mobility, my new best friend.

So if you've been keeping up with my posts, you are more than aware that I have been struggling with some knee issues. Pin pointing the cause has been a long process of trial and error, but needless to say I have learned a hell of a lot about mobility and it's importance. We have determined that I do not squat correctly, I have been taking a wide stance with feet pointed outwardly. I took on this stance as I could not squat with a lesser stance and forward facing feet. But why can't I? Ah, and that's the question that needed answering.

So let me back up for a moment and start from the beginning. I first noticed my right knee pain during our big lifts sessions of back squats. For those unfamiliar with this term, it is when someone places a barbell on their shoulders behind their head and squats. I was squatting in the 120's when I began to notice the pain. I tried widening my stance and that helped for a while, but shortly after the pain would come again. I was sure to always roll out my Quads and ITB (IT band) after every class and ice my knees as soon as I got home. After a while none of that was helping and I began to avoid squatting all together. Then one day we had to do some lunges in class and I found out rather quickly that motion was not agreeing with my right knee at all. Now I avoided lunges. Before I knew it, I was not running, jumping, squatting, or doing lunges. This was getting out of hand!

I was getting my knees checked regularly with my chiropractor and staying on top of stretching and using my foam roller. But I knew more needed to be done. After several post class chat sessions with Joon, and on occasion Tony, I learned an immense amount of things about mobility and it's importance. I was referred to look into a book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, by Dr. Kelly Starrett. Within days Aaron and I purchased the book and began reading up on everything we could. Taking everything in that Joon would tell me into daily use on top of what I would learn from the book and from Kelly Starrett's MobilityWOD site and his YouTube channel.

So back to the question, why can't I squat correctly? It's not my knees that stop me from doing it. It's the fact that I have limited ROM (range of motion) in my ankles and my hips aren't fully open. In other words, I have a lot of tight muscles throughout my legs and my flexibility is limited. Am I done for? No. I can regain control and flexibility with a lot of hard work and investing in time for mobility work. Will I? You bet your sweet a** I will. In time I will be able to squat correctly if I am willing to put forth the effort. I have begun to squat again with complete focus on proper technique and no knee pain.

I can not stress how important mobility is, and it's not limited to those who CrossFit. If you are an athlete of any kind, or an active person who swims, bikes, runs, etc, you should really be doing yourself and your body a favor and begin mobility training so that you don't run into similar or worse complications down the road. Be sure to check out Dr. Kelly Starrett's pages, and book. The unfortunate part of becoming adults is that we no longer move the way we did as children. Many of us lose the flexibility and movement we once had. But certainly with determination and focus, I will regain something back.

This was taken from Pinterest.

breaking personal bests x2

Tonight was an incredible night for me, and well for many of my fellow CrossFitters too. The WOD for today was as follows:

1 RM (rep max) Deadlift
Then for time:
30 HSPU
40 Pull-ups
50 KB Swings, 53/35
60 Sit-ups
70 Burpees

This photo was found on Pinterest.

So first let me begin with the deadlift, which happens to be one of my favorite lifts. The last time we had to find our one rep max, which was about 3 or so months ago, I lifted 175#. I was pretty proud of myself and super excited. As we worked on all of our lifts, during the last month I noticed I began to struggle with the deadlift. I couldn't repeat my one rep max or even lift close to it. When a WOD asked for 155# deadlifts, it was a constant struggle. So when I heard we would be working on deadlifts today, I wasn't feeling very confident. I started out with a lighter weight- 85#. I slowly increased the weight until I made it to my previous one rep max, which felt surprisingly good. I bumped up to 185#, then 190#. I was feeling pretty pumped over this, but then my coach Joon said to me "you're still standing, it wasn't heavy enough." I momentarily thought he was crazy, especially when he suggested I try once more at 200#. I just smiled and stood there shocked. But then I figured what the hell, I can attempt it and what's the worse that can happen? I don't get it up. So as I loaded my barbell up with some more weight, I began to think about the things I read in the "Becoming a Supple Leopard" book by Dr. Kelly Starrett. He stated to torque your feet externally without actually turning your feet. As well as being reminded by Joon to drive with my heal. So I walked up to the barbell, got comfortable with my stance, lowered by butt down and grabbed a hold of the bar, and breathed. With much focus, I drove my body upward while many eyes were on me, and before grasping what I had just done I was already lowering the bar down. I just about lost my shit and jumped up and down with excitement! I went from my max being 175# only 3 or so months ago to and increase of 25#!! This definitely was the most amazing feeling. Many of my CrossFitters this evening got incredible one rep maxes, there was definitely something in the air tonight!

