Head Trainer Jake Mannion has this to say about the New Year.

The new year is here, and as much as you, our clients, work to make and fulfill resolutions, we’re doing the same as your coaches and trainers. Our resolution? Well, it’s the perfect time to re-evaluate our standards, and that is exactly what we’re doing. Starting now you’ll see a reinvigorated attitude towards movement standards. It isn’t to be mean and tedious; it’s to make you guys better. Attention to detail goes a long way to getting you where you want to be as an athlete. Remember, the goal isn’t today or tomorrow, but rather what your numbers and body will look like six months to a year from now.

A perfect example of our new attitude was on show with last week’s Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3 workout. The emphasis was on neutral spine. Sure you can pull more weight with a rounded back, but the bad far outweighs the good. First, you can injure yourself. Enough said. Second, a rounded back hardly works the muscles of the posterior chain, the hamstrings and the glutes. So while your deadlift numbers look like they’re getting pretty big, you may still lack the hamstring and glute strength to match. Bottom line, rounded back deadlifts aren’t deadlifts, so lets take them out of the equation completely.

The response from our clients has, so far, been amazing. Special shout out to Brent Langrehr who I personally witnessed go back down from around 305 to 275 to work on keeping his chest up and his back tight. The outcome was a much more controlled set of lifts and, more importantly, reinforced good habits. Sure, his numbers were lower than they could have been, but the sacrifice is being made for greater gains in the future. Anyone remember the 20 Min. AMRAP WOD from about two weeks ago (400m run, 21 155#/105# Deadlifts)? Most of us ended up with sore backs regardless of form, but those who focused on proper form were able to last much longer, thus achieving better scores. There’s a method to our madness people!

You’ll definitely be seeing this new attitude towards movement on display all year long, and not only for deadlift. We need to clean up our snatch and clean technique, as well as a bunch of other movements. It’s this attention to detail that will continue to make us one of the best gyms around. Lets have a great year.

Here is a great read by Crossfit Kinnick Trainer Nick Robles on how to set yourself up for success!!

I have never been one for New Years Resolutions (Why wait until January 1st to change your life when you can start today?) but since we are at the beginning of 2012 lets talk about the best way to set and achieve goals in the coming months. I found this list of most popular New Year’s Resolutions and not surprisingly, half are health-realted.

“Eat healthy food”
“Get fit”
“Lose weight”

Many of us may even have similar goals for 2012, but how do we set ourselves up to achieve them? It’s pretty common knowledge that New Year’s resolutions are not known for their longevity but, if we put some thought into accomplishing what we want, this will be a huge year for all of us at Crossfit Kinnick and we have all the tools to make it one.

First lets look at the first step: setting realistic and achievable goals. Saying “I want to get fit” gives us no set path to get there and no measurable result to determine success. When setting goals we want to make sure they are S.M.A.R.T:

With this in mind we can set goals that focus not on the end result but the daily efforts we have to put in to achieve it. Instead of saying “I want to drop 15% body fat and do more workouts prescribed,” we should approach it as “I am going to eliminate grains from my diet for month and work on a movement I struggle with for 10 minutes before class, 3 times a week.” Setting short term goals makes it easier to not only complete your plan but check in on your progress. After that you can reassess and set new ones!

Once you have a goal you want to achieve, make a serious plan for success. Don’t be afraid to use the tools we have at Crossfit Kinnick! Beyond the Whiteboard and your trainers especially. Want to improve your nutrition? Do some research on zone, talk to any one of our trainers, assess what you eat now versus what you want to eat on a cleaner diet, and start logging your meals. Want to be able to handle more weight in workouts? Again, talk to one of us and we can fill you in on how to start extra strength work. Want to eliminate a weakness that always gets to you in workouts? We can show you progressions or stretches that will help you improve.

A huge part of this is tracking your progress and sticking to it. I guarantee that doing things like logging your meals, ALWAYS posting your workouts, actually looking at your improvements, and posting your extra work will not only motivate you when you see gains but allow you to constantly know where you are at. Knowing your own achievements and recognizing them is essential. I know nothing motivates me more than knowing the work I’m putting in produces tangible results. Lets use Beyond the Whiteboard for everything we can, its an amazing resource!

Finally, lets talk about the most important tool we have…each other! Don’t be afraid to share goals or buddy up to achieve them. Accountability goes a long way in sticking with something that is hard to achieve. Don’t be afraid to set big goals and chase them down, 2011 was an incredible year for us all so imagine what 2012 has in store!!