Blurring the Lines
By
June 9, 2014
In Starting Line, I always talk to athletes about blurring the lines between technique and intensity. When in doubt, we always err on the side of technique, as injuries happen when we let our competitive hearts get ahead of good movement standards. That being said, some of the best breakthroughs happen when we turn our brains off and let our bodies just move. One of the benefits of group classes is that the intensity and competitive environment inspires us to dig a little deeper and get that one more rep before putting the bar down or dropping off the pull-up bar. It is one of those things that makes CrossFit such a powerful tool for fitness. We push ourselves harder than we would on our own because of the group dynamic.
As your coach, I am constantly looking for ways to cue you to move better and to push you to go a little harder. The longer I coach you, the better I get at knowing what you need from me to get the most out of your workout. The science of movement and coaching is my passion and I am constantly reading, researching and experimenting with new strategies. It is a complicated equation with many variables. While I consider myself adept at managing many of those variables, the variable of how you are feeling and what is happening with your body is one that I can't solve alone. It is critical that we communicate if you are having pain during a workout or warmup so that we can modify to prevent real injury. By design, we work at the limits of our abilities during these workouts. Develop the skill of knowing where you are in relation to those limits so that we both know whether we are reaching for the accelerator or the brake. Also, pay attention in the pre-workout huddle when we talk about the desired stimulus for the day and whether we are blurring the lines toward beautiful technique or unthrottled intensity for a given workout.
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