As for my other personal best, I managed for the first time to finish a WOD in it's entirety before everyone else in class. It's not necessarily a big thing, but for a chipper WOD like tonight, it's kind of a big deal. I tend to puss out and take many breaks when our workouts are body weight sorts. I don't know if it was the high off of having a rad PR or having flushed refined sugar out of my system, but I was feeling like superwoman. I busted through the workout with speed and a finish time of 14:14. It was certainly a good night...

finding dysfunctions and learning mobility

So I am six months into this crazy thing called CrossFit and I can honestly say I feel amazing! Now it doesn't mean it's not without some pain and discomfort. Sure in every class there is something that I may not be great or good at, so it only makes me want to push harder, try harder. The thing I have been learning along the way though, is that you learn very quickly the dysfunctions of your body. All the things you've been doing wrong will come into light as you begin to learn how to do correct movements. In the beginning its not so obvious, these dysfunction, and depending on how often or hard you workout you may never discover them. I've gone from a 2-3 time a week person to a 4-5 time a week person, as soon as that became consistent I started to feel many dysfunctions. First one popped up on my left elbow with some tendonitis. At first I believed it was from an old injury from several years back, was sure to ice it after lifting heavy and stretching it out. But the pain and inflammation never went away. This is when a coach brought to my attention that it's more than the joint, it's the muscles that attach to the area. A lightbulb went off, my triceps and pecs were exceptionally tight on that side. As soon as I started getting regular massage work and chiropractic adjustments done to the areas, things started to change. Don't get me wrong, it didn't magically go away and it is not likely to be gone anytime soon. My joints and muscles are having to learn whats right and whats wrong, I'm having to watch my movements as I lift heavy weights above my head. I can always tell when I used bad form, the area around my elbow will begin to hurt. It's better though, and I'm still learning.

The second dysfunction that popped up was my knees, primarily the right one. Now I explained this one away with having had torn ligaments in my right ankle 3 or so years ago. Figuring things are tight and that is probably why I am feeling it in my knee. But as time progressed and the left knee began to bother me as well, I sought out help. The collective minds have given me an array of things to work on, but each one have come to the same conclusion. I have a lot strengthening to do for adductors, gluteus, and hamstrings, as well as a lot of tight fascia that needs to be worked out. But the biggest thing that has come into play is learning that I need to start all over with my squats. Because from the get go I was unable to do a squat with my feet facing forward, I had started to do them with my toes slightly facing outward. It didn't become a problem until I began doing heavier back squats. Now doing a simple air squat or lunge is absolutely painful. 

One of my coaches brought up a book to Aaron and I to look into. Aaron had heard about this book a while back and read up on it. But after much conversation with Joon, we decided to purchase the book, "Becoming a Supple Leopard" by Dr. Kelly Starrett. It's highly recommended for anyone who is heavy into working out and/or sports activity. It teaches you proper mobility. We've only just started reading it but have already put much of it to good use. Tonight I began the process of properly doing squats with the assistance of a resistance band to hold onto. I have a lot of work to do with my legs, as they get more toned and stronger, they'll need more rehab. But I am certain that all my hard work now will pay off later down the road. 

What is something you do for mobility?