Maggie Dabe from CrossFit Fairfax is one of CrossFit HQ’s traveling seminar trainers. Originally from Ecuador, she explains our standard cues and faults for the press entirely in Spanish.
The press is the foundation for all overhead movements. With the feet under the hips, the athlete will grip the bar just outside shoulder width. The elbows will be down and slightly in front of the bar, and the entire body should be… Continue Reading
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Steven Shrago, a British psychologist and CrossFit trainer, offers coaches advice on how to get better results by building better rapport with athletes.
Coaching is not just about stopwatches, whiteboards and learning progressions. It’s about relating in a meaningful way to a diverse group of people. At the core of the CrossFit model is the relationship between athlete and coach. This relationship may be on a one-to-one basis or as part of a group.
Coaching… Continue Reading
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In Gymnastics/Tumbling, Videos
August 23, 2009
“This is the about the simplest, most bastardized way I can teach you this movement,” Jeff Tucker says of his scaled version of the back lever. On a visit to CrossFit Santa Cruz Central, Jeff gives athletes a taste of the back lever when they hold on to the gymnastics rings in the tuck position. They don’t have a full load because they are not fully extended.
But it’s still important that everything be active and tight. Legs should be engaged and… Continue Reading
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“The way I feel now, I can’t freakin’ believe I’m 70 years old,” says Jacinto Bonilla, the much-beloved Level 2 trainer at CrossFit New York in the second part of our profile from Again Faster.
Jacinto is a retired radiographer who saw many X-rays of older patients with hip problems. He’s always been active and decided to keep up his fitness level to avoid ending up in a nursing home himself. Jacinto began by training… Continue Reading
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In Powerlifting, Videos
June 24, 2009
Coach Mark Rippetoe discusses the importance of the hips, knees, stance and muscle mass in the squat. The footage taken from his Basic Barbell Certification seminar at CrossFit Brand X in Ramona, CA on February 14, 2009. Among other things, Coach Rippetoe elaborates on themes also discussed in his 2008 CrossFit Journal article “You Don’t Know Squat Without an Active Hip.”
Coach Rippetoe calls attention to the role of the adductors in the… Continue Reading
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In ExPhysiology, Exercises, Powerlifting
November 26, 2008
Drawing on more than 30 years in the fitness industry, Mark Rippetoe writes that an “active hip” can help clean up problems associated with the squat. Dr. Stef Bradford and Dr. Lon Kilgore, Rippetoe’s long-time collaborators, also contributed to this article.
When we squat, the standard range of motion criterion for the exercise is “below parallel.” This is defined as the hip joint identified at… Continue Reading
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August 01, 2007
I recently overhead a new CrossFit trainee mention that the kipping pull-up he was being taught was "kind of cheating." This is a very common response that shows that many people are unaware that functional movements often require contributions of eccentric (lengthening), isometric (static), and concentric (shortening) muscle actions and that one very common power movement uses a stretch immediately prior to the muscle shortening. This pattern is called… Continue Reading
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July 01, 2007
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
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In Kettlebells
June 01, 2007
I hope that Part 1 of this series, in last month’s Journal, motivated you to practice and experience the benefits of the Turkish get-up (TGU). Now let’s build on that foundation. Last month you learned the "arm-bar" stretch and the tactical TGU. In this issue, we will move on to the gladiator and explore implement alternatives for when kettlebells aren’t readily available.
The Gladiator
This move is a… Continue Reading
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In Exercises
February 01, 2007
Up until now the focus of our dumbbell work has been primarily on the slow lifts. These are essential to building foundational strength and should always be in your training movement pool. As you have seen, for cost effectiveness the dumbbell has no peer as a strength and conditioning tool. There is a point, though, where the training must move to the next level. That level is training for power. From my… Continue Reading
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In Exercises
May 01, 2006
Conditioning and Mobility with No Equipment
Be creative in your application of these movements. Practice them, and incorporate them into workouts. They are an excellent as part of an active warm-up, done in isolation for strength development, or built into metabolic conditioning routines. Specific programming and repetition schemes will vary depending on the fitness levels and goals of trainees.
Push-ups
Push-ups can range in difficulty… Continue Reading
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