Coaches Corner

by Coach Aaron Hyatt

A great workout starts with a great warmup. A warm-up should not be easy. It might start out “easy” but should progress to the point that when you are finished, you’re ready to go full steam into the workout. A great warm-up fires up your entire neuromuscular system, increases the temperature of your muscles, and lengthens your fascia. A “warm” muscle and lengthened fascia can generate more energy and force and react more efficiently to any demand you place on them. That is why the warm-up prepares your body for any movement you will perform. Your heart rate will increase, your muscles will feel loose, and your mind and body will be fully prepared for the workout. Additionally, the warm-up will keep you safe and help prevent injury during your workout.

A warm-up consists of preparatory activities and functionally based movements that are specifically designed to prepare the body for exercise. The purpose of the specific warm-up is to allow the body to gradually adjust to the changing physiological demands of the exercise session. A dynamic warm can result in noticeable improvements in fundamental movement skills.

The warm-up can provide the opportunity for athletes to gain confidence in their ability to perform movement skills. A proper warm-up can contribute to movement skill development and can make a valuable contribution to the overall conditioning program.

These are just some of the reasons not to “phone it in” during the warm-up. If you are consistently late, skip the warm-up, rush through the warm-up, or simply don’t take it seriously, you are missing out on a huge aspect of training.

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

by Coach Aaron Hyatt

One of the most overlooked aspects of physical health and fitness is flexibility. Poor flexibility can lead to a host of problems, including injury, overcompensation, poor performance, or hitting plateaus. However, people with above average flexibility can typically continue to progress in training without having many injuries. I want to discuss four reasons why flexibility is important. First, let’s define flexibility. Flexibility is the range of motion that your joints are able to move through. If you can move a particular joint through all different ranges of motion easily, then you have ideal flexibility in that joint. Now that we know what ideal flexibility is, let’s discuss what happens when we do not have a full range of motion in a joint or joints.

The biggest problem that occurs from poor flexibility is an injury. These injuries could be classified as tweaks and strains. Now let us talk about why we experience these tweaks and strains. The modern lifestyle has been developed to put an emphasis on convenience over health, and our bodies are starting to pay the consequences. The majority of our day is spent sitting, either at work or in the car or on the couch, and we spend hours a day looking down at our phones. The result of all of this sitting and poor posture is a loss of range of motion in our hips, ankles, and shoulders, just to name a few. When we lose this range of motion, we are not able to get in positions that our body was designed to get into, such as sitting in a full squat or reaching our hands over our heads with our arms straight. Therefore, when we do try to get into these positions, whether with weight or not, our body compensates, and many of the muscles that should be doing the work of these movements are not used.  Lats, Glutes, core, and lower traps end up getting shut off and smaller, secondary muscles end up doing the work of these larger muscles.

2. Overcompensation

The second problem that occurs with a lack of flexibility was discussed a little previously, and that is overcompensation. When we cannot access the big muscles that are supposed to do the work, then they get shut off and smaller muscles overcompensate and do the work of the big muscles. These muscles are designed to have more of a supporting role, but when they are forced to be the main movers than problems occur. They get tired and overworked much more easily, and our bodies have to work harder to do the work as a result. This can lead to the last two problems of poor performance and plateaus, as well as injuries which have already been discussed.

3. Poor performance

For people who are trying to compete in the sport of CrossFit, or in any other physical activity, perhaps poor performance is the biggest downfall of poor flexibility. When a person has poor flexibility and cannot access the correct muscles to perform a task, they are missing out on a higher level of performance. Let’s take the glutes for example. If a person sits most of the day, then the chances are they are missing out on some of their glute function due to poor flexibility. If this person wants to compete in any sport where using the lower body is important (which is most sports), then they are effectively missing out on much of the power of the biggest and strongest muscle group of the body. Let’s say our competitor is competing in powerlifting and wants to squat as much as possible. If their glutes are not fully engaged due lack of flexibility, then smaller and weaker muscles will be forced to do the work that the glutes should be doing. This will lead to a lower back squat number (perhaps much lower) than could be achieved if the glutes were fully engaged. The body is very good at compensating to get a task done, but when it does we miss out on a lot of performance that could be achieved by using the muscles that we should be using.

4. Plateaus

The final problem with poor flexibility is reaching a plateau in training. This goes hand in hand with poor performance and is very common in people who have been training for multiple years, especially those who did not start training until later in life. If a person does not have the proper flexibility to perform certain tasks then, as discussed before, the smaller muscles will do the work that the big muscles should be doing. Eventually, these smaller muscles will reach their full potential, which leads to a plateau. No matter how hard you try or how much work you do, you will not get any better until you learn how to recruit the bigger muscles to do the work that the smaller muscles are doing. This can be a very frustrating process and can lead some people to quit training altogether. If you have reached a plateau then it might be a good idea to see if you have a full range of motion in all of your joints.

One of the most overlooked aspects of physical health and fitness is flexibility. Poor flexibility can lead to a host of problems, including injury, overcompensation, poor performance, or hitting plateaus. In this article, we discuss these four problems and what you can do to overcome them—which will have you training pain-free for years to come.

by Coach Vanessa Dickens

So your resume does not list athlete on any bullet point. You might never bring home an income from physical exertion. Your Instagram won’t have a million followers.

Maybe you’re an engineer, an accountant, or a stay-at-home parent. But if you are there competing against yourself, you are an athlete.

I don’t kid myself and think I am an athlete in the same sense that Katrin Davidisdottir or Tia Clair Toomey are athletes. But unquestionably, undeniably, unapologetically – I am an athlete!

I am a CrossFitter. Some days I don’t get to WOD (workout of the day). Some days I am so spent from working that I cannot muster the energy needed to give it my all in a workout. Some days I will give everything I have to my workout and be left dying on the ground in a sweaty mess. You can find my collection of shirts from the various gyms I’ve visited and competitions I’ve participated in, folded in a drawer.

I am an athlete because I have paid the same price as all the athletes that have come before me: blood, sweat, and tears. I have made my offering to the fitness gods. I’ve torn my hands to shreds, I’ve soaked every inch of clothing on my body, I’ve cried from the pain of my exertion. My sacrifices, while on a different order of magnitude, still resonate with the same frequency as the professionals. They give their whole lives for sport and, as such, are athletes first. I give my all when I can and still earn the title of Athlete.

‘Athlete’ is not a term just reserved for the privileged; ‘athlete’ is a term bestowed upon the worthy. One is not born an athlete.

Do you have a physical goal? Are you actively pursuing that goal? Are you making improvements towards your goal? Are you bleeding, sweating, and tearing? Yes? Then you are an athlete.

To be an athlete, you must have passion.

Look at your PRs. Are you improving? Look at your WOD times. Are you getting faster? Before you couldn’t run around the block, now you can run without stopping. Before you couldn’t lift the bar over your head. Now you can lift the bar and more weight.

Do you do everything in your power to guarantee that you are better than yesterday? Yes? Then hello, Athlete. I am also an athlete. It’s a pleasure to meet you.