top of page

Virtuosity

Hey Vic City,

In CrossFit we often measure our progress with times or weights on the leaderboard. Although those are great indicators of improvement, there are additional ways to look at improvements of fitness. For a rep to count in you need to travel from point A to point B. For a pull-up, you need to start from a straight arm position (point A), and have your chin pass over the height of the bar (point B), however, what happens in between doesn’t matter… Or does it?

If your only interest is having the top score on the leaderboard, then no, it probably isn’t that important. Since only about 0.01% of CrossFitters are getting paid to exercise, our only interest shouldn’t be the top of the leaderboard. We should be worried about what happens between A and B.

The idea of being virtuosity is doing the common, uncommonly well. In CrossFit, movements like squats and pull-ups are very common, it should be our goal to chase the idea of having virtuous movement in all that we do.

To improve our virtuosity, it starts with caring about how we move, and holding ourselves to a higher standard than just getting credit for a rep. We need to put an effort into the BASIC movements and positions in CrossFit to develop a base for higher skill, and higher strength movements.

Almost everyone has goals to hit a muscle-up, a handstand push-up, a 1.5 bodyweight back squat, or another high level skill or strength movement that is currently beyond their capacity. The majority of these goals are worked on with only the end movement in mind, rarely is perfection worked on in basic level skills.

Spend more time doing the common, uncommonly well. Work on planks, push-ups, ring row, air squats with the goal being to move as well as possible. Rarely, if ever, do you find someone that can hit a muscle-up, or a heavy back squat while having a bad push-up, pull-up, or air squat. You’ll also probably noticed that the athletes with the higher level skills, are also the best at the lower level ones as well.

Take pride in how you move. At the end of the day(s), all we will be left with is our body and the effects of how we moved throughout our day(s).

Adam

 

Training Wednesday - Thursday

Warm-up: 3 rounds - 6 Samson Lunge, 12 Glute March, 18 Single Skip

Skill: Back Squat & High Box Jumps alternating EMOM (10 minutes)

Even Minutes - Back Squat, 6, 4, 4, 2, 2

Odd Minutes - Box Jumps, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

WOD: Assault Pyramid

This workout is done in a team of 3 people, and you'll have to be quick at switching off the bike! Your score will be your team's total calorie count at the end of the workout.

Rx: In a team of three, each person does 15 sec bike, then each person does 30 sec bike and 45 sec bike. Do this cycle for 4 rounds, dropping back to 15 sec bursts after the 45s! (24 min)

bottom of page