Results for “Hamstrung”

If you determine the size of the field before programming the events, you might be putting the collars on before the plates.

“I’ve got 100 athletes, 10 solid judges, 5,000 square feet and nine hours to run as many events as I can.”

How many organizers have said something like that when planning a fitness competition?

I’d suggest what they’ve really got is a programming nightmare.

Local Limits

One of the best parts of the… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to evaluate movement at CrossFit South Bay.

Working on the hip, Starrett delivers a “shaman’s blow” of a test: a three-part quick-and-dirty movement drill designed to instantly assess hip mobility.

The test, of course, is not the be-all and end-all of movement analysis, because it’s staged unlike the natural movements of a squat or… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction at CrossFit South Bay.

In Part 8, Starrett discusses the RICE protocol to treat acute injury: rest, ice, compression and elevation. Starrett adds the 24-Hour Rule for how to reintegrate after injury.

“Something is good to go pretty much when you can load it up and 24 hours later you… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction at CrossFit South Bay.

In Part 7, Starrett makes a plan of action. First, he looks for motor-control issues expressed in positioning faults.

“Let’s fix the movement pattern first,” he says. “When you correct mechanics, things stop hurting.”

Next, he looks for connective-tissue or sliding-surface problems that can arise from… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction at CrossFit South Bay.

In this segment, Starrett addresses how to express midline stabilization in gymnastics movements like the push-up, because the push-up is a movement often associated with shoulder pain.

“This is basic positioning,” he says.

Starrett has a group of athletes practice push-up… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction at CrossFit South Bay.

In Part 5, Starrett addresses lower back pain. First, he looks for a stabilization plan with an organized set-up. He assesses midline stabilization through drills on the floor and discusses how to correct overextension faults.

He also addresses head-position faults and demonstrates how… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction.

In Part 4, Starrett shares his athlete checklist.

“When I look at athletes … this is how I diagnose their movement inefficiency and how I can break down any movement, any sport, any position, anything right away,” he says.

First, he looks for best fit set-up, and if that can’t be achieved, he… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction.

In Part 3, Starrett shares positioning strategy. An organized set-up for good start position leads to a good finish position, and you don’t have to focus on what happens in between, he says.

“Once you’ve lost position or surrendered that position of dominance or that… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction.

In Part 2, Starrett provides the four ways he diagnoses dysfunction. The first is “pathological” and needs medical intervention. The second is “catastrophic injury.” Luckily, only 1 percent of his patients come in with that level of dysfunction.

The next categories make up the majority of his cases. The third category is… Continue Reading

Join Kelly Starrett, owner of San Francisco CrossFit and creator of MobilityWOD, as he teaches coaches and their athletes how to diagnose dysfunction.

In Part 1, Starrett discusses paying attention to detail to create a better CrossFit athlete.

“Intensity is a harsh mistress,” he says.

According to Starrett, on our road to achieve general preparedness through CrossFit, our bodies take a beating. Through a survey of participants at his seminar, he shows how many… Continue Reading

Mobility and recovery expert Kelly Starrett has a lot of unique ways to improve a client’s range of motion and flexibility without traditional static stretching. By using some basic principles of physical therapy coupled with around-the-house objects, Starrett takes a few athletes at CrossFit Santa Cruz through a series of two-minute drills aimed at improving their performance.

After achieving more thoracic mobility through our last segment… Continue Reading

We know CrossFit Games champ Graham Holmberg can deal with the unknown and unknowable. But Holmberg also enjoys dealing with the unknown when participating in yoga classes led by his fiancée, Savanna Wilson. For the co-owner of Rogue Fitness/CrossFit Columbus, it’s refreshing to be able to stop planning workouts for 45 minutes while following a series of movements created by someone else.

Holmberg uses yoga to improve his flexibility, but he also uses it to work… Continue Reading

Mobility and recovery expert Kelly Starrett has a lot of unique ways to improve a client’s range of motion and flexibility without traditional static stretching. By using some basic principles of physical therapy coupled with around-the-house objects, Starrett takes a few athletes at CrossFit Santa Cruz through a series of two-minute drills aimed at improving their performance.

Moving from some localized stimulation in Part 3, this fourth piece of the… Continue Reading

The quest to prepare Jason Khalipa for the 2010 CrossFit Games continues in this fifth installment of Rebuilding Khalipa.

This time around, Kelly Starrett of San Francisco CrossFit runs Jason through a stretch that can open up assorted soft tissue and musculature Starrett refers to as “the business.” After Khalipa works himself over on the training table and tries a squat and an overhead squat, it’s pretty clear that the business is… Continue Reading

Stretching sucks. It does. There, it's been said. You can't brag about your best stretching time, you don't get to write your stretch PR on the wall, and there is no immediate "Fran"-like gratification that you are really tough. And despite the fact that flexibility is one of the ten CrossFit pillars of complete, well-balanced fitness, increasing flexibility potential remains the ungreased squeaky wheel of most athletes' training… Continue Reading