by Dan Williams | Mar 12, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise, Exercise Philosophies, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Psychology
Let me preface this article. In CrossFit, for everyone but the 99th percentile, health > performance. This is never, and should never be, in doubt (read: How CrossFit Helps Combat the 19 Major Causes of Premature Death and Disability). So as you’re reading...
by Dan Williams | Feb 28, 2016 | Blogs, Flexibility, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation
The explosion of performance based fitness has brought with it the popularisation of recovery. Foam rollers and trigger point balls are no longer confined to yoga and pilates studios, or to the consult rooms of physiotherapists. It’s now more unusual to find a gym...
by Dan Williams | Feb 21, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise Philosophies, Health, Improving Athletic Performance
It’s time to stop attacking non CrossFitters. Barely a week goes by when I don’t see social media slamming of perceived ‘inferior’ forms of exercise and their practitioners. All too often this slamming is from CrossFitters – worse still,...
by Dan Williams | Feb 16, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Psychology
The benefit of your training lies not in the result you get, but in the effort it took to get there. Improvement through physiological change isn’t driven by how much you lift, but by how difficult it was to make that lift. Not by the time or rounds you got, but...
by Dan Williams | Jan 21, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Flexibility, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation
‘Mobility’ is in vogue. Both the word, and the practice. All the cool kids are ‘mobilising’. But first let’s define the term, because I fear it has become a blanket term for the pre- and post- exercise routines that all individuals should complete around their...
by Dan Williams | Jan 19, 2016 | Biomechanics, Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation
As coaches and judges, we’re really good at policing the range of movements. We define a movement by its start and end point. Hip crease below the knee, chin over bar, arms locked overhead. These attributes are important, they allow us to define movement. But...
by Dan Williams | Jan 19, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise, Improving Athletic Performance, Psychology
Life is a series of choices, a series of decisions. I’ve noticed that’s it’s usually the least favourable decision that leads to the most favourable outcome. Decision A is very easy to make. It requires no great work or dedication (usually just a...
by Dan Williams | Jan 19, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise, Flexibility, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation
The importance of ankle mobility is paramount in the squat – in fact, any closed chain movement where the foot is in contact with the ground. Dorsi-flexion of the ankle (ie: lifting the ball of the foot with the heel in contact with the ground) is perhaps the...
by Dan Williams | Jan 19, 2016 | Blogs, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation
One of my university lecturers took the controversial view that every person who injures themselves should have a cross carved into their arm by a scalpel. The idea being, when the cross has healed, so has the underlying injury. The problem is, if an injury is soft...
by Dan Williams | Jan 19, 2016 | Blogs, CrossFit, Exercise, Health, Improving Athletic Performance, Musculo-skeletal Rehabilitation, Programming
Competitiive CrossFitters (or at least those who prioritise and commit to training) love to work hard. In the most part, this hard work has a perfect positive correlation with rate of return (increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains). There becomes...
