What’s Wrong With Your Muscle-Up…

I love Crossfit. It is the best thing that has happened to; me, a hell of a lot of people, and the fitness industry…

It has its faults unfortunately. But it’s nothing we can’t start changing! The big fault is the bastardization of some gymnastics movements… specifically the muscle up.

A muscle-up is basically a transitional movement where one starts from a hang position on rings or a bar and lifts one’s own weight to above the ring or bar in a support position.

Sounds easy?… it ain’t

What’s the problem? Simple
…  People are trying, and worse being encouraged to try, this movement without the fundamental strength, co-ordination, and technique required. People figure “hey that looks easy, lets flop around on the rings and ill throw myself up and hope for the best”… what happens?
1. They somehow make it and it looks like shit
2. Fail, time and time again (eventually with injury) or;
3. Get made fun of and wonder why some people don’t take Crossfit seriously

The muscle-up is difficult and requires more then meets the eye… This is why im reaching out to ask people to help our sport out! Let’s build a better reputation for Crossfit!

And ill start by telling everyone what’s stopping them from being able to look like Sean Lind or Camille Le-Blanc up on the rings…

What you MUST do to finally get a proper looking, beautiful muscle-up is… Stop trying to do one.

There are a boat-load of progressions available for the muscle-up… master every single one, without even considering to try a muscle-up… take 2months off from trying, and DO the progressions… over and over until its perfect! If for any reason during the 2months you decide to try, realise you just took 3steps back…

The key thing is to stay at the progression you’re at until you can do it… dont pick and choose because you like this one or the other one, you’re on a progression for a reason and just trust it… if the progressions are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 and you can do 1, 2, 5, and 8… I dont care how perfect your “8” is, you are on 3 and staying there.

This goes with all kinds of Crossfit movements… almost every movement you seem to be struggling with can be fixed simply by you no longer trying to do the movement, and instead going to basics to progress much faster…

The Plan.

I know there’s a plethora of essays and writings on the purpose of humans and attempts at explaining why we are here, but here is why I am here and how I plan to execute my purpose.

My main goal in life is to be the best at life. I want to be amazing at being a human, that is what I aim for. I am here to achieve, progress, and succeed. I am going to be a Search and Rescue technician for the Canadian Forces, no matter what or how long it takes. I am prepared for the long journey ahead, but not worried because i have a plan.

My full training plan is not complete yet, it is a work in progress. I have broken it down into 4 categories thus far.

Education

This is a very important aspect as Sar-Techs are incredibly intelligent and quick thinkers, they need to be. We are talking about the capability to be drop into an extreme, adverse environment and give emergency medical attention to potentially several injured people. Not only do you need to know a vast amount of medical protocols but also know about all kinds of unique scenarios (victim has allergies or is taking medication etc.) The smarter the Tech, the more useful the Tech.

My education plans;

• Emergency Care Paramedic. This will get me into the medical industry as well as give me the opportunity to do some ambulance ride along with a local hospital

• GoRuck Accent course. https://www.goruck.com/en/ascent This is going to expose me to experience I can’t get anywhere else! except of course the Sar-Tech phase course

• Goruck Beached course. https://www.goruck.com/en/beached This one is a little further down the road (due to course dates) but would be a huge asset as diving experience is hard to come by, especially combat diving

General Physical Preparedness (“GPP”)

The Sar selection process is wicked! They put candidates through anything they can to see how they react and how they preform. One would ask, “how the heck could someone train for that?” That is where GPP comes into play. GPP is being prepared for literally anything that comes your way. The 10 aspects of GPP are;

1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance: The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina: The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength: The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility: the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint
5. Power: The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed: The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination: The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility: The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance: The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy: The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

My Plan for General Physical Preparedness;

• Crossfit
• Sealfit

(more to come on these training plans)

Mental Toughness

You can be the most fit person at Pre-Sar course but without the mental drive and toughness, you’re screwed! This is a very hard skill to acquire… but not impossible. Doing long, heavy rucks or difficult, long workouts will help you exercises your mental toughness. Goruck has challenges you can take part of to see how your body reacts to difficult scenarios. I have taken part in a couple challenges and plan on doing more.

The Unknown 

By far the hardest component. My main training focus will be using Crossfit methods to prepare for unknown situations. You don’t want to not be able to climb a way just because yesterday was “arm day”

 

Day 1

This marks my official first blog and the beginning of an adventure. For all those who’ve decided to follow me, Thank you. Head over to my about page if you’re unsure who I am or why I am writing.

I’ll start with saying Happy New Year! 2014!

Let’s not fuck around with resolutions this year… By that I mean no rules of “don’t do x,” or “do x, but not y” etc. They don’t work! Don’t believe me? Look at the last couple years… Attain anything by making a new rule? Phat chance. Instead let’s resolve to be better! by 12/31/2014.. no matter what it takes!… and all it really takes is a simple recognition of what’s most important to you. This could be Lookin Good Naked (as my friend refers to it) or bettering some aspect of your life (work, school, the gym). To achieve this, simply make an attainable goal that will result in being better. Non of this “I will take the stairs everyday” or “I will eat better”… NO GOOD… If the “being better” is lookin good naked, make the goal “I will run X number of miles by March”. This is an attainable goal that will help result in being better. REMEMBER,  The key thing, is it being important to you, or else naturally you won’t give a damn.

As for me? I keep a continuous set of goals all the time, and make new ones as the previous are achieved.

That being said! I do have some goals I’ve wanted to start for a while now. What better time to start then today! Starting today I want to Complete 1, 000, 000 meters on a Concept2 by the end of the year.