Can Uncommon Ever Be Common?

Gymnastics defines virtuosity as "performing the common uncommonly well."  Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, has fittingly taken that description and applied it to CrossFit movements.  Today was a great example of an opportunity to apply this concept.

Push ups, kettlebell swings and sit ups are three common movements most experienced CrossFitters take one look at and say, "I got this," without any need to think about technique.  But when you stop and think, and maybe even observe yourself or someone else performing these exercises, you realize there is often times a lot of room for improvement.  

The idea here is something we've talked a bit about in the past when it comes to CrossFit and athletic performance in general.  Regardless if you think you are or not, habits are always being conditioned.  Consistently focusing on positioning and technique will help produce a habit of paying attention that will be very supportive for effectiveness, efficiency and safety in CrossFIt.  

Take being tight for example in the push up.  Very simple idea, but when you see someone perform a nice straight body tight push up, you can see that is an example of virtuosity.  Being tight doesn't necessarily have much to do with performing the range of motion of the push up, i.e. you can get from point A to point B without tightness.  But if you take this technique of tightness and apply it to the push up consistently over time, you start to build this habit and soon enough being tight happens automatically and even will start to show up in other movements.  

They say in gymnastics, "tight is light," and if you've ever felt it you know it's true.  It is one example of a way to perform common movements uncommonly well.

Here is Kelly doing just that this morning.

Workout:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Reps of:
KBS (70/53lb)
Sit Up
Push Up