Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Add some weight!

Today's workout.

20 x 50m sprints. 

Sprint down, walk back & immediately go again, the walk is your rest!


Yesterday's post was about functional capacity. Today's will address the lifting of heavy things. 

I think we can all agree that if you can lift 100 lbs off the ground, you can easily lift a 30lb box of copier paper.  Many of the feminine half of the population worry about lifting heavy and getting too big & bulky. For the vast majority of the population, this need not be a worry. Since we are training functional, multi-joint movements, we are building coordination and agility as much as we are building muscle. If you just want to sit down and do bicep curls, then yeah, you'll probably put on size. But there are surprisingly "small" guys who can put 200 lbs over head. It has more to do with correct form and timing, than actual muscle contractile potential. 

The purpose of the movements we do in CrossFit are not to build muscle, they are to efficiently & safely move a weight over a certain distance. That's why we get on you with your deadlift form. It's both more efficient & more safe to keep correct form. 

In life, we my never approach our max lifts in the gym. We may never have to move a 100 lb anything anywhere. That's precisely why we do it in the gym. The gym is a place where we can safely push ourselves way beyond our comfort zone, and out on the edge of our capabilities. Wouldn't you rather try to lift that 100, 200, 300 lbs in the relative safety of the gym. Wouldn't you rather train your body for something bigger & better than what life may provide. 

For some professional, you may be tested at the edge of your capabilities. Firefighters & police officers come to mind. For the rest of us, we may never approach our max deadlift anyehere in our daily life. But if you can deadlift 150 lbs, & are a mom of two, with an office job, stopping by the pet store on the way home, lifting that 20 lb bag of dog food out of the car got a whole lot easier, didn't it?


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