball overhead fluidly, then slamming it into the ground like you are trying to crack a hard coconut on the ground. Burpees performed by collapsing on the floor, then sprawling back to your feet haphazardly vs. a controlled descent to the floor, hopping back to ones feet where they started, all the while occupying no more space than one would use to perform a push up. A kettlebell swing with excessive layback and soft knees vs. a swing that finishes with powerful hip extension, knees locked, torso vertical, arms long and kettlebell projected to chest height. While both examples may constitute a rep, they are not created equal.
The leaderboard is a great motivator and useful tool for gauging performance. However, a “fast” score that subjectively looked like a slow moving car crash from start to finish is not enviable, desirable, nor more impressive than a slower score performed within the margins of quality technique, executed with a sense of purposefulness. Always strive to move through full ranges of motion, rest when you cannot, and don’t forget that more isn’t always better, only better is better. Raise your personal standards for movement quality and always remember, the standard doesn’t get tired even if you are.
By: Josh Dempsey
One of the primary constraints in programming CrossFit workouts is a scarcity of time. We’ve got one hour to cram in a thorough warm up, skill work, strength & power development, and finally hit some conditioning to round things out. Our programming lens is typically focused at the weekly level – are we striking a good balance of workout types, movement patterns, rep schemes, loading, etc. across a 7 day period? While we do our best to be as well rounded as possible, the inherent breadth and depth of CrossFit can make this challenging. One way we’ve tried to mitigate this scarcity problem is by programming weekly “Extra Credit” finishers. Extra credit
(EC) is just that – an additional, voluntary add-on to your current workout designed to address or focus on a common athlete weakness or omission in that weeks programming, or simply something we’d like to place a short-term emphasis on. These EC finishers should be done pre- or post-WOD, as a way to add productive volume to your current training workload without contribution to any significant fatigue or soreness. How often should you do the EC? Probably at least 2-3 in a given week, possibly more depending on what it is. Let’s say the EC is kettlebell swings, but we’ve already done a ton in that day’s WOD, maybe you skip it. However, let’s say the EC is banded glute bridges, or 5 minutes of the couch stretch, those you could and probably should try to do every day you are at the gym. Everyone is looking for improved performance and better returns from their workouts. Stop skipping the obvious solution or pretending you’ll do something more at home- take 5-10 minutes after class to work your weaknesses and round out your fitness.
This past Saturday, Team CFSS braved the cold and the rain to run victoriously through the streets of D.C. in our underwear for Cupid's Undie Run '18! Now that the dust has settled, here’s a quick rundown of our performance.
As a team, we were able to raise an amazing $18,124 this year in support of the Children’s Tumor Foundation, bringing our 5-year fundraising total to a whopping $78,619! For the second year in a row, we took home the Top Gym award, as well as #3 fundraising team in the DMV and #16 nationwide. In D.C. alone, Cupid's runners have raised over $186,000 for this years race. These numbers are a testament to the unbelievable support and generosity of you, our CFSS family, as well as everyone else who supported this great cause. Thank you again to all of our runners for your efforts to spread awareness and raise money for research, and to all of our donors for your contributions.
If you missed out on this year’s event, don't worry, there's always next year! Keep an eye out for links to photos and videos from the race later this week.
By: Rachel Posell
All the recent buzz over the photo posted by a 38–week pregnant Crossfitter doing an overhead squat has made me think about the issue of exercise and pregnancy. The extreme and vitriolic responses, such as : "If anything happens to your baby due to your stupidity, I hope you'll be able to handle your guilt. Pregnancy is NOT the time to be taking stupid risks." "That can't be safe" are unsettling and just downright mean.
One of my friends and fellow crossfitters put it best: “In a country where gestational diabetes and high blood pressure is rampant, labor & delivery nurses having never witnessed a vaginal birth, yet losing the baby weight makes covers of magazines on a weekly basis, I'm outraged by the judgement. What happened to empowering women? What happened to the pro-choice voice? Never mind ever breaking the glass ceiling, we have other women to break our spirits before we ever get there.”
This begs the question: IS IT SAFE??? Of course you can get as many answers to this question as people you ask. I am not a doctor, so while I am NOT giving medical advice, I have had 3 children myself (the first a set of twins and the second born at the advanced maternal age of 41) the best advice I can give is the same thing I say to anyone, pregnant or not. Listen to your body, be true to yourself and be respectful of the work your body is doing. Common sense should prevail, and if you have none, seek the advice of your OB/GYN.
Pregnancy is not an illness, but ask any women who is or has been pregnant and she will tell you that you definitely feel the difference from early on. I worked out for the entirety of both of my pregnancies with the blessing of my OB/GYB (after firing the first one who told me I could “take an easy walk” for my exercise!) Did I squat heavy? No, but it sure felt heavy! I backed off considerably as the pregnancy went on and took more breaks. Did I do overhead squats? No, but I suck at overhead squats on a good day so that was an easy decision. I ran, I squatted, I pressed, I lunged, I did KB swings, the list goes on…
I think the well-respected Mayo clinic said it best: “Unless you’re experiencing serious complications, sitting around won’t help.”
I want to let you in on a dirty little secret of the footwear industry: modern high- tech, air bubble, super cushioned, shock absorbing running shoes and cross trainers cause injuries, not prevent them. Wearing big padded sneakers causes the muscles and connective tissue of the foot and ankle to atrophy and lose their responsiveness and resilience. The most responsive, high-tech shoes ever created are your feet. We are meant to run on the balls of our feet, which allow the foot to act as a natural shock absorber. The large heels of today’s running shoes make running on the ball of the foot all but impossible, causing us to heel strike when we run, placing a great deal of torque and stress on our lower body joints. This is the equivalent of driving your car with the emergency brake on, except when your brakes wear out you’re looking at osteoarthritis in your knees, patella-femoral issues, low back pain, potential knee and/or hip replacement, and the list goes on.
Now, don’t take this as a recommendation to become a modern day hobbit. Rather, consider this a request to embrace the functional training shoe, such as the ones suggested below. You will attain many of the benefits of going barefoot, while protecting your feet from the hazards of the concrete jungle*.
Here's the best options-
For a broad online selection of CrossFit shoes, head over to Rogue Fitness.
Here’s what I want you to try - wear these as your everyday sneakers, as well as at the gym. Occasionally try working out barefoot when indoors or jogging barefoot in the grass before a run. Those sore muscles on the back of your lower leg? That's your gastrocnemius and soleus. They are going to be sore, and you’re going to sit on the floor, prop your leg on top of a lacrosse ball, and roll around on it until they feel better. The other key area to work is the sole of your foot itself. Using light pressure to start, stand on a tennis, lacrosse, or golf ball under one foot and work on loosening up any tension or stiffness you may feel in your arches or anywhere else you feel discomfort. Try to spend a few minutes on each foot, and work on both your calves and feet regularly (i.e. daily) until things start consistently feeling better.
You can thank me later when you discover the newfound proprioception in your feet, strength in your arches, tendons, and ligaments, and a reduction in joint pain when running. If you want to learn more about the rationale behind these recommendations, check out Born to Run, and Barefoot in Boston.
*Disclaimer – If you have a history of lower leg stress fractures, plantar-fasciitis, or extremely high arches, it is probably best to avoid going barefoot entirely, and you should also take a very gradual approach to adopting minimalist footwear options., especially if you’re using them for CrossFit or Running in particular
By Josh Dempsey