by Dallas Hartwig, PT, MS
client (klī’ənt)
–noun
1. A person or group that uses professional advice or services
2. A person who is receiving benefits, services, etc; a customer
patient (pā-shənt)
–noun
1. A person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment
While treating physical therapy patients and training fitness clients, I find myself using similar approaches to teach people how to move. In the PT clinic, performing a movement, exercise, or stretch with correct technique can mean the difference between successful rehabilitation and exacerbation of symptoms, between progress and frustration. I see the same potential outcomes when coaching in the gym. Performing exercises properly and paying attention to the subtleties of the movement will determine whether my client sees an increase in physical capacity, or is plagued by injury (now, or in the future) as the result of the reinforcement of incorrect and unsafe motor patterns. As a coach, I’ve generally been known as a stickler for technique – just ask Melissa, who has been held back during many a session to focus on form before moving up in weight. But given my professional experience, I’d rather err on the side of exceptional technique than prioritize maximal intensity at the expense of quality of movement.
We recently talked about the overuse of “sexy met-cons” in CrossFit gyms, but there’s a related issue when discussing high-intensity workouts. That issue is the important role that form plays in your athletic development. The “intensity is king” mantra preached at CrossFit’s Level One certifications is, in my opinion, used as a rationale (or an excuse) to train harder, but not necessarily smarter. Haven’t yet been to a Level 1? Here’s an excerpt, based on Melissa’s (and other attendees’) notes:
According to Pat Sherwood (who led the discussion on “intensity” at Melissa’s L1 in January 2009), “Unsafe is unacceptable, but so is perfect form.” The instructor explained, “If you’re doing high-rep deadlifts and your back starts to round, that’s unsafe and unacceptable. But if you’re doing that same set of deadlifts with perfect form on every rep, that’s also unacceptable. You’ve either gone too light (in weight), or you’re not working hard enough.” Sherwood explained that the ideal is referred to as ‘CrossFit slop’.” The ‘slop’ ideal is often cited within the CrossFit community as 20% form degradation (compared to 100% perfect form). According to CrossFit theory, that’s the optimal balance of effort and safety. “That’s where intensity lives,” Sherwood said. “Technique has to be good enough to increase intensity, but you should never strive for perfect form.”
And here’s where I take issue with this concept of “intensity is king.” In my experience, the 20% ‘slop’ advocated by CrossFit often devolves into a 50% slop in practical application, especially with longer length, high-rep met-cons. (Lighter movements, like those usually prescribed in a chipper workout, can almost always be completed any which way, even with form that makes your eyes bleed.) I’ve seen patellar tendonitis from high-volume air squats, strained shoulders from shoddy thruster technique, and tweaked lumbar spines from high rep deadlifts pulled with careless form, all driven by the pursuit of “intensity”. Now, I like job security as much as the next guy, but what I’m seeing in my CrossFitting patients is bordering on the ridiculous.
As an example, I consulted with a local CrossFitter on her squat form a few months ago. Her technique was seriously lacking, due primarily to a lack of skill work and quality practice. She exhibited a severely rounded back, weight on the balls of her feet – heels off the ground, even! – and poor control of depth and speed. It was not pretty, nor was it safe. At the time, I stressed the importance of improving her squat technique and general strength before continuing to push hard on long, high-rep met-cons.
She recently contacted me for physical therapy advice, saying her knees had begun to hurt. I asked about her last workout, and she replied proudly, “I did 1,000 squats for time”. One. Thousand. Squats… I couldn’t make this stuff up, people. I can’t imagine how her fitness actually improved during that workout – but she did successfully reinforce sub-standard technique with 1,000 (!) repetitions of a critical foundational movement. And yet she was proud of being the girl that keeps her intensity really high, “ripping it up” at the gym… even though she was hurt. At this time, I’d like to propose a spin-off of Jeff Martone’s famous quote, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you’d better be tough.” Try this, CrossFitters: “You’re not tough enough to be that dumb.”
