3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting CrossFit
Timberwolf CrossFit | 8th Fittest Team at 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games
How to do double unders. The end.
Double unders aside, there are three things that, looking back, would have been very helpful to have known when I first started out on my five year adventure into the world of competitive fitness.
I started in CrossFit at the beginning of my fifth year of undergrad. After having competed in Division I ice hockey for four years, I needed an athletic outlet to feed my naturally competitive nature. I was lucky enough to start in CrossFit at one of the best gyms in the country, CrossFit Grandview in Columbus, OH.
At the time, CFGV was co-owned by Graham Holmberg (see: only man to have ever beaten Rich Froning at the CrossFit Games). I was immediately surrounded by athletic and highly skilled athletes, who had come from backgrounds similar to my own.
I immediately loved it and jumped at the chance to compete on their Regionals team in 2013, despite having only participated in CrossFit for 5 months.
I began CrossFit with a pretty good aerobic conditioning base as well as above average strength, thanks to years of hockey training. I also had decent body awareness and was able to pick up on the gymnastic-type CrossFit movements fairly quickly.
I was able to get my first muscle up within a few weeks of starting classes, I was squatting around 250# and ripped through the workout “Diane” (21-15-9 deadlifts @ 155# and handstand push ups) in under 6 minutes.
Those were the good things that I came to CrossFit with.
There were also some major issues that I brought with me.
Kelly Wild | USA World Team Member
Those included significant strength imbalances and soft tissue restrictions in both my upper body and lower body that predisposed me to major compensatory movement patterns and ultimately, injury.
As a hockey player, I had spent my athletic career in a forward flexed, somewhat bent over position with rounded and internally rotated shoulders. Thus, I had very tight, but strong anterior chest muscles (pecs, subscapularis , anterior deltoids, lats) and elongated and relatively weak upper and mid back muscles.
If you’ve ever known a hockey player, you know how tight their hips are (with the exception of most goaltenders who have crazy hip mobility)!
Along with tight hips, I also had extremely tight ankles. Spending years in a rigid hockey boot had led to limited ankle dorsiflexion mobility.
Combine all of those things, both good and bad, with a strong competitive drive to be the best at CrossFit, and you get a three-time CrossFit Games athlete and five-time CrossFit Games Regional athlete with bilateral shoulder labrum tears and one shoulder surgery.
With that in mind, combined with my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree that I earned in 2018, here is a list of things that I wish I had known when I first started my journey in CrossFit:
1) Address your muscle imbalances IMMEDIATELY.
People often blame CrossFit for causing injuries. It is not the CrossFit movements themselves that are bad, as long as you have structural balance, adequate range of motion and proper technique! Now you can imagine where the problems arise if any of those elements are lacking in an individual.
Most people aren’t starting CrossFit when they’re young, mobile, and without prior injuries or soft tissue restrictions.
The majority start as a second, third or fourth sport following retirement from other sports, and when they’re older, anywhere from mid-twenties to mid-fifties and up. And with that, they’re bringing old injuries, tight hips and shoulders and poor posture from sitting at a desk all day, strong chest muscles, weak overhead stability muscles, etc etc etc.
By not recognizing and addressing your imbalances from day one, compensatory movement patterns will arise and with that, potentially serious injury.
2) Get your technique right on the barbell movements.
I’m not just talking the Olympic lifts (Snatch and Clean and Jerk), but thrusters, squats, deadlifts, shoulder to overhead. ALL of these movements are highly technical, meaning that if you’re doing them with poor technique, and at the high volume in which they are done in CrossFit, injuries are likely going to occur.
Become The Best Lifter In Your Box
Looking to improve your Olympic lifts for CrossFit? Join 1000’s of athletes on the Barbell WOD, a California Strength program built for CrossFitters.
It is HARD to keep the barbell loading light and focus on technique, especially for those who are naturally drawn to CrossFit (I see all of your highly competitive go-getters!), but it is IMPERATIVE for your long-term success and overall longevity in the sport. And it is much easier to learn a correct technique from the onset, versus trying to circle back and correct a bad movement pattern that you’ve done hundreds of times.
I learned this the hard way and am STILL trying to correct bad snatch and clean and jerk techniques to this very day!
If you can, the best way to get your form right from the get-go is to work with a lifting coach in-person. That way you get real time feedback and you can get hands-on cuing for all of the little nuances that go with these highly skilled movements.
If you’re looking for a remote option, join the Barbell WOD team online and work with California Strength coaches like myself to review your technique.
3) Take the time to warm up well before every workout.
This is hard. We are all busy people. However, if you want to get the most out of your workout and perform to the best of your ability on any given day, a proper warm up is vital. Most CrossFit gyms post their workouts ahead of time. If your gym does, be sure to look ahead of time (not to cherry pick!) and plan out your warm up that is specific to your needs BEFORE the generalized class warm up begins.
That means, if class starts at 5:00 PM, give yourself at least 10 minutes prior to class to get in your individualized activation exercises and mobility pieces. For example, if you see on the schedule that the class workout calls for 30 squat snatches and you know that you have tight shoulders, plan to do two or three shoulder mobility pieces before you start your snatch warm up with the class.
For help in addressing your muscular imbalances, improving your shoulder stability, and ideas for warm-ups, check out my following eight-week protocols:
Click here to improve your Shoulder Mobility!
Click here to improve your Overhead Stability!
Click here to improve your Hip Mobility!
WRITTEN BY: