A common occurrence we witness super often is for someone to perform a Personal Best at something then be super surprised and wonder HOW!? And then state: “But I haven’t even been really working on that?”
This is due to a common misconception that the best way to improve at something is to do it to death. Every. Single. Day.
Whilst it is true that this biased method can produce results – it can also produce problems down the track. And what about all of the other movements a fit and healthy body should be able to do? They would be left behind in this blind pursuit.
The body craves movement. It craves variety. A healthy body needs it.
A healthy body can lift and manipulate objects and in turn lift and manipulate itself in space. It can run, skip, row and swim with decent proficiency and mix all elements together.
Don’t be concerned if you aren’t a master of all the different fields CrossFit will throw your way because honestly, no-one is! We can all get better. We all have weaknesses. That’s why we love the challenge CrossFit throws at us.
The reason why people keep beating their times, keep unlocking new movements and lifting heavier weights is because building a broad base of fitness achieves this.
That is the entire point of it.
The trick is the do the movements as often as possible, BUT in a variety of ways. You would only get so far if your main weapon of choice was a Barbell, just the same as if it was a pair of dumbbells, a set of gymnastics rings or pounding the pavement was your preference.
Because, all of these exercise apparatuses have flaws. They have missing links. None can develop everything we need on their own – if any could our job would be MUCH simpler!
Gymnastics has a huge place in building a super heavy Snatch just as inversely Snatching and barbells help to build gymnastics movements.
Because we are BUILDING OUR BODIES. Not just simply getting “better at certain exercises”. The movements are simply tools. The tests we conduct show us progress.
Having a bias in your exercise program is actually throwing all of the teachings of CrossFit out of the window.
CrossFit’s specialty is not specialising.
Our goal is to increase our health and fitness. To pursue fitness.
Often we have personal goals such as a Pull-up or a specific weight for the Deadlift for example – we need to achieve these without leaving everything else behind.
Fitness is the ability to do EVERYTHING well and this cannot be achieved by focusing solely on one element which leads to a decrease in performance and overall capacity.
The one thing I haven’t touched on in this educational rant is one of the most important elements.
Mindset.
You need a mindset which allows you to be on the journey. Patience is also needed and acceptance that the thing you often need WILL challenge you – physically and mentally. If you only worked on things that you found easy and fun then there would be no adaptation. No increase in fitness. No growth.
And growth is the entire ballgame.
