A HOT Summers WOD in 2010

A few weeks ago FTS interviewed his friend CrossFit as a resource for his blog. While they were talking I was able to pick up a few bits of information about optimizing physical skills. These skills, or skillz as they are often written on the whiteboard, are important to developing into a well-rounded athlete. It appears that these 10 physical categories show up in various combinations of things we do at CFSF.

-Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance – The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
-Stamina – The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
-Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
-Flexibility – The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
-Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
-Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
-Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
-Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
-Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.
-Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.
(Ed. – Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans of Dynamax, http://www.medicineballs.com)

We sometimes refer to an exercise as a GOAT when it is something that you despise doing…in other words you would rather take the Triple Dog Dare and stick your tongue on the frozen flagpole like the kid in “A Christmas Story” than complete the exercise. Which one of the skills mentioned above would be categorized as a GOAT in your mind?

I will openly admit that I am not a flexible person. Flexibility could be considered my GOAT. It was time to step out of my comfort zone and work on flexibility…I started taking yoga classes 2 weeks ago.

Which one of these skills/skillz would you like to improve?

Just be careful of what you ask for…

Agility might mean burpee stick jumps…or the return of “Agilities Gone Bad”…Balance might mean walking on your hands…

Look for different aspects of these general physical skills in the warm-up, skill/strength section, WOD, or finisher. In fact, some of these can be worked on without the supervision of a coach/trainer. Think of that as your homework for the week.

Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation of these 10 traits over the next few weeks. Ask a coach to implement something you think is important to make us a better affiliate. Just don’t ask when we are going to do curls or install mirrors…and under no circumstances will the Shake Weight be used in any of the classes I teach. Save that request for the dude with the giant red beard wearing the San Diego hat.

Browny

This entry was posted on December 16, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Crossfit Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.