At the Whole9, 20% slop isn’t good enough. As Melissa will tell you, you don’t get to move up in weight – or go faster – unless your form is really, truly solid. (I use my “A-minus” grade as a subjective criteria – not perfect, but pretty darn good). In addition, your “max effort” pulls will not count here if they’re hideous. And don’t give me the “in the real world, it doesn’t have to look pretty” argument, either. Sure, I’ve seen 500 pound deadlifts PRs that look like question marks… but those strong dudes didn’t get that way by training with that technique. That degradation in form is acceptable when it matters, like lifting a fallen tree off a family member, carrying an injured comrade out of harm’s way, or even non-emergency, one-time situations like competing in a lifting meet. But folks, your everyday CrossFit workout is not that time. Imperfect form in the desperation of an emergency or during a real-world, functional “test” does not justify that level of form degradation during your training.
When we train, our goal is to build the strength, practice good technique, and reinforce only proper movement patterns. And despite what your ego may be telling you (go heavier, tough it out, rip it up), I assure you that our approach will serve you well when it’s time to pull a max effort clean, some fast met-con deadlifts or give Grace a go. Your technique will be solid, your times will improve and you’ll walk away from the gym stronger and fitter, instead of broken and hurting. Still choose to operate with that 20% margin of “CrossFit slop”? You can certainly work harder, produce more power, and maybe even be fitter than me with that approach. But you’re sure as hell going to be injured more often too. I have yet to hear a patient tell me, “Well, my shoulder has been hurting pretty bad for the last 3 weeks, but I sure am glad I cut 7 seconds off my Fran time.” How hard can you train when you’re All Banged Up? I’ll answer that for you, from personal experience – not hard enough to maintain the well-rounded fitness we seek.
Personally, I’d rather continue working with (smart, hard working) training clients instead of (all banged up, but my ego’s still intact) patients. But ultimately, client or patient… it’s your choice. Here’s my card, one way or the other.
*Photo credit: That’s Kelly Starrett, physical therapist and founder of San Francisco CF, demonstrating common examples of squat “faults” at an L1 cert in Flagstaff, AZ.
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Great article. So important.
Fantastic articlle Dallas. I watched someone at the gym we train at tonight warming up and his air squats were dubious to say the least, well above parallel, chest down, weight on balls of feet! Not good when the workout consists of WBS, KBS and Pull ups 22 reps * 3 rounds.
Loading that squat with a 20lb medicine ball is a recipe for disaster!
@Wade: Great to see you here. Thanks for dropping in, as always. Hope your training is going well!
@Graham/Lorraine: Thanks for the comment. I know from personal experience, it can be hard to rein yourself in when you’re gunning to put more weight on the bar (or in this case, the ball?)… but the extra training and practice is one hundred percent worth it in the long run. (And don’t we all want our fitness to take us through the long run?)
Melissa
Thanks for this and other articles on when to dial it back and putting integrity before intensity. After some time off, it’s hard not to listen to my ego telling me to go for what I *used* to be able to do. Whenever I get too worked up about it, I re-read some of your guys’ stuff for a reality check.
Great article. I’m generally a big form nazi with those I train, but I think it’s important to be that way. Form first, intensity second.
Great article. I love to see you pushing form and helping people realize that intensity and form go together and are not mutually exclusive.
I have been reading all forms of this blog over the last few months (mainly because I am from NH and miss home while I am stationed in TX) and have really enjoyed all the advice. I have gone paleo, started including buy ins and cash outs in my training and started lifting heavy again (with good form of course) because of the inspiration and real world writing you guys have on the site. Thanks for everything and if you guys start a box in the next couple years I will be there when I retire from the AF.
Kevin
Excellent article, Dallas.
“Try this, CrossFitters: ‘You’re not tough enough to be that dumb.'”
*LOL* Funny, but true!
