Abs

I always love talking to people about working out. I'll ask them what they do to work out, and they give me the quick and dirty details of it all. Then I ask them if they've ever heard of CrossFit, and if they have (which isn't very often), I ask them if they've ever personally gone through a CrossFit workout (which to this point has always been no).

I'll do my best to explain to them what CrossFit is all about, what it is, and why I do it. Then they'll say something like "eh, that makes a lot of sense I guess..." or "that sounds crazy" or "I could never do a pull-up". Sometimes, they file it away in their minds and never come back to it. Other times, they'll let me convince them to try a workout. I can talk about this stuff all day, but to truly and fully understand what CrossFit is, you have to go through a workout. When I do get somebody to try a workout, they finally get that "ahha" moment of understanding; they get it.

But invariably, the questions start popping up. Their brains can't reconcile this new CrossFit training methodology with what they've always done. One of my favorite questions is "what about abs?" or "what about arms?" or "what about (insert body part/muscle group here)?". The answer is almost too obvious to notice...

So, what about abs? There are no crunches, no swiss ball roll-outs, no russian twists. We have sit-ups, knees-to-elbows, toes-to-bars, and a whole host of heavy lifting movements like overhead squats, deadlifts, and back squats. Why are these better than crunches and russian twists? Two words: midline stabilization.

Midline stabilization is everything going on from your pelvis to the top of your spine (i.e. you're body's midline). Whenever you engage in functional movement, all of the muscles in your hips, trunk, and torso stabilize your midline. It just so happens that abs fall into the group of muscles that contribute to midline stabilization.

So you want to work on abs? Go do some functional movements. Every time you stabilize your midline, you're working all those stabilizing muscles. Don't believe me? Go do 75 overhead squats at 95# for time and get back to me tomorrow...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nickelback - Shakin' Hands

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

WOD 100812 Thursday

Warm-up
S/S: Run through press, push press, and push jerk technique with pvc
WOD: For time:
-95# Overhead Squat, 75 reps.
Finish: 20 Floor Wipers, 135#.