Focus on Form

This morning I woke up around 0500 and threw my chucks and my workout clothes on(yes Gilly, it was my grey Crossfit Newport Beach shirt that I wear 6 times a week) and I drove to the base gym down here in Jacksonville to get a quick WOD in before work. Most gyms on military bases resemble civilian Globogyms, just with slightly less females. Its been a while since I've had to resort to working out in this type of environment and I knew I would experience some challenges. Once inside I saw the normal assortment of activities that we as crossfitters scoff at; dudes using the squat rack for barbell curls, 30 people packed into a step aerobics class, 105lbs kid doing one arm cable raises to get jacked!!!, and my favorite: PARTIAL SQUAT DUDE!!!!

No matter how long I stay tucked away in my world of muscle ups, squat cleans, and chalk bucket these things will still never surprise me. Now back to my workout....I planned on doing a quick couplet that would require pieces of unpopular equipment as to prevent some overweight chief or some creatine crazed marine from interrupting my controlled chaos we know as a WOD. I decided to do the "heavy thruster and concept 2 row" WOD that was posted on the mainsite the other day. It worked perfect as I layed 3 towels over my barbell when not in use and stuck an "out of order" sign on the rower that was previously hung on the lat pulldown machine(I apologize if anyone was hurt using the lat pulldown machine today. Actually Im not, that's what you get for not doing pullups!).

Okay, this story is getting to the point real soon so hang in there. I start my workout and move into my second round of thrusters when I notice three young men next to me doing what resembles a clean and jerk, more like a clean and press to be exact. Now, I commend them for even wanting to do such a movement as most young guys bench, curl and use a few machines and they're done. These guys really wanted to work hard, and they were in fact bringing some intensity, but their form was horrible and they were all risking injury. All three were using way too much weight and it was an obvious "blind leading the blind" scenario. After I finished my WOD I decided I was going to offer up some advice, since I was at one time in the same boat as the three young men. I tried to be as tactful and positive as possible. As Crossfitters I think we need to not only be helpful to the uninformed but also be careful not to portray ourselves as arrogant or an elitist, which is hard to do at times. The guys seemed pretty receptive and I was thinking they might even be interested in Crossfit. After showing them proper form I asked one of the guys if he wanted to give it a shot. His repsonse.....AH Fuck it! Lets go do some bench!

I have to learn that not everyone is going to be receptive to Crossfit, or any help I may want to offer. Yes Crossfit is gaining popularity at an unbelievable pace but it will never be 100% mainstream. The reason being, in my opinion, is that Crossfit is hard and most Americans are inherently lazy. Crossfit is appealing because Crossfitters are happy, energetic and sexy people, but show someone a video of Brendan Gilliam performing a 2 minute "Fran" or EVA T. and Annie killing "Nasty Girls" and people get scared. Im not going to let the so-called dedicated crossfitters off the hook either. Perfecting the major lifts is hard work. We can all improve on our form. If you don't believe me go to a level one cert and see if you aren't corrected on some of the fundamental crossfit movements. Or better yet attend an olympic lifting cert and see if you pass with flying colors. If your form is damn near perfect stop wasting your time reading this long ass blog post and get out there and coach as many people as you can. If you are content having shitty or just adequate form I have one thing to say to you.....Fuck it! go do some bench!!!

-Andy

Today's Morning Workout

5 rounds of

500 meter row

135lbs Thrusters x 7

Nick's "I don't want to die at Sar School" WOD

2 rounds of-

30 pullups

30 burpees