by Coach Chris Douglas
Here at Paramount, your success is very important to us and that’s why we strive to keep you safe and healthy so you can remain consistent in your attendance. Part of that process is to make sure you modify and scale movements appropriately for your skill level.
Modifying Movements & Scaling for Longterm Success
Let’s start with the importance of modifying movements. During the fundamentals classes, you quickly learn that there are a lot of movements in CrossFit and most are ones you have never done before. In fact, some of these movements require quite a bit of technique and time to develop. We cover a handful of modifications to find what works best for you at this point in time. Although we take you through the best options that work for you at that time, it’s easy to get caught up in the flow of regular classes and what everyone else is doing. Time and time again I see members start to push their modifications to the wayside and try to keep up with others. I cannot stress how important it is to hold your course and not worry about what everyone else is doing. We love to see people progress and I think it’s great that you are constantly pushing yourself to improve. However, it’s incredibly important to take your time and make sure you master the movements at your current modification before moving on to the next step of the movement. It’s one thing to “get the hang” of the next step, but applying that same technique and form while under duress in a high-intensity format is so much different than practicing before a WOD. If you cannot maintain your technique and form while fatigued then you are probably not ready for that step. We first need to think about injury prevention and then think about hindering overall progress. It takes far more time to undo bad technique than it does to master a movement piece by piece taking the slow road. The benefits of taking your time is less risk of injury, more efficient movements, and better scores which is directly related to proof of progress. Not only that, who wants to look like a rookie when you are over a year into the game?
The coaches are here to help, so utilize them for advice when it comes to taking that next step and working towards minimizing your modifications. My favorite piece of advice is, “Only do what you can do well” If you can’t do it well in practice then you aren’t ready to do it in a WOD. You are always welcome to come in early or stay late and work on your weaknesses to make progress faster. Coaches are also available for 30-minute 1:1 skill sessions for anyone wanting some dedicated time and attention from a coach to help you.
—Coach Chris
