Technique, reps and ramblings of Kelly Moore
Kelly Moore recently posted a very well thought out post on the crossfit discussion forums that talked about technique, what constitutes “legal movements” and pros and cons of doing exercises different ways.
Technique, reps and ramblings
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I’ve recently had a number of emails asking questions about my thoughts on a few exercises. What follows is only my opinion, my intrepetation about certain exercise technique and what constitutes a complete rep. No one else has to agree and can do them the any way they see fit.
Here are my personal guidelines and reasonings for a few exercises:
Deadlift – Pick up weight off the floor to full hip extension with shoulders back; return to floor under control. Dropping the weight from waist height doesn’t count. It’s ludicrous to believe that I could control the weight enough to lift the weight off the floor 20 times but I can’t hang on to guide the weight back to the floor for the last rep. What would I gain anyway? A half second off the WOD time?? While I’m on deadlifts, I’m rethinking the whole bouncing thing. Having the weight jump back up 2+ inches into my waiting hands sure isn’t the same as starting it from the floor. If I could start every deadlift 2″ higher than my feet that might add 50# to my deadlift! Thinking about how bouncing deadlifts would relate to real life, I can’t think of an example. I never recall bouncing feed bags, bags of concrete or framing timber off the floor when working the farm. I would simply pick them up off the floor. Maybe I should reduce the weight and start from a dead stop each rep. Stopping it on the ground long enough for me to open and close my hand on the bar would be good. Plus I would reset my body for the lift each rep – proper body position is good thing to foster. It won’t make Diane any less a metcon for me and I will work the starting pull of the deadlift many more times. I’ll still be panting like a big dog when I’m done and Rip won’t be able to accuse me of trying to be a midget basketball star while deadlifting.
Bench press – Take bar from full elbow extension to lightly touch chest; return to full elbow extension. Butt stays on the bar, feet remain flat on floor. The butt stays on the bench or the rep doesn’t count; sky humping turns the movement into a decline bench press. If I have to sky hump, the weight is too heavy. If my feet are waving around the weight is too heavy. If I decide to bounce the bar off my chest rather than lightly touch, I lack common sense and shouldn’t be allowed to pass along my genes.
Handstand Pushup – Full elbow extension, nose to carpet, return to full elbow extension. Failing to touch the floor or not straightening the elbows each rep doesn’t count. I’m rethinking the nose to carpet idea as it forces my neck and lower back into a bad position. I believe this came about as a way to encourage a certain amount of ROM. To meet both the ROM expectation and keep my neck and back healthy I will be doing top of head to floor with my hands elevated on blocks. As far as hand spacing I look at things this way: what are my goals with this exercise and how is my shoulder health? I want to do freestanding HSPUs in the future as well as walk 100′ on my hands. A super wide stance cuts the ROM for a faster time, but will it help me in the long run? Can my 44 year old shoulders handle it? I used to bench press with a very wide grip – it reduced the ROM so I could lift more in competitions. The result was shoulder injuries that still haunt me. I will stay with the hand spacing that I can use when doing full ROM HSPUs off chairs or hand walking. Shaving a few seconds off my HSPUs aren’t that important compared to my future goals and mobility.
Thrusters – Front squat to depth followed by hip extension/push press to bar locked out fully overhead back to front squat. The bar stopping anywhere but locked out overhead does not count. Years ago Coach Glassman, Lauren and Annie watched me do Fran at Santa Cruz. I vividly remember them telling me my reps were junk as they finished somewhere in front of my head, not over my head. It took some of the wind out of my sails but they were right. After putting in the effort and time to learn it properly, my time quickly surpassed my former Fran PR done with sloppy form.
Ring muscleups – Full elbow extension to full elbow extension in support, return to full elbow extension at hang. Jumping off at support isn’t a complete rep. My desired goal with MUs is to do 20 continous reps with a reduced kip. I need to follow through and finish each rep to hang position to work on the false grip. If I’m too weak to maintain my false grip I obviously need to work on it. I also look at it this way: I wouldn’t stop a pushup at the bottom position and call it a pushup during a WOD, or stop a weighted squat at parallel then dump the weight and call that a squat during a WOD so why would I think doing only half a muscleup is a muscleup? I can’t justify doing half muscleups and calling them muscleups to better my time on a WOD. I know if I apply myself 20+ continuous MUs are possible and my WOD times will decrease while using both good technique and full reps.
Kettlebell snatches – The snatch ends locked out and fully stopped overhead. The stop doesn’t have to be long, but it must be there. The bell can’t stop somewhere in front of the head. That is a different exercise – a snatch-like souped up swing maybe, but it’s not a kb snatch.
Yes, my form can break down some as I fatigue during a WOD. If I kept everything absolutely perfect at all times I would never get much of a workout. But I don’t let the exercises deviate from the basic guidelines I’ve outlined. I use common sense to decide when to take a quick breather, lessen the weight, use a less intense version, etc… to keep my form meeting certain self imposed standards during the workout.
Like I said, these are my opinions. I get out of the WOD what I put into the WOD. I don’t believe a great WOD score or metcon performance has to mean reduced ROM or half reps. I’ve seen some amazing performances with very good technique that still leave my jaw on the ground….Annie Sakamoto doing a sub 3 minute Fran and Catherine Imes doing a 27 rpm snatch set for seven minutes come to mind.
Follow up comment:
I cringe when I see videos that show the lift degenerate into a “bouncing round back stiff legged deadlift”. It’s bad when you see someone doing that for a five rep set, but far worse when doing higher reps for time.
I’ve bounced deadlifts when doing Diane and other high rep deadlift WODs. Produces a nice WOD score and strokes my ego. Much like powerlifting used to do when I could claim inflated lift weights due to using suits, shirts, wraps and a belt. When I took those away my 300# back squat became a 225# back squat.
Probably the only reason I haven’t suffered a back injury when bouncing double bodyweight for 45 reps is because I use a trap bar. I can maintain good back alignment because I don’t have to work around a bar in front of my knees.
My future high rep deadlifts will be true deadlifts, each rep pulled off the floor just like I do during the heavy doubles/triples/fives WODs. No touch and go or dribbling basketball style. Swallow my pride, reduce the weight, maintain my technique standards …. I’m in this for the long term. I want to be mobile and healthy for everyday life and I plan to be doing WODs when I’m 90+ years old.
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