@Becky: Thanks for the note. I’m glad our stuff resonates with you!
@Paul: We agree, of course, but we recognize it’s only one theory. I’m surprised that we haven’t heard from any dissenters yet. I’m sure they are out there (and probably have better Fran times than me).
@Gant: Nice to see you here, as always.
@Jon: We *love* that Martone quote. And we really hope ALL our clients – CrossFitters or not – are smart enough to know better than to push through a workout without paying attention to safety and technique. There’s a great quote that says (paraphrasing) if you train so “hard” in the gym that you can’t come back the next day, you’ve completely missed the point. Amen to that.
Super article. Everyday I think more and more that CFers introduced that 20% as a minimum rather than a maximum.
Justin
Solid post, Dallas. My level 1 was over 3 years ago, and I don’t recall anything about this “20% slop” being taught, and I certainly won’t be encouraging that for my clients. It’s good to see that there are those burning the candle for form first, then intensity.
Great post, Dallas. My own scores have definitely suffered in metcons from being anal about form, but I’m more proud to have the best ROM/form in the gym during a workout than the fastest time. And I’m really happy when I’m fastest and best form – alas, that doesn’t happen very often – being a big guy, fast is a long road :)
I agree, too many ppl are focused on being fast and sacrifice their form. You *can* be just as intense as the other guy and keep good form, it’ll just be a little slower! Thanks for calling out the L1 cert and setting a higher bar – this is what we need to keep CF high quality.
So timely! I was training one of my best at the globo tonight(yes some of us work at globos and still train people right) We were doing 3×5 front squats and while resting a plenty we were having an eye contact convo about the dangerous and overloaded deads going on, on both sides of us. My client knows how I feel about subpar tech and he smiled and asked me why I was holding my breath…..
I inherirted a client last month from another trainer who proudly informed me she could squat 135. I carefully let her do the oly bar where she proceeded to do a set of 45×0. Still fixing her air squat this week.
Don’t forget impingement from subbing 100 sdhp’s for a 1000meter row….GENIUS!!!
Totally agree with everything you said! My Level 1 Cert. was in 2006 and I felt that what they taught us then was right along the lines of what you wrote. I recently read that judging standards at our sectionals were basically “full range of motion, no matter how ugly.” I can’t support that!
@Jason,
Nice work on setting aside the need to maximize your WOD “scores” at the expense of quality. After all, do we exercise to get fitter, or to look better on paper (or white board)? Thanks for the comment.
@Robbie,
I’m glad to hear you mention SDHPs, because as a PT, I’ve had several patients with acute shoulder impingement caused by poorly performed SDHP or upright rows, neither of which have nearly enough benefit to outweigh the significant risk of injury associated with them. At the Whole9, we don’t teach med ball cleans or SDHPs, and we never will. Keep up the solid, high-quality work.
I appreciate you emphasizing form. There were two things that made me uncomfortable during my L1, the “crossfit slop” and the “McD’s quarter pounder qualifies as a zone meal”. Shivers.
Very well said Dallas.
I’ve had to change my approach to my training this year due to injuries and getting “Derailed” in the fall. I’m starting to look at the clock the same way I look at the GHD sit-up. A fantastic tool that has a purpose, but if abused will more than likely half kill you.
At the CF Kids cert the concept that “Movement is king!” is drilled into your head all weekend. And when you see what Jeff Martin has done with his boys by enforcing this first, then intensity, it’s obvious elite levels can certainly been hit, safely, and without slop.
Wonderful site.
Melissa or Dallas – why is it that you do not teach the medball clean? If you replied to this before, I am sorry.
Thank you for the wonderful work.
