Stretching and Mobility

CrossFit – The safest most effective training I’ve ever seen – CrossFit, when done correctly, is quite safe. A coach that tells you to do a workout with a weight you’ve never touched before is probably a bad coach. If you have never driven a car before, We wouldn’t start you off on the freeway. CrossFit is the most effective way to slowly build a capacity of physical functionality we’ve ever seen. And very few people will argue with you that the stronger you are the less prone to injury you are. Any training style must be built up slowly, using small incremental increases to continue to stimulate the body to adapt, you don’t make 25% work-load jumps; you make 5% work-load jumps. It is important to rest when form starts to break down. When you know you’re falling apart, stop take a quick breath, shake out the limbs, compose and continue. Perhaps this is where most of the fear of “finish as fast as you can” happens. Safety is paramount, there is no compromise here.

One thing that is missed by a lot of CrossFitters, is flexibility and joint mobility. You should be spending AT LEAST a quarter of the time you work out stretching and doing mobility. If you work out 4 times a week, that means in addition you should be doing an hour of stretching and mobility. If this is a yoga session – awesome, but ending a workout with 2 minutes of lackadaisical foam rolling on your hamstrings because it’s “not that bad” and you can socialize while you’re doing it is half-way. And if you’re reading this and you say “you’re right I should stretch more” then stop whatever you’re doing and stretch, stretch at lunch, stretch when you wake up, stretch in the shower, stretch and mobilize all the time.