I just don’t know how to get through to people on mobility. Unless held at gunpoint, people just won’t consistently work on their mobility and flexibility.

—–

A couple years back this was the situation I had to deal with for nutrition. An athlete would work his ass off in the gym, and completely blow it with food. I’ve now experimented with our nutrition “pitch” so much these last couple years; there are now few athletes who don’t at least give our recommendation a shot.

—–

Now I see people everyday that absolutely crush it, working unbelievably hard during workouts, locking in their food…. and then totally wetting the bed with mobility.

I think part of the reason for this is it doesn’t “feel like working out”. You kind of roll around for 10 or 20 minutes, messing with straps and lacrosse balls, and making all sorts of uncomfortable faces. You don’t really sweat too much and you are never out of breath. I get it; you don’t feel like you worked out. But maybe, just maybe, this is exactly what you need to do to improve your fitness.

—–

Getting stronger is a really hard process.  Let me rephrase that, “Actually getting stronger is a really hard and lengthy process.”

Jim Wendler in his book “The 5-3-1 Manual” (Highly Recommended) puts his lifters on track for  20-40 pound PRs for the entire year in the bench, squat, and deadlift. His program is talking about true strength gains for the powerlifting crowd.

Wanna know what is pretty easy compared to actually getting stronger? Fixing your mobility issues.

If your hamstrings are so tight that you lose your low back curve 2 inches off the ground while deadlifting, can’t you see that your inflexibility causes you to pull less weight?

Can you put both your hands over your head with your arms straight? If you can’t, don’t you think that maybe your lack of mobility affects your max pull-up number? Or the fact you can’t get a muscle up?

—–

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”

Your lack of mobility is a HUGE opportunity. It is not, as some have convinced themselves, a lifetime curse that you have to nobly and tireless work through.

Here’s the new internal dialogue you need to have about mobility:

“ I have a 23:00 minute 5K, a 350 LB Deadlift, and a 6:00 Fran time. I am a solid athlete. However, when I got my flexibility assessed, my coach started laughing. He was surprised that I could even tie my shoes. He said I wasn’t even a “F +” on any of his assessments. Imagine how my lifts and times would be if I was even just a “C” on his flexibility assessment? I’m going to work on my mobility every single day for 30 days. If I don’t see massive improvements in both performance and injury prevention, I’ll never listen to another word my coach says”.

I promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Can anybody I have worked with on mobility chime in on their experience in the comments?

Editor’s Note: I get a gold star for the day. I made it through this whole post without using the phrase “low hanging fruit” to describe mobility improvements. Any other former management consultants can appreciate how truly difficult that was for me.

Editor’s Note: I read this post several months ago, and it had a pretty big impact on me. I like to revisit it often to make sure I am living up to it’s standard. I think anyone who I have coached can attest that I truly believe “The standard pace is for chumps”.

—————–

From Derek Silvers’ Blog:

Whether you’re a student, teacher, or parent, I think you’ll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently change someone’s life in only a few lessons.

I met Kimo Williams when I was 17 – the summer after I graduated high school in Chicago, a few months before I was starting Berklee College of Music.

I called an ad in the paper by a recording studio, with a random question about music typesetting.

When the studio owner heard I was going to Berklee, he said, “I graduated from Berklee, and taught there for a few years, too. I’ll bet I can teach you two years’ of theory and arranging in only a few lessons. I suspect you can graduate in two years if you understand there’s no speed limit.  Come by my studio at 9:00 tomorrow for your first lesson, if you’re interested.  No charge.”

Graduate college in two years? Awesome! I liked his style. That was Kimo Williams.

Excited as hell, I showed up to his studio at 8:40 the next morning, though I waited outside until 8:59 before ringing his bell.

(Recently I heard him tell this same story from his perspective and said, “My doorbell rang at 8:59 one morning and I had no idea why. I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician. I tell them I can help, and tell them to show up at my studio at 9am if they’re serious. Almost nobody ever does. It’s how I weed out the really serious ones from the kids who are just talk. But there he was, ready to go.”)

He opened the door.  A tall black man in a Hawaiian shirt and big hat, a square scar on his nose, a laid-back demeanor, and a huge smile, sizing me up, nodding.

After a one-minute welcome, we were sitting at the piano, analyzing the sheet music for a jazz standard.  He was quickly explaining the chords based on the diatonic scale.  How the dissonance of the tri-tone in the 5-chord with the flat-7 is what makes it want to resolve to the 1.  Within a minute, I was already being quizzed, “If the 5-chord with the flat-7 has that tritone, then so does another flat-7 chord. Which one?”

“Uh… the flat-2 chord?”

“Right! So that’s a substitute chord. Any flat-7 chord can always be substituted with the other flat-7 that shares the same tritone. So reharmonize all the chords you can in this chart. Go.”

The pace was intense, and I loved it. Finally, someone was challenging me – keeping me in over my head – encouraging and expecting me to pull myself up, quickly.  I was learning so fast, it had the adrenaline of sports or a video game.  A two-way game of catch, he tossed every fact back at me and made me prove I got it.

In our three-hour lesson that morning, he taught me a full semester of Berklee’s harmony courses.  In our next four lessons, he taught me the next four semesters of harmony and arranging requirements.

When I got to college and took my entrance exams, I tested out of those six semesters of required classes.

Then, as he suggested, I bought the course materials for other required classes and taught myself, doing the homework on my own time, then went to the department head and took the final exam, getting full credit for the course.

Doing this in addition to my full course load, I graduated college in two and a half years – (got my bachelor’s degree when I was 20) – squeezing every bit of education out of that place that I could.

