Focus- Daniel san!

You have probably all seen the Karate kid movies (or am I getting old?).
Mr Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing and teaches him one technique. Through the movie Daniel discovers the essentials of the technique, and step by step begins to master it. At the end of the movie Daniel, who has now graduated to Daniel san, is put to the ultimate test, and finds that in the moment of truth, all he has to do is focus really hard and use the technique mr Miyagi has taught him, and he will save the day, get the girl, and drive of into the sunset!

Would'nt it be fantastic if Crossfit worked the same way? Would'nt it be fantastic if coach would give us one single move that would work magic in virtually everything we do? Imagine how easy it would be. Every time we would find ourselves in some sort of trouble (in our workout) all we would have to do was close our eyes, and remember the moment when coach shared his wisdom. We could then open our eyes, and from the pureness of knowing that we had the answer to all the riddles that cause us distress- execute the move coach had told us- and save the day!

The truth is that coach has given us a move that will make virtually every exercise easier! It is a move that will save the day, and make the predominant part of exercises you find in the crossfit regimen, easier!
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you- The violent full extention of the hip!

It is as simple as that. When you do squats, kettlebell swings, overhead squats, kipping pull ups, snatches, jumps, sprints, push press, split jerks etc. the list goes on and on forever and ever. The one thing you will find that these exercises all have in common is the violent full extention of the hip..

It is fantastically easy to forget where you need to focus. Instead of putting full focus on the bare essentials, you start to waiver off in search of the next big thing that will give you an edge, improve your time, allow you to use greater loads, post better scores! You start to read books by obscure authors (No names, but there are a few I have my eyes on) who claim that their way is the only way. These books will tell you to focus more on things like grip, a different stance, a different breathing technique etc. In your pursuit of perfection you begin to follow the advice put forth in these books, but for some strange reason, the gains made are minimal, and they have more often than not come at the expense of other exercises!
When from the beginning all you had to do was focus on the basics- ie. the violent full extention of the hip!

Im not saying we should stop our pursuit of getting better, and always striving towards increasing our performance. What I am saying is, that until we master the basics, there is no need to focus on anything else. Before you begin to worry about getting an edge, build a Crossfit foundation to stand on, and let that be your base camp, when you begin your climb towards the top!

The last 3 days I have done the following workouts:

Tuesday 080408

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps
Post loads to comments.

Shoulder press 50kg 60kg 65kg 70kg 75kg
Push Press 60kg 65kg 70kg 75kg 80kg
Push Jerk 65kg 65kg 65kg 65kg 65kg

My shoulder is still hurting from when I did the split jerks, and every time I lowered the weight it hurt really bad, and it got progressively worse during the exercises. So I'm not sure if I could have gone heavier- but I was actually pretty happy with the workout!


Wednesday 080409

"Kelly"

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Time 28:21- I thought I would be a lot faster but I really need to improve my running technique. I did'nt have a 24 inch box, so I used the stairs in the gym, no comment other than I'll be getting a box!


Thursday 080410

Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

100kg 120kg 140kg 150kg 160kg 164,6kg 169,3kg

I was working out at Haga where they have a fantastic mix of weights in pounds and kilos- hence the strange pregression of weights! These weights, as it turns out, are smaller than the olympic size ones, which made for a strange sensation:-)
Still a new PR- Though not a good looking final rep, it was legit, and I am happy as can be...

For now that was it, thank you for reading

Much love