I remember when I first saw videos online of people doing Crossfit. I remember distinctly it was a guy doing a “Fran” in his garage gym. (for those do not know “Fran” is 21-15-9 reps of Thrusters and Pullups for time). Of course when the man started the Pull up section I noticed, what seemed to me to be, a wild swinging motion. Well as a proud trainer at Globo Gym international, let’s just say, I was appalled. “how could this be a real thing” I thought, “that is nothing but blatant cheating!”
Well, being
the fitness video junkie that I am, I watched more and more functional fitness
videos and I quickly realized that all of the machines that I was used to using
were not the answer to true fitness, this style was. However, I still couldn’t
shake the idea of “kipping” as I come to later learn, it has to be people just
trying to cheat.
This idea of
“cheating” as I pondered on it can only come from the Globo gym mentality that
isolating every muscle group is the only way to be fit and look fit. The
problem with this method is, your muscles will never learn to work together
properly. This is called intermuscular co-ordination.
Back to the
point, as I really pondered over this subject of Kipping, I finally came to
realize that I had everything all wrong. Kipping isn’t cheating, Kipping is
just a regression, or at minimum it is a different exercise totally.
When
teaching our body to properly function properly in functional, body movement
style fitness, we all come across exercises that we cannot perform right away.
So, what do we do? Do we just give up? Heck no.
Find the proper regression, so that you can strengthen the muscles
involved in the exercise you desire to achieve. Do that until you are strong
enough get that 1st pull up or hand stand push up.
Sometimes
this regression can be as simple as lessening the weight, or maybe even jumping
from the ground using a little momentum to help you get over the bar. Either
way, you are continually getting better,
getting stronger and sometimes even adding in a cardiovascular element that you
hadn’t realize could be there. So why not? I am for anything that makes you get
fitter!
So, the next
time you have to go to Globo gym to get your WOD on and some meat head tells
you that you are cheating on pull ups, tell him that he is the one cheating
because he is obviously trying to bench press 1000 lbs and he can only do a
regression.
Be Safe,
Work Hard,
Repeat
Shane
