Who has time for that?!

As you've experienced, Crossfit is a lot more about lifting things up and putting them down. There's a lot of technical skill, mental fortitude, and down-right primal instincts involved during a grueling WOD.

The bad news is, unlike yoga or pilates, it doesn't get any easier with time. Diane and Fran will always kick your butt,  thrusters and burpees will always suck, and AMRAPS will always leave you gasping for air. But you will get stronger! And you'll crave the suck. As long as you practice...

But how do you practice such a broad, general, all-inclusive form of fitness?

By Crossfitting; that means practicing your skills throughout all modalities (the major ones being gymnastics, weightlifting, and mono-structural ones, like rowing and running), working on your weaknesses to become stronger, and keeping with it.  

This week, the clean and the jerk were introduced. These moves are "Olympic lifts," which means they are extremely technical and require a lot of skill to execute properly. So why are we introducing these lifts? Beyond the physical-benefits, introducing them early means we can start practicing them more often. Does this mean we will become experts and qualify for the Olympics by 2016? Not likely; but we can get proficient at these by building technique and training our nervous system. Working on our technique and building our weaknesses will not only get us fitter, it will prevent injury. 

We talked about the 10,000 Hour Rule; considering we only have an hour to get through a warm-up, learn a technical skill, and complete a WOD, according to this, we would be able to collect retirement here before we become "experts" at anything. But we can get better in significantly less time by deliberately taking some effort to understand these skills that are being taught. 

One way to supplement the classes is by checking this blog, because you will happen upon resources like this series of great YouTube videos about the clean-and-jerk:

But beyond this, I encourage you to learn more. Be present in class, break down the skills, fully understand the ins-and-outs, and approach each workout with deliberate effort. Crossfit is not the end-all, be-all, but try to make it more than just your one-hour lunch-break workout. 

I also encourage to spread the word so people can fully take advantage of the opportunity we have here. Consider this: a typical Crossfit box gives a free intro class, usually makes you take an "on-ramp" fundamentals course that might be anywhere from $100-150, and charges a monthly fee of $100 or more for a membership or at least $15-20 a drop-in class. You're getting all that for free. Even if you leave next month, you will at least build proficiency in the fundamental movements enough to not have to take any on-ramp or basic-skills requirements boxes have. 

Though we might not spend 10,000 hours together, every little bit counts as long as you approach each workout whole-heartedly and deliberately! Have fun, learn and be fit! 

Can't wait to start up another week full of WODs!