Guess what, you are not invincible.

The next few paragraphs have been on my mind for a few weeks, months, and even years. They come and go but over the last few months I'm finding myself more and more frustrated with what I am about to dive into. When I say frustrated, by no means do I mean I am frustrated with a certain person or group of people or anything like that. More so, by the idea that we as humans have adopted and the egotistical view we have of ourselves.

I'll be the first to admit that I used to be the mayor of invincible-ville and that I never believed that I needed outside help to attack the muscular tissue that I was working every day. Long story short, once I began buying in to the idea that this was necessary, EVERY area of fitness progressed for me. Strength, conditioning, gymnastics, cardiovascular, etc. all improved and i began to feel less and less aches and pains from previous workouts. Not only, did my fitness level increase but my desire to be fit did as well. My nutrition went from good to on point and I began to notice muscle definition more so than before. And amidst all of this, I was/am getting older.....wait, WTF?!?!? Stronger, faster, leaner and getting older all at the same time. Yes, it's true.

So why bring all of this up when I've blogged about mobility before? The answer is I've been enlightened. I've seen first hand plenty of people ignore and over look pain hoping it just goes away. It very well may go away. For a day or week or month. But, it will come back. A pain can be completely non-existent one day and then overwhelming the next day. Nothing is worse than this and more mind blowing but that's the way our bodies work.

A lot of aches that people have from CrossFit are because of forced range of motion. The flexibility or mobility isn't there to hit the desired range of motion, but we force it anyway and then what happens. We feel a pain. We deal with it for 6 months, most definitely making it worse and then we go to the doctor and by this time it's too late. More serious damage has been done. Sometimes to the extent that surgery is required. So then we go in, have the surgery and then we come back a few months later. Come back to what though? We come back to the same lack of flexibility/mobility that we had before and we go right back to forcing a range of motion that isn't there. So we begin tearing down what we just had repaired. Then you get pissed at your doctor and think he didn't repair what was wrong the right way. Wrong. Orthopedic Surgeons repair what's broken. They do not attack the flexibility issues that are underlying. Unfortunately, this is the truth whether you want to accept it or not.

Getting back to movement basics and perfecting what we think are the simplest of movements can make all of the difference in the world. For the last 6 week so I have been working on my squat. Following the freestyle gymnastics as defined by Carl Paoli. Yes my squat has gotten cleaner and feels much more stable but the real difference is in my snatch. 6 weeks ago anything above 95lbs felt miserable on my entire body. My shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. Yesterday, again after about 6 weeks of working my body weight squat and breaking it down piece by piece, I snatched 185lbs and had zero issues anywhere. Perfecting the bottom position can only decrease compensation from the upper body and for me it most definitely has.

So what does it take to prevent this? Very easy answer. A couple of hours a month and a few dollars. The frustrating thing for me is that I will hear every excuse in the world not to take the time or spend the money. With the rise of functional fitness over the last 10 years or so, there are new school chiropractors and tissue specialists all around. Some credible, some not. If you haven't found one, then just ask your coach and I guarantee you will be pointed in the right direction. I promise you that every coach at CFRR has someone that they have to keep themselves maintained. And no, they dont need it just because they are coaches. They need it because they workout hard just like every one of you. If anything, they need it less because they are more flexible and mobile than the 2-3x a week CrossFitter.

 "I have to spend more money because of fitness????"

Weird because when you have to spend money to buy new clothes because your fitness program has been working so well it doesn't seem to be a problem. Or when you want a new supplement that possibly expedites your results, that's never an issue. We have to look at our bodies like any other object that has to be kept up with and that requires responsibility. We keep up with our homes, our cars, our bills, our social status, etc. You name it and i guarantee that it requires dollars and responsibility to maintain. Our bodies are no different. In fact, why in the hell is this not higher on the list, if not first?

Face it. We are not invincible and we need help with this part of our fitness journey. Neglect this now, and pay the price later. It's just that simple.