Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Pay the toll.

Is there a skill that you want to be better at? Most of you who read this are CrossFit athletes.  Along with getting in better shape, one of the goals of CrossFit is to improve your coordination (one of the ten recognized fitness domains). This is why CrossFit incorporates many high skill movements into the programmed workouts. Some examples of high skill movements include double-unders, hand stand push ups, and finally my favorites, the snatch and the clean and jerk.

Thats a lot of weight for a high skill movement.

When you learn new skills, your coordination improves, and in turn your overall fitness improves because you are better than when you started.  The problem with these high skill movements is that they are hard to do.  If you have a skill that you are not good at I am going to let you in on a secret that not many people know.  

You have to pay the toll.  

This means two different things.  One is a training philosophy that I will talk about later.  The other simply means you haven't put in the time yet to be capable of that skill you seek.  This part of the equation is easy. You need to practice more. You also need to seek the advice of your coaches at the gym, and even seek online tips and tricks from experts.  It isn't hard.  Here, I will get you started.  Try first going to www.google.com and see where that gets you.  You're welcome.

Next, let's talk about the training philosophy called "paying the toll".  I just told you that you need to practice more.  But how do you fit in practice on top of your busy life schedule. You are now going to "pay the toll".  

I want you to pick whatever skill is troubling you.  Let's start with pull-ups.  Every time you walk into the gym, you owe yourself 5 pull ups.  Or 1 pull up, or however many you need to do to "grease the groove".  Then every time you walk out of the gym, you owe yourself another 5 (or however many you decide).  You have to pay the toll to get into or out of the gym.  Guess what is going to happen after only two weeks at the gym.  You are going to be better at pull ups.  It works for any skill you are trying to improve.  Most beginner strength  gains are simply the central nervous system adapting to new skills and movements. If you don't believe me, get on th rings and try to hold a support position. 

This is a support position.  How do you plan on mastering something if you don't know the lingo.

 The first time you do this, you will shake like you wouldn't believe. You probably possess the strength to hold your body weight, but your CNS hasn't adapted to this new and fun activity.  After paying the toll a few days in a row, you will be rock solid in this support position, and you will be one step closer to being a master gymnast.  

So finally let's wrap this up with weight lifting.  Your homework is to pay the toll with squats.  Every time you go to the gym this week I want you to warm up with an empty bar on your back and do the same thing before you leave the gym.  Your goal is to be a squat master at the end of two weeks.  If flexibility is holding you back then how a bout instead of spending 4 hours a day online looking at kittens riding unicorns farting rainbows, you spend 3.75 hours a day looking at crap and that extra 15 minutes you spend actually trying to improve mobility.  And remember to pay the squat toll every time you go to the gym.

I love google.

Finally I will leave you with this.  It isn't enough to want to do it, you have to actually do something about it.  

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