“Y”
@Y,
Good question. I had a genuine, productive discussion with Todd Widman (one of the trainers at my Level 1, and a really great guy, for the record) about the med ball clean and SDHP as suboptimal movements, and my case against the MBC was/is this: while it allows new CrossFitters (and large-group class participants) an introduction to an explosive movement such as the clean in a safe, non-threatening way, the biomechanical and neurological activation patterns don’t really transfer over to a more heavily-loaded (and thus higher-powered) “true” clean with a barbell or other heavy object. Because of the wider stance, inside-the-knees hand position, awkward rack position due to the diameter of the Dynamax med balls, and most importantly, the strange (and unique to the MBC) arm/shoulder muscular activation that requires you to squeeze the ball between your hands in front of your body (using your pecs and lats, primarily), I see more differences than similarities between the MBC and a barbell clean. I’d rather teach a sound (barbell) front squat and deadlift, and use Coach Burgener or Greg Everett’s coaching progression to progress to cleans. Glassman states in his CFJ article on the med ball clean, “With several weeks practice, a group will go from “spastic” to a precision medicine ball drill team in perfect synch. In fact, that is how we conduct the training effort.” That is not how we think at the Whole9, nor how we train clients. There are plenty of other movements to choose from that are relatively light, large ROM, hip-driven movements for metcon workouts. To me, the med ball clean isn’t very valuable as a training movement. But that’s just my opinion. Hope this answers your (good) question.
Dallas
Dallas,
Thanks so much for this article! After spending most of the last 18 years working in hospital and rehab settings with the original goal of being a physical therapist, most of my personal training clients were people who came to me severely deconditioned, already banged up, or usually both. It would have been absolutely irresponsible of me to allow them to ignore proper mechanics for the sake of intensity. Having had arthritis in my knee since age 19, I know what poor form can do, especially if it’s repetitive. I just completed my Level 1 yesterday, and I have to say that there were definitely competing messages given. Initially we were told proper mechanics 1st, then consistency of proper movement, and after the first two are achieved introduce intensity. But then we had the lecture about intensity, and though the term “20% slop” was not used I definitely recognized the lecture from the Crossfit videos. We were told, “if you’re not injuring someone in your program, then you’re program’s not effective. ….But we’re NOT telling you to go out and injure people!” OK, is it me, or is that a little confusing? Proper warm up, cool down, stretching, and recovery techniques were not discussed at all, neither was avoiding overtraining, except to warn against rhabdo. Here’s the thing, the seminar was at Fort Hood, where the Army is trying to launch “resiliency training” to better prepare their troops for combat and ensure that they are healthier as a whole. I emailed Todd Widman to give my critique of the seminar. I asked him what good it would do those soldiers to be injuring one another in training, when a little bit of prehab and prevention could have ensured much more effective training that can be sustained much later in life. Besides, who wasn’t sweating trying to make their reps perfect during those PVC drills at the seminar? Working consciously to keep perfect form over and over again is hard, and I find a lot of intensity in that. Screw power output as the end all, be all! Maybe I’m just not hardcore enough or dedicated enough to be a “true” Crossfitter, but I do know that stupid hurts.
Melissa and Dallas,
You seem to be challenging the one true way of x-fit, and I wonder how the X-fit leadership has responded to your article.
@ Mark,
Mark, maybe our L1’s were different. They didn’t teach us that the McD’s quarter pounder was a “Zone Meal”. The used it as and educational tool in regards to what pre-concieved notions of “healthy food” are vs. reality. I think it was intended to shock people or open their eyes to some things they might not be aware of. Do I think a quarter pounder is nutritional….not at all. I don’t think they do either. They never said “If you’re a Zone guy, eat McDonalds” But like I said, our L1’s could have been different.
Hey Dallas,
as my stupidity knows no bounds, I forgot to check my ego at the door and lifted a bit more than I should have. Long story short, I decided to deadlift post H1N1 and subsequent cold( read: 1 1/2 month hiatus) The little voice in my head said stop at 295 but I pulled a 1 at 315 and on my way down my core just gave out for 2secs and I knew I pinched something. I HAD (thanks to you and Melissa for reminding me that the past don’t mean nothin’ post layover) a 430 deadlift and was in too much of a hurry to get back up there. Classic, right?
