Crossfit Hillsdale Blogposts

Technique Triumphs

March 3, 2024

Want to be move faster? Improve your technique.

Want to lift heavier weights? Improve your technique.

Want to look cooler while you lift? Improve your technique.

How does good technique make you faster? Spend the time to trim off excess movement and you will be faster. Trimming off excess movement is efficiency, which is just another word for technique.

How does good technique help you lift heavier? If you understand how to position your body relative to the weight so that you can exert more leverage, you will be able to lift heavier weight. Leverage is just another word for technique.

How does good technique make you look cooler? Humans know good movement when we see it. We are all drawn to the beauty of a well executed athletic movement. A well executed athletic movement is just another way of describing technique.

So yes, technique triumphs. Don’t just yell louder as you do thrusters (unless that’s improving your technique), get the bar into a good rack position and transfer the power of your legs into the press.

All the Joints, All at Once.

October 27, 2023

The overhead squat, like all the movements we do in CrossFit, is a diagnostic tool. The purpose of the doing the motion is to see where we need work.

Is it difficult to keep the bar in the correct position? Your shoulders or mid back might need some mobility work. Is it difficult to keep your heels on the ground? Your ankles might required some attention. Do your wrists feel like they’re going to implode? Take some weight off the bar and then consider a regimen of wrist strengthening and mobility.

Doing more reps and weight is fun. Strive to increase load and volume. Prior to that, technique is essential. If the point is a lifetime of healthy movement (and I think that is the point) then don’t race to put on weight and ignore all the diagnostic information that the overhead squat provides.

All the Programming

November 27, 2022

If you ever have a desire to see any of our CrossFit programming for the last 3 years, it’s right here. Help yourself.

Now, the question arises, why would you want to look at the programming?

First, I strongly advise against looking at it before you come to class. That’s the kind of thing that makes people cherry pick workouts (come to the ones they like and avoid the stuff they don’t like.)

Second, if you’re stuck in your garage gym and you need a workout, our programming is right there for you to use. If you’re in a hotel and looking for workouts that don’t need much equipment, the corona virus programming stuff doesn’t have much in the way of equipment requirements.

Third, if you’re thinking about joining the gym, maybe seeing how we programming is something that might tip your hand one way or the other.

Fourth, hedgehogs. Maybe there are other reasons. If so, let us know.

Stringing Together Hang Power Cleans

March 4, 2022
Stringing together hang power cleans for CrossFit

If you find yourself doing a workout that calls for hang power cleans or hang power snatches, check out the downward path of your barbell. Is it close to your body? Does it glide smoothly back down to the hang position?

Odds are pretty high that if you’ve never drilled multiple reps of your hang movements with smoothness in mind, you’re probably curving the bar away from yourself on the way down, smacking your thighs, and wasting precious seconds.

Some folks will claim that the bar is too heavy for them to have a smooth downward bar path. My polite answer is that if you can’t achieve a smooth downward bar path, then the weight needs to drop down until you can.

Watch the video. Get smooth.

Healthy Hamstrings

January 15, 2022

All those squats, kicks, and triangles can leave the hamstrings haggard and the back bruised. How to cope? Make a plan. Here’s mine, and you’re welcome to steal it wholesale, although I really do recommend amending it to fit your own needs:

Repeat the following stretches twice a day, holding each one for 30 seconds: Child’s pose, up dog, standing forward bend. I’m currently on month number two, and my back already feels better. Let me know how it goes for you.

Low back and hamstring mobility