A Better Warm-up
Most classes at the box start with some form of a “warm-up”. Depending on the nature of the training for the day, the movements, intensity, duration, and overall focus of the warm-up will vary. Most days we bias the warm-up towards getting the blood flowing, practicing important movement patterns, incorporating new drills and skills, etc. Some days when we’re feeling especially generous, say if the Coach’s newborn son kept him up all night, we might throw in a nice Burpee/Wall Ball couplet to help spread the love. Regardless of the specific intention of the warm-up it is important that our athletes use this time to help improve their overall performance. Seemingly mundane movements such as air squats and hollow rocks can be practiced and fine-tuned during this time. Dialing in your focus on the Burgener warm-up might just help you hit that all elusive “Squat Snatch” PR you’ve been looking for.
Coach Classman wrote this early Journal entry on warming up: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/08_03_Better_warmup.pdf Take a look at it and let’s see if we can’t optimize our entire training time these next few weeks.
2 Comments:
I’m loving the programming this week. So are my quads.
– Fredrock on February 24th, 2011 at 1:54 am
“In commercial gyms everywhere, warming up constitutes
little more than spending fifteen or twenty minutes on
a bike, treadmill, or stair climber. While better than
nothing, this approach to warming up is largely a waste
of time in that it will not improve flexibility, does not
involve the whole body or major functional movements,
misses an ideal opportunity for reinforcing and practicing
some critical exercises, and poorly prepares an athlete
for rigorous athletic training.” - Glassman
– Carol B. on February 24th, 2011 at 9:58 am