by Colin Jenkins
I believe physical fitness should help us on 3 fronts:
- Look Better (the reason most of us get into fitness… at least initially)
- Feel Better (improved health, energy, and quality of life)
- Perform Better (physically and mentally perform better at what you enjoy doing, especially as you age)
When I evaluate the effectiveness of our fitness program, I consider how well we are helping everyone improve in these three areas. I have always been very self-critical, and am constantly trying to figure out how we can do things better… which is probably why our program has changed so much and so often.
This year marks the 10th year since I opened my first fitness facility in Ventura. 10 years is time to build just enough knowledge and experience to become… dogmatic, thick-headed, and less willing to adapt or change. I believe as coaches gain experience they become better in some ways, but less willing to evolve in many others.
My lifetime of jokes about people getting older has made me hyper-aware of this fact and so I place an enormous emphasis on never staying stagnant in our programming. Whereas s0me may believe the more they learn, the more they know… I believe the more I learn, the more I know I don’t know.
Even though I am extremely proud of what we’ve created so far, and how it has changed over time to become the unique program it is… I still believe old habits, antiquated ways of thinking, and stubbornness plague me and prevent our program from making further evolutions to get everyone looking, feeling, and performing better.
I think about my habits, and try to really evaluate if they are “something I do because it is the best possible thing for our program” or if is “something I do because I have created a habit of doing it based on outdated fitness trends and science”.
Let me throw an few examples of how I question our program your way…
Touch-and-Go Deadlifts (ie… bouncing the weight up and down during workouts)
Is this really benefiting how we look, feel, and perform outside the gym? Or is it used simply as an artifact from CrossFit where the goal was competitive work capacity within the gym? How does the “bounce” in any way improve your fitness? Would you be stronger, fitter and healthier if we didn’t bounce? Would not bouncing deadlifts decrease injury rates?
Double Unders
Is the cost of developing the skill worth the results we get from the exercise? Would weighted thick jump ropes provide more of a benefit? Is the coordination something we should spend more of our time in the hour we have on? Should we provide additional alternatives other than single-unders?
Don’t worry, Double Unders aren’t going anywhere anytime soon… although bouncing deadlifts are probably on the way out. I just wanted to share some of these questions. I think this way about mobility, and preventative exercises, gymnastics skills, benchmark workouts, keeping score on all workouts, etc…
I think our program still has quite a way to evolve. And I think the more it does, the less like CrossFit it is going to look. And overtime, I believe you are going to look better, feel better, and perform better because of it.
