by WenOut Staff
Sports of all kinds require a base level of fitness to perform well. With the extremely wide range of sports to play in the Wenatchee Valley, it is best to keep your training broad, general, and all inclusive. Jenny Colella, who was a head coach at CrossFit Cashmere, shares tips that will keep you honed and ready for all those sports you enjoy.
Training Tip #1
Learn the fundamental movement of the Squat. Why the Squat? The squat is essential to your well-being. The squat can both greatly improve your athleticism and keep your hips, back, and knees
sound and functioning in your senior years.
Not only is the squat not detrimental to the knees it is remarkably rehabilitative of cranky, damaged, or delicate knees. In fact, if you do not squat, your knees are not healthy regardless of how free of pain or discomfort you are. This is equally true of the hips and back.
The squat is no more an invention of a coach or trainer than is the hiccup or sneeze. It is a vital, natural, functional, component of your being.
Squat Clinic 101:
Step 1: Start by placing your feet just wider than hip width apart, with your weight on your heels and chest up.
Step 2: Lower yourself down keeping your knees in line with your toes until the crease of your hip is in line with your knee. (see photos)
Step 3: Return to a standing position.
Step 4: Repeat as many times as desired.
Step 5: Maintain good form throughout all repetitions. Stop if you can’t maintain proper form.
Example Bodyweight workout:
(Bottom To Bottom Tabata Squats)
For 20 seconds, perform as many air squats as possible, then for 10 seconds hold in the bottom position (see photos). That is 1 interval. Repeat this 8 times. This takes a total of 4 minutes and is a great way to condition the legs and cardiovascular system.
World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:
■ Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
■ Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.
■ Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.
■ Regularly learn and play new sports.
Good Form
Whether you are young, old, pregnant, injured, a top athlete or a frefighter, CrossFit affects your fitness level quickly. CrossFit stresses exercising with intensity and working multiple joints at the same time. The workouts don’t artificially isolate one joint or muscle group but improve the functional strength and movements needed for everyday life and for the sports we love.
CrossFit is a worldwide program that specializes in NOT specializing. The goal is to be great in all areas of fitness: muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, speed, stamina, agility, balance, flexibility, accuracy and coordination.
Bad Form
For more info check out www.crossfit.com and http://games2010.crossfit.com/
This article was originally posted on 10/24/10.
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