Big Boy vs Elite 12/21/2011
There is a slight hint of sarcasm in this post. To get to the point, there is a trend in fitness culture now that to be more fit, you have to be faster, you have to do more work in less time. This is true in some cases, but not all. In this brief video I highlight one of my favorite upper body exercises, the muscle-up. Like many exercises, it can be performed many different ways, depending on your skill level, your philosophy or your goals. If your goal is to simply move from point "A" to point "B", than almost any path or technique will suffice. Let me be clear about something here, there is a big difference between doing things for time, for health & fitness, for strength, for technical precision, etc. Improving your fitness can be achieved in very short workouts over a relatively short period of time. However, improving and attempting to master a skill could take months, years and lifetimes.  Look at Zach checking out his own name on the blog... "Ef that jazz, Holmes, we ain't got time for that shizz, Son!" says Zach Even-Esh. So how do you increase your fitness in less time? Like Zach says, use movements that are easy to teach and easy to learn. Eliminate the high skill activities that only burden the original intent of the goal. If your general goal is to increase your fitness, and you include an exercise like the muscle-up and perform high reps as fast as possible with little control and substandard form and everybody is cheering on your awesomeness, then you tear your labrum, you almost instantly lose your super duper awesomeness.  Unfortunately shit happens, but you can decrease the likelihood of injury with smarter planning. Killer Kate Rawlings, owner of Coco CrossFit in Ohio, a highly respected Crossfitter and great athlete who is in phenomenal shape, recently popped her achilles tendon during a set of high rep box jumps. I feel bad for her and respect her and know her strength and resiliency will get her back in top form asap. But, I can not help but disagree with doing high frequency, high rep box jumps for most people, even elite athletes. Sorry about your luck, but you kind of asked for it. Similar thing happened to me a few months back, I tore my MCL during a gang tackle playing a football game. Of course it took 12 guys, all over 250 pounds, to tackle me, but pop went my knee bone. Playing football is a good way to get in shape, but it also is a great way to get injured. Such is the price of competition, so it might not be your first choice if fitness is your goal. Playing football was my goal, so it was mandatory. In Kates instance, competing at Crossfit is her goal, she is actually endorsed by Reebok I think, so doing certain exercises like kipping muscle-ups and high rep box jumps are mandatory for her sport. The ONLY time I would ever recommend doing certain exercises programmed in a weird way is in a timed CrossFit competition, and that is only if your goal is to compete at CrossFit. At no other time do I find it acceptable. The CrossFit rules say, "do this..." so thats what you gotta do to win. It does not mean you are the healthiest or the fittest or the most elite, it just means that you are a good CrossFit competitor and you can do exercises really fast. I think a lot of athletes who kip like crazy during a set of ten muscle-ups would struggle their ass off doing one single slow technically sound and controlled muscle-up. So, which guy is fitter? The one that can do "more work in less time" doing 10 ring flings, or the guy that can do one slow strict muscle-up? That leads to my next point. Like Dan John says, keep the goal the goal. If you want to get fit, do no harm, be consistent and you can achieve greatness relatively quickly. If you want to enhance your skill, it will take a long time to master, period. You know all the cliches, "Nothing great happens in Rome" and "Anything worth building in a day is going to take a lot of peanut butter" or something like that. So much for getting right to the point... Separate high skill movements from your training and simply practice them and get better at them before you program them at high intensity in your training. I think that is the take home point of this post. Keep safe, do no harm and keep your athletes and fitness clients healthy for their sport and their life. Again, do no harm, do not risk foolishness to try to impress your YouTube fans or give yourself a good name, by potentially injuring someone with the intent to make them awesome. I do not mean to bash anyone by this rant, just hope to keep some of you healthy and able to keep training longer without injury if it is preventable. Big boy muscle-up vs ELITE muscle-up, you be the judge. What would you rather do? Please post your thoughts and comments below. This was a bit of a ramble and I am sure I missed some points, but hopefully my intentional message is made. PS This is shameless, but check out our new TSS hoodies available NOW! Get it, son! CommentsMatt Wichlinski 12/21/2011 9:30pm
