Momentum Training - November 2015

Weapons 1/12/15 – 4/12/15

Posted 30th November 2015 by Geoff Stewart

Tuesday 1/12/2015

10 mins band mobility

warm up for clean 10mins

A. 3x Clean Pulls.

B. 3x Muscle clean

C. 3x Power clean.

D. 3x Deep Power clean.

E. 3x Clean with a three second pause in the bottom position

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CFH Training Plan 30/11/2015 – 06/12/2015

Posted 29th November 2015 by Josh Schouten

Week 4 of 10 Energy System Training

COACHES COMMENT:

THE ROLE OF A GOOD COACH

Is your CrossFit coach a real coach, or are they just a motivator? Contrary to popular opinion, the role of a good coach is not to recognise and reward aptitude, any amature can hand out “carrots” for good execution. A good coach is there to help uncover the skills that you are lacking, to find your weaknesses and guide you on the path to improve them.

“Reward and punishment are the lowest form of education” Chuang Tzu (Chinese philosopher from the 4th century BC)

coach Yes, good coaches can inspire and motivate, but their first duty is a somewhat unpleasant one: “Here is the flaw in your performance. Let’s work on it.” A poor coach will often only help you strengthen your strengths. A good coach will help you identify the weaknesses and work to eliminate them. A good student would be wise to listen to a good coach.

In this sense, the English teacher, the CrossFit coach and the martial arts sensei are all doing essentially the same thing. “Your language, your movement, your skill set, lacks this particular quality. Here is an exercise to increase that quality that you are lacking.”

The teacher or coach is sometimes held as a friend, but this is not necessarily the best coaching practice. In fact, the coach is best thought of as a kind-hearted enemy. “You are weak here, here and here” the coach should say, pointing out the weak links in your armour. “You are slow in this movement, your mobility is poor, your strength is insufficient and you can’t do a pull-up to save your life.”

The problem with this “work your weakness” philosophy is that it’s both physically and psychologically demanding. We all love proficiency and mastery and we would all prefer to cling to the stuff we are good at. If we’re good at doing power cleans, we take pleasure in that process. It’s meditation, our outlet, and our fascination. Squat cleans on the other hand can feel like a chore to those who don’t like to squat, and this can have a totally different emotional impact on the student. If we are good at something we’ll take our pleasure there, if not we can easily slip into a unhappy mood and throw our toys like a 5year old at bedtime.

So therein lies the conundrum of being a good coach. If you want your students to improve, you’ve got to work on their weaknesses. It’s essential! But if you are too zealous, you’ll take away the one thing that sustains the process of making training a happy place. Coaches and students must find a common ground to find the flaws in certain skill sets and flog them good, while maintaining certain training pleasures. It’s a fine balancing act that can only work with everything in good proportions.

No matter our strengths and weaknesses we all need to work towards improving our capabilities. Everyone should find the coach that stands you up in front of your weaknesses and forces you to work on them. Listen to this coach and cherish their advice if you goal is to improve. Don’t let ego get in the way of learning something new, working on a weakness and daring to be different from the other sheep in the classroom.

Next week we will go over the role of a good student.

RECOMMENDED WEEKLY READING:

StrengthSensei Endurance vs. Conditioning – The biggest misconception in sports specific training – Conditioning is the ability to repeat a certain effort with minimal fatigue – Classic examples are team sports like Soccer, American Football, Basketball and Ice hockey. In those sports it is crucial to keep fatigue between the first and the last sprint (and all the others in between) as minimal as possible.

Poliquin Group: Ten No-Brainer Ways To Raise Your Metabolism – The cool thing is that by working out and planning your diet wisely, you can increase your metabolic rate by as much as 25 percent

Sciencedaily.com: Blood sugar levels in response to foods are highly individual – Scientists have released new results underscoring the importance of a personalized diet, prepared based on complex factors such as your gut microbes and lifestyle. Surprisingly, the foods that raise blood sugar levels differ dramatically from person to person.

Time.com: Hate Mornings? 6 Small Changes That Will Fix Everything – The first few minutes of your morning are the most important of your day and can set the tone for positivity and productivity. Ideally, you have an app or clock that taps into your natural circadian rhythm and wakes you during your “best time” within a certain window.

Healthimpactnews.com: Japanese Research Exposes Statin Scam: People with High Cholesterol Live Longer – For many years I have told anyone who will listen that, if you have a high cholesterol level, you will live longer. Equally, if you have a low cholesterol level, you will die younger. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a fact. The older you become the more beneficial it is to have a high cholesterol level.

DOWNLOADS:

CrossFit Hackney Energy System Training Log Book

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Why the AirFit Bikes are so “GOOD?”

Posted 25th November 2015 by Josh Schouten

Over the last few weeks you have possibly had the pleasure of using the AirFit Bikes. The model we have at Momentum are called AirFit and they are very similar to Assault Bikes and Aerodynes, just a different make with slightly less tension than the others. Don’t you just love them?

Some of you have asked me “why are they so hard?”, and “why do they make me want to puke more than the rower?” Both the rower and the AirFit use air resistance and scale automatically according to how hard you want to work. The harder you push and pull, the greater the resistance becomes, it’s simple physics with big benefits.

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