Infinite Variation

This past weekend I was having a conversation with a former athlete of mine, also a friend and coincidentally the jumps coach for Williams College track team. The focus of our conversation was the lingering (and false) perspective in the fitness and athletic world that constantly varied, functional fitness performed at high intensity (CVFMHI, ehem, CrossFit) and more specifically that the kipping and by association butterfly pull up are inherently dangerous.

To some extent, this article just doesn’t need to be written. There are fossilized brains out there that keep regurgitating an outsider’s opinion, never having participated in a CrossFit workout or put any real study into the body of work that is CrossFit methodology, CrossFit coaching and CrossFit movement. These brains are cemented shut, they know what they know to be true regardless of new information. To be fair, there are plenty of people inside the world of CrossFit who have similarly fossilized brains, they just turned to stone in a different and more recent era.

Two variations of a pull up.

Moving towards the actual discussion of movement, I want to preface with a few thoughts. First, I’m a fitness coach and movement practitioner by trade and not by academic study. I don’t have a degree in exercise science, biology or kinesiology. I do have a body of knowledge that I’ve assembled from reading books, studying video, taking seminars and coaching hundreds of individuals with various athletic and non-athletic backgrounds. I also have the unique insight of someone who studied artistic anatomy in college with a serious focus on the underlying skeletal and muscular and soft-tissue structures. I considered listing the big names that I follow in the fitness world but I’d rather put the reader in a position of having to buy what I say based on my own words than nodding their heads and thinking “Yes, I like all those people too.”

The thing that frustrates me most with the gut check reaction of saying “kipping pull ups aren’t pull ups and they aren’t hard” is usually that the person saying so hasn’t done a single proficient kipping pull up and certainly not a set to near-failure. The second thing that frustrates me is that usually, the same person would happily agree that any of the following variations of deadlift are in fact a deadlift: conventional, straight leg, stiff leg, romanian, single leg, etc. If the load moves from floor to hips, most fitness professionals are happy to call it a deadlift. If the body moves from below a bar, to above a bar, why not call it in whatever variation it is, a pull up?

Its a given that not all individuals are capable of performing all movements safely. Specific strength, mobility and control are prerequisites for any variation of deadlift and specific immobility, weakness and dysfunction could increase the risk of injury. The same statement is true of any variation of pull up, strict, kipping, wide grip, neutral grip, etc.

I still don’t understand the hang up with the kipping pull up. If the individual performing the movement has the strength, mobility and skill to perform it, its an ass-kicker of an exercise, taxing to grip, biceps, lats and in high reps, the lungs and heart.

There are infinite variations to any movement and the degree of safety with which one can perform the movement depends on that individual’s abilities and limitations and the value of that movement in a training program depends on their goals.

Another consistent criticism of CVFMHI is the performance of movements in a state of fatigue. I can’t think of a single (useful) training program that doesn’t involve training in some state of fatigue. To gain strength, strength endurance, speed endurance, power endurance or size for its own sake or for sport, requires repeating movements under fatigue. Sprint intervals for track, distance running, sets to failure, sets to near failure, practicing layups at the end of a practice, its all movement in a state of fatigue designed to get the body and the mind accustomed to performing under pressure or to force physical adaptations to occur.

To be continued...

But I want it now.

So much noise in the fitness landscape.

Being a coach is incredibly rewarding. You get to lead people through growth, help them face their fears and overcome challenges. In the fitness world, coaching is simplified in that progress is so easy to measure. There are a ton of metrics by which fitness can be measured, fat loss, lean mass gain and performance increases. At the same time, there are so many variables that contribute to a person’s fitness or, conversely, their illness, sleep, nutrition, stress management. Any of those variables can make it hard to see what is causing or obstructing change.

One of the frustrating aspects of being a fitness coach is coming up against all the pervasive myths that occupy popular culture’s perception of what it takes to become fit and more importantly, what it takes to stay fit. One commonly held view of fitness is that you can obtain it in 6-8 weeks and then keep it for a lifetime. It seems like there is no end to the barrage of messages that state you can have “6-pack abs in 8 weeks” or “lose 20lbs in 6 weeks”. While both of these are entirely possible achievements (depending on your starting point), the unasked, unevaluated questions are “Can you keep your 6-pack abs or keep that 20lbs off for 8 weeks, 6 months, 6 years or for the rest of your life?”

Fitness requires daily work, week after week, year round.

In general, I see most people resisting change. Even as they stand in front of me saying they’ve got 20# to lose or they want to complete a half marathon, they’ll find any and every reason to put off making the actual change. “Its so expensive” and “Your schedule doesn’t work for me”.

Following the flinching hesitation, I find that it’s generally easy for people to make a change, even if its a big one. The initial enthusiasm for a new routine and the possibility for growth can motivate just about anyone for a few weeks or a couple months. After that enthusiasm wears off, even if they’ve had some success and lost some weight or gotten a little stronger the burden of maintaining a regular training schedule, the burden of forming a real habit starts to grow and this is where those pervasive messages in popular culture start to do a real disservice to to the fitness industry and even our obese nation as a whole. “I thought I’d have lost more weight by now” “Its already been a month and I don’t see any change”

There are so many quotes that come to mind here “Fitness is a journey to a goal on a distant horizon that I’ll never reach” that portray the dedication to actually become and stay fit. The reality is that if you want fitness, it won’t be something that you do today, tomorrow or for the next 6 weeks. Its something you will do every week for the rest of your life or...until you decide you want to stop being fit.

To be continued...