haha, maybe you could post a link to the retarded spazz ups you're referring to... 01/02/2012 5:20pm
^This. 01/02/2012 5:20pm
^This. Jim 12/21/2011 5:09pm
Great points! Thanks for addressing this topic. You are one of but a handful speaking out about this WRT pull ups, muscle ups, etc. I admire the elite CFers for their skills and work ethic, but I'm not about to train for exaggerated kipping muscle ups. I'm 37 and a husband and father of four. My health and well being are much more relevant to my ability to take care of my family than a few extra reps. I will get my muscle up one day, on a bar. It will be in due time, when my connective tissue, flexibility and strength are all ready for the challenge. Matt Wichlinski 12/21/2011 9:42pm
Jim, thats a wise statement, and exactly what I meant about keeping the goal the goal. You want to be healthy and strong to better serve your family, so risking injury for something silly like a few extra reps or a few extra seconds is ridonkerous. Your job is to be the hero for your family, but if your job was to prepare for the CF games, then your training would have different goals, and you would kip and flip and skip... You'll get your muscle-up soon, just prepare properly. Did you see my muscle-up tutorial for the proper progressions? Hope that helps. Albert 12/21/2011 6:36pm
As usual, great stuff, Matt! I am down with the slow and steady improvement road. Recovery time away from workout is no fun, so I rather take the safe path, improving slowly but surely. Matt Wichlinski 12/21/2011 9:46pm
Nice Albert, keep your eye on the long road. Thats where the magic happens, not any 12 week transformation, but a lifestyle commitment. Scott 12/21/2011 7:29pm
matt - great post. I've been a longtime cross fitter and have collected my share if injuries due to issues just like what you described. Keep up the good work, I love this blog! Matt Wichlinski 12/21/2011 9:54pm
Thanks Scott, please remember, I am a CrossFitter as well, we just called it being athletic a few years ago, but now doing different things is a brand, and modal domains effects the turn of the tide or something. We learn the most through our mistakes, and it looks like anyone doing the CF mainsite WOD is learning a ton right now. There are so many great things about CF and I like a lot of it, but I get nit picky sometimes when I see ridiculous shit. The excessive metabolic bullshit is madness, but so many people seem to love it. Whatever makes us happy, I just hope it doesn't get anyone hurt, so they can continue doing the things they love to do more often. Bottom line, injuries suck and we can take precautions to limit them. So often there are no warning signs, something just gives and BLAM, done. jason 12/21/2011 11:51pm
Great stuff! Wish you would do a video for the football players. Examples of what you did for training for football or what you would suggest. For example like differences for lineman vs running backs. Thanks for your great work and vids. Your an inspiration to athletes everywhere. Get sum! Matt Wichlinski 12/23/2011 12:03am
Jason, I thought I did a lot of those videos. I guess I need to be more specific. I will try to get a post out soon on football specific training. Jason 12/26/2011 1:33am
Look forward to more of your vids. Your strength is nuts! You're a super freak. Keep it up cause it is inspiring. Dean Cookham 12/22/2011 1:51am
Hi Matt. Great post. I have been Crossfitting on and off for the past two years. But I have always had a niggling feeling that I am putting my body under two much stress. Especially with some of the insane Metcons. So I recently have begun to mix up my training more and now program in much easier periods of training, mobility and recovery. I am just not seeing this in Crossfit. Makes me worry what the future holds for some of these athletes Matt Wichlinski 12/23/2011 12:11am
Some of the tough guys are always spewing shit like, "if you ain't puking, bleeding or dying, you ain't training," nonsense. Don't listen to that garbage. That high stress output all the time will crush you. You adrenal system will be fucked. You need a balance of hard training and easy recovery, if that makes sense. One of the best things I recommend is a nice long walk right after a tough training session to relax, calm down and simmer. It also depends on your personality as well. If you are always calm, you need a rush, if you are always spazzed out, you need to take a tai chi class or something. But I am telling you, the people that are always trying to smash metcons are beating themselves up pretty bad. They are like a timebomb. Ask questions, take a smarter approach. Most of your training should occur at the 80-90% level. I know all the heros talk about max effort or die, etc. but in my experience, easy 80 is the way to go, mixed with diligent consistency. Paul 01/16/2012 8:00pm