My girlfriend is an athletic therapy student, so as per her advice, I’ve been ice massaging about 3x/day, trying not to stay immobile for too long lest the stifness and pain remind me of my zealous mistake. Cut out dairy ( don’t eat grains/legumes anyway) except for some organic pastures butter when cooking eggs (I’m told there’s some good CLA in there) and popping fish pills instead of vitamin I. is there anything else I should do? Believe me, I’ve learned my lesson.
Thanks in advance,
Roelant
@Roelant,
Because I’ve seen SO many PT patients with spinal injuries, I am pretty paranoid and protective of my spine. So… I hurt other body parts instead. Welcome to the Stupid Club.
But to get to your question, I’ll throw down the requisite “this is not medical advice, just general educational information” disclaimer, and off we go. Without actually doing an evaluation of your back (and therefore having no information about what specific structures are damaged), I’ll say that some good rest days, extra-good nutrition, active recovery techniques, ice (like you’re already doing), and then some MORE extra rest days is the best way to deal with stuff like this. If it’s not better in a couple weeks, talk to your doc about a PT referral, and seek out a local PT that has experience working with LOTS of good athletes. Lucky for you, I just wrote an article for the 9 Blog (that you might have already read) called “9 things to do when you’re All Banged Up” that addresses your situation. I’d agree with everything you’re already doing except the eggs, which in large-ish quantities might contribute to your systemic inflammation because of the high arachidonic acid content and acidifying effect on your body. That’s conditional on a bunch of things including how the rest of your diet looks and where you’re sourcing those eggs, but for simplicity, cut back on ’em for a few weeks. Hit me back in a couple weeks if you’re not >50% better. Good healing luck,
Dallas
@Dallas,
oh yea, I forgot to specify. I use a 4:1 ratio of egg white to whole egg. I’ll cut back on them a bit anyways. I’ve got some london broil with my name on it for breakfast (lean, of course)
thanks,
Roelant
The 80/20 idea of technique/form makes perfect sense for those experienced athletes with perfect form.
How many of those do you know?
Wonderful article! I just became a fan on Facebook and am really enjoying your blog posts.
@Struck: Always a pleasure to see you here. And you’re right – I don’t know many of those, myself and Dallas included. Hope things in VA are rockin’.
@Jaye: Thanks for dropping in, and for Fanning us! I’m not going to do that annoying “Fan Me!” blast on Facebook, but it’s great that people are doing it on their own.
“Perfect practice makes perfect.”
Dallas,
Is that you in the front row watching Kelly’s squat technique and are you rolling your eyes?
Kathy
Kathy,
Ha. If I actually saw someone demonstrating a squat like that, my eyes might have rolled so far back in my head that they might have gotten stuck there… ;) Have you read any of Kelly’s (Starrett) stuff? Good, relevant info for hard-training folks. You can see what we’re up to on Whole9’s FB page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whole9/306949866553 … We’re putting on a nutrition workshop at CrossFit Boston on July 31st at 9AM, and you’re welcome to attend. The registration link is here: http://crossfitboston.squarespace.com/home/2010/7/31/upcoming-events-announcements.html … How ARE you these days, anyway? Hit me at the email address listed at the top of the sidebar. Hope to hear from you soon!
Dallas
I just revisited this article and posted it on my Facebook page after attending Tucker’s Gymnastics cert this weekend. I also did Rip’s SS cert last month, and both of those experiences only reinforced what I have seen and felt abou CrossFit time and time again. I wish more people would ask themselves what their TRUE GOAL is? Is it really a faster Fran time? Is it worth kipping the shit out of a movement that you can’t do correctly to begin with just for that faster time? What is 20% slop when your movement is slop to begin with? When your coach’s movement is slop?
Tamara,
All good questions, and ones that most people don’t spend enough time asking themselves.