WOD
Rest Day

Please take the time to read today's blog post in its entirety. Thanks.



Watch this. When both coaches talk of peak tension vs. working tension, it often refers to those that are stronger than their mobility allows them to show. The less flexible you are in certain ranges of motion, the more tension you must use to fight to keep yourself in good position. The more tension you use, the more fatigued you become. Think about it. Often, most of us have to scale weights not because we aren't strong enough but because so much tension is used trying to meet the required range of motion as well as avoid injury that we can't hold it for the duration of most conditioning workouts.


On the other hand, some of us can move heavy loads if it's only for one or two reps because we can hold high tension for much lower volume. This is why, some can continue to get stronger despite not seeing the carryover into moving heavier weights in conditioning workouts. The athletes that have a great understanding of the movement and have the mobility to get into those good positions tend to be efficient which allows them to move faster and repetitively under less tension. Thus, they can develop strength that will carry over well to moving heavier and heavier weights during conditioning workouts. In return, this is allows them to see results, faster.

So, mobility is not whether you can get something overhead, into a legit squat depth, etc. It is whether you can do so without causing potential harm to the structure (muscles, joints, ligaments, etc.) and in turn losing a ton of horsepower that could be put to something more useful, like more work, faster.

Take care of your body while crossfitting. Know what that means and how to achieve it. Part of it comes from truly understanding what the movements are supposed to look and feel like (hint: it's not always about just being able to complete full range of motion) so that you can then correctly apply mobility work.
 

Notice Kelly is low enough in both squats but obviously, the first pic is potentially dangerous. Sometimes it is a matter of knowing that this is dangerous and fixing it and other times it's a matter of already knowing it's dangerous but not having the mobility to alter the position.

If lack of mobility, now you repetitively perform this potentially dangerous movement during conditioning workouts with high amounts of volume with probably a dangerous weight (or you scale, even though you're strong enough not to). You can't tell me there isn't tremendous amounts of horsepower being spent on keeping your knees, hips, ankles, and low back from exploding, that could be put to doing more work, using more weight, or finishing faster. All leading to better results.....

Yes, you need to get stronger (we all do) but a lot of us are strong enough but cannot get into healthy position. Die trying to fix that.