As I've shared before, I am not a natural at anything. Learning new movements can be an awkward display of my lack of coordination. I have been CrossFitting regularly for over two years, and am still working on my technique. My stats aren't nearly where I want them to be, and I have been focusing on strength building since June. I figured, if I'm stronger, I can over-ride poor technique. It's been an interesting few months, and I've gone through a progression of realizations that have really helped me make some gains.
The first realization was that I needed more nutrition than a clean Paleo-Zone diet to reach the PR's I wanted. Despite my coach's incredible programming, I wasn't seeing much improvement. Dave always says recovery is huge, but I didn't realize that recovery was more than eating a good meal post-wod, hydrating, and getting plenty of sleep. I added a recovery shake following my workouts, and I immediately had more energy and wasn't as sore the next day. For those of you who want to get competitive and reach Firebreather levels, you may want to consider protein supplements (whey protein post-workout makes a HUGE difference for recovery). Send me an e-mail if you want some product suggestions.
The second realization was that while increasing over-all strength may help, the core is, well, core. Just as I look deceptively coordinated, I look like I have a strong core. How is this possible? I'm a mutant. I have an extra lumbar vertebra which gives me an elongated torso and tight-looking abs. I realized today that the main reason my form in power and olympic lifts has faultered at heavier weights is because my core really wasn't up to par. I've incorporated v-sits or static leg raises and back extensions to my daily warm-ups recently. Guess what happened. Today during a heavy snatch from the floor, my back angle was finally consistent! I used to collapse my core with heavy weight and had a really hard time dropping under the bar. I felt like I was in slow motion and lacked that quick muscular pull to get low fast. I'm still working on it, but today was HUGE. I thought I had a mental block, but I really think it was due to lack of core strength.
The final realization was repetitive technique training is clutch. My previous snatch PRs were hang power snatches, and they were ugly. Today it was a solid pull from the floor and I landed in a deep squat with 105# over my head. I have been seriously working on olympic lifts for over a year. After 2 months under Chad Vaughn to the CF Oly Cert with Coach B to hours and hours with Bigg Dave, not to mention the time in my garage practicing pull unders, snatch balance, snatch pulls, 3-position snatches, etc ,etc, TODAY I felt the click. Today I finally did a full squat snatch at a heavy weight that felt like the technique and training took hold. On to the next goal of 135# !
I know a lot of this may seem like a statement of the obvious. But if you feel like you're struggling to make gains, I hope I may have clued you into an area lacking in your training.
Happy CrossFitting!
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