But the permanent effect was this:

Kimo’s high expectations set a new pace for me.  He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” – that the system is designed so anyone can keep up.  If you’re more driven than “just anyone” – you can do so much more than anyone expects.  And this applies to ALL of life – not just school.

Before I met him, I was just a kid who wanted to be a musician, doing it casually.

Ever since our five lessons, high expectations became my norm, and still are to this day.  Whether music, business, or personal – whether I actually achieve my expectations or not – the point is that I owe every great thing that’s happened in my life to Kimo’s raised expectations.  That’s all it took.  A random meeting and five music lessons to convince me I can do anything more effectively than anyone expects.

(And so can anyone else.)

I wish the same experience for everyone.  I have no innate abilities.  This article wasn’t meant to be about me as much as the life-changing power of a great teacher and raised expectations.

———

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Wendy W. Wendy had originally titled this “From Weak to Not As Weak”. That title made me laugh, but I didn’t think that title was appropriate for what she wrote. I have no doubt she is strong…in the total sense of the word.

I was asked to write a post about my “Journey to Strength.”  Funny thing is…I don’t feel that strong.  At least not compared to the fire-breathers I have the honor of working out with.

That said, after 14 months of CrossFit, I am stronger and faster than I was before I started.

To give some perspective:

On June 2, 2009 – 1st day of Foundations
- I couldn’t do 1 legitimate pushup.  I barely got through the pushups on my knees.
- I could do pullups with the green band….barely
- My feet hurt so much after the class I could barely walk the 1/2 mile home.

On June 4, 2009 – 2nd day of Foundations
- I barely got through 21-15-9 Front Squat / Push Press with the 12# bar.  I was DFL (dead friggin last) in my class.

Triple digit poundage on ANY move did not seem particularly achievable.
Couldn’t do a box jump – box steps was about as fast as I could muster
Couldn’t jump rope – singles escaped me.  A double-under was a fantasy.
A 20# kettlebell was heavy
Couldn’t run 800 m without walking and wheezing.
Couldn’t figure out the terminology for the life of me.  (What the #$*& is a SPT?)

For the next 6 months, I was scared to death before every workout.  What if I’m last (again)? What if I hurt myself?  Can’t finish?  Get laughed at for being old, slow, stupid and weak?

Yet with each workout – I could do just a little bit more.
Run a bit further.
Tackle a higher weight.
Attempt more reps.

I found a supportive group of coaches and workout partners at Potomac Crossfit.
I found a couple of women just a step ahead of me who I could use as healthy competition and a benchmark.
I found some role models among the women at PCF who demonstrate daily what is possible – even if I am years away from where they are at now.

Slowly, the weights got higher.
Stamina increased.
Skills and coordination improved.

The progress was difficult to see from the inside.  I just showed up at PCF.  Did the WOD.  Focused on a weakness (or two) at a time in an attempt to herd them into something resembling respectable performance.

With each WOD, whether I did it at home or at the box – I got stronger.
Not necessarily by the weights on the bar.
I got stronger proportionally as I lost weight.
I got stronger through my ability to do things I couldn’t do before.
I got stronger some days by showing up and finishing what I set out to do.

When I find myself bummed about how slow my progress seems (usually on days where I am mistakenly comparing myself to others), I remind myself that this is a journey.

There may be markers along the way; but if I play my cards right, there is no final destination.
—————————————————
Where I currently am in my Journey <strike>to</strike> with Strength:

- Today –  Crossfit Total: 410.  Sept 09 – Crossfit Total: 310.

- Today – legitimate planked push ups on WODs.  June 09 – knee push ups (barely)

- Today – 15# weighted pull up.  Can do most pullup WODs no bands.  June 09 – green band pull ups.  Barely

- Today – 27:15 min 5K.   June 09 – you expect me to RUN that?!?

- Today – Snatch: 55#.  Hang Power Snatch: 60#  Snatch balance: 72#   June 09 – what do you mean I have to squat under a bar real fast?!?!

- Today – Clean and Jerk: 95#.  July 09 – 75# Hang Power Clean.

- Today – 118 lbs. bodyweight  June 09 – 143 lbs.bodyweight

Not bad for a little over a year’s worth of work.

——-

Wendy does a nice snatch balance:

Wendy Snatch Balances from Potomac Crossfit Raw on Vimeo.

Before you start a training program, take a look at the best athletes in that sport. The pictures below are some of the top athletes in each sport.

Marathoner

Bodybuilder

Celebrity

Crossfitter

Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one who is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. And there is no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.

Seneca

It is similar to one brother asking another, “Why did you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer is “Because Dad was a drunk.” The second brother then asks, “Why didn’t you grow up to be a drunk?” The answer is “Because Dad was a drunk.”

Gavin De Becker, The Gift of Fear

He should be delivering himself of such sayings, not memorizing them. It is disgraceful that a man who is old or in sight of old age should have wisdom deriving solely from his notebook. ‘Zeno said this.’ And what have you said? ‘Cleanthes said that.’ What have you said? How much longer are you going to serve under others? Assume authority over yourself and utter something that may be handed down to posterity. Produce something from your own resources.

Seneca

The best time to plant an oak tree was 50 years ago, the second best time is today.

Unknown

When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.

Ed Macauley

Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.

Teddy Roosevelt

Those of us who believe in freedom must believe also in the freedom of individuals to make their own mistakes. If a man knowingly prefers to live for today, to use his resources for current enjoyment, deliberately choosing a penurious old age, by what right do we prevent him from doing so? Is there not always the possibility that he is right and we are wrong? Humility is the distinguishing virtue of the believing in freedom; arrogance, of the paternalist.
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom