Stretching with a Purpose

Saturday April 12, 2014

Bring a Friend Day!  Here’s your chance to show your friends a good time!  All levels are welcome!

Prehab: 

Overhead band distraction
Super Rack stretch
Prone snow angels

 Warm up: 

50′ monster walks (25R/25L)
50′ bear crawl
50′ crab walk
50′ burpee broad jumps

 Stength

15 minutes to establish a 3 RM Push Press

 Notes:  Focus on good lock out overhead and keeping torso upright in the “dip and drive”.

 Partner Conditioning:

400 meter Run with Med ball
50 Partner Box Jumps (alternating)
50 Partner medicine ball sit ups (1 toss=1 rep)
50 Partner Wall Balls (alternating)
50 Over your Partner Burpees (alternate every 2 reps so you stay in the same place:)
50 Synchronized Plate OH Walking Lunges (all 50 steps together)
400 meter Run with Med ball
-22 min cap-

Notes:  All partners with a friend will scale down to their abilities on the box jumps and med ball movements.  The weight may be different for the lunges.  On the run there is only one med ball that can be carried by either athlete…be a good friend:)

 Cool down:

Max effort push ups
Max effort calf raises on 25# plate
Doorway stretch x45″
Calf stretch on plate x45″

Why do we stretch? Seems obvious but sometimes I think that we can all use a reminder. When you watch our competitive athletes, they spend at least 30 minutes warming up, performing dynamic range of motion and stretching exercises. Why do they do it? Because its programmed for the day? Its written on the board? No. They do it because it helps them achieve the best position possible to perform whatever movements they are programmed to perform that day. Very rarely will you see McCoy stretching his hips solely for the purpose of feeling good. He does it because it helps him get into a deeper squat. Its functional, its purposeful, will keep him healthy and will increase his chances of constantly improving his numbers.

There is a huge difference between feel good stretching versus physical change stretching. How many times do you look at the prehab section, see a specific stretch, and go through the motions just to perform it,  rather than actually thinking about what you’re trying to accomplish? We program specific stretches for the prehab section to increase your range of motion to facilitate achieving proper positions for the associated movements required in the workout of the day. We are also trying to prevent injury from occurring. Crossfit in its purest form is not dangerous and should not cause injury. The problem is that 90% of us sit behind a computer all day and or spend multiple hours driving. As a result, we develop postural dysfunctions. These dysfunctions lead to poor lifting mechanics and poor lifting mechanics yields injury.

So when we ask you to lift something over your head and you know you have tight shoulders, I encourage you to take a more active role in understanding where you are tight, so you can better address your weaknesses. If you can’t squat below parallel and know that you have tight hips, when you stretch and perform dynamic range of motion exercises, don’t just do them because they feel good, I want you to walk the fine line between uncomfortably strong and painful. I don’t want pain, but if you’re stretching yourself to the point where it’s uncomfortable, that will yield the greatest physical change to increase range of motion of your muscles and associated soft tissues, which will help you get a deeper squat, or better overhead position.  As you’re stretching, I want you to think about sinking into the stretch further with each breath, you should never be in the same position at the end of the stretch as where you started the stretch. The only exception would be if you have adequate or excessive mobility in certain joints, I don’t want you to continue to stretch an area that you know is excessively flexible, this will actually cause injury and joint breakdown.

Be smart. Stretch with a purpose.