Dean, if you like doing BW skill training w/o the puking constantly, check out Monkey Bar gym. The workouts are skilled based, challenging, balanced and the programming which includes Yoga allows for proper recovery Erik from A-Town 12/22/2011 4:23am
Matt, Matt Wichlinski 12/23/2011 12:20am
Thanks, Erik, I have always admired and appreciated your work ethic, and you have come a long way since the days of begging to get your dick kicked in. Only a small group of people care about how fast their time is on any particular wod, and anyone who talks about it at dinner is a douche. What is really important is how you are benefitting from your training, and how it enhances your life. If a faster time makes you a better worker, lover, person, etc. than great, its working. But if it doesn't do those things, than it just doesn't matter. Norm 12/23/2011 9:20am
I agree that using high skill movements should be reserved for those that have reached the level of skill to do it "safely", but some of the comments on here miss the mark. There will always be a difference between the perfection of a true oly lift, a true gymnastic movement, a true runners time, a true power lift and CrossFit. That is the point of CrossFit! to increase General Physical Preparedness through different modalities. The best Gymnast, Oly lifter, Power lifter, runner is just that, the best in their domain. CrossFit uses those excellent sources of athletics together to train a better all around athlete. Matt Wichlinski 01/04/2012 4:44pm
Norm, I concur with what you're saying. I agree with general athleticism. My point is that it becomes unsafe and irresponsible to train people outside of their given capacity or ability. I believe in progressions. I do not think that a group of untrained or unskilled people should go in to the gym and perform high rep sets of kettlebell snatches, for example, just to do the WOD as rx'd if they never even learned how to swing properly. Learn how to walk before you run. Unfortunately the inconvenience of time cuts in to the way of the NOW! Alex 12/26/2011 10:57am
so true. you'll never kip over a wall or rock. keep your eye on the prize! Matt Wichlinski 01/04/2012 4:45pm
well said Everyone here seems to "get it". Like you Matt, I'm not a CF hater - I'm actually a Level 1, BUT I don't subscribe to all their beliefs. Matt Wichlinski 01/19/2012 12:53am
nice, Crossfit has become a juggernaut that focuses more on competition and intensity than it does practice. Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Tamara 01/17/2012 7:29am
Love this. People wonder why certain movements are "banned" at my gym - kipping, high rep box jumps, high rep barbell movements for time, etc. This article is why. I have lifters who COMPETE in weightlifting. If they get injured playing their sport, at least they understand the risks. Getting injured doing stupid shit in the name of "fitness" is just missing the point, Matt Wichlinski 01/19/2012 12:55am
exactly, there are always risks, but we need to be smart enough to know when we can prevent and diminish unnecessary risks by avoiding the silliness. Rachel 01/17/2012 7:41am
I love this article. I have been a crossfitter for 3 years (including while I was pregnant from 2/10-11/10. I have completely changed from "blind follower" to someone who is in charge of my own safety. I change the WOD to fit what I think makes sense...even in the sessions at my affiliate. Sometimes that means not doing things "rxd," but that's just fine by me! Matt Wichlinski 01/19/2012 12:57am
awesome, after seeking help from other knowledgeable people, we need to assume responsibility for taking care of ourselves. There is no substitute for common sense. Dan 01/17/2012 8:58am
I too have been a CFer in the past, even a box owner for 2.5 years. I realized much of what you describe in that time. The worst was the heavy deadlifts for time, so many injuries. As I became more disenchanted, I found Mountain Athlete - Rob Shaul and went to learn his fitness philosophy, very similar to yours. Have since abandon formal CF and now do my own thing with incorporation of the Mountain Athlete techniques. Great article. Matt Wichlinski 01/19/2012 12:58am
Cool, I plan on getting out to Montana this year, maybe I'll be able to catch up with Rob at that time. Leave a Reply | ArchivesFebruary 2012 CategoriesAll |
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