Watching a rookie CrossFitter learn is like watching a kid sound out the letters in his first word. Syllable by syllable, breath becomes voice and action happens.
Smart rookies surround themselves with good guides. Veterans who have messed up more times than they would ever like to admit.
Not buying your own jumprope
CrossFit works shoeless and poor and everywhere. But if I had a couple bucks to kill and shoes on my feet, I’d buy a jumprope first.
Using a house rope is like using the store sock to try on shoes. It may get the job done, but since ropes are sized specifically to their master, it’s more like running in shoes that are too big, or jumping in shoes that are too small.
Cheat meals after a paleo challenge
There are two times a year when CrossFitters get sick; when school starts and when paleo challenges end.
Celebrating several weeks of paleo goodness with pizza, is like celebrating the summit of Everest by base jumping.
I’m not saying you have to give up pizza for life, I’m saying that you’ve won. You’ve proven what you’re made of. Now, don’t throw it away.
Owning every piece of Reebok apparel two days after you start CrossFitting
When we started CrossFitting, t-shirts that had a real CrossFit logo were hoarded like copies of the bible autographed by God himself. When the first affiliates began pimping their own swag, we acted like it was a CrossFit Black Friday sale, and at the Games in the desert, we swapped sweaty Ts like a weird fitness Woodstock.
Today there are thousands of affiliates and hundreds of guys designing gear. And none of it makes you better at burpees.
You want to look the part, we get that, but start with your affiliate’s shirt, then work down the chain slowly. There’s nothing worse than the guy with seven pairs or Nano’s and a closet full of gear who still asks, “what’s a thruster.”
Climbing ropes tired
Getting to the top of the rope is 90-percent fear management, 10-percent strength (I just made that up but it sounds cool).
Still, even after you’ve overcome the fear and mastered the technique, nothing matters once you’re stressed and tired.
You may think you’ve got this whole Russian or Spanish or Slovakian or Amazonian rope thing in the bag when you’re fresh, but after running a mile and thrusters, you may be mistaken. Take a breath, take several in fact, and don’t die.
OHS
The CrossFit Level 1 course teaches a mean OHS. The L-1 course also spouts a little mantra that everyone forgets after they pass the test; mechanics, consistency, intensity.
As a new CrossFitter, you want to be good at everything. But some things, like overhead squats, might take a while. Settle in to light loads and green mobility bands, get better at air-squats, front squats and touching your toes.
Stubborn and consistent are different, look them up.
Dropping bars
If it’s the difference between your head and the empty bar, you have to ask yourself; “why did I ever put this thing over my head in the first place.”
There is zero reason for dropping an empty bar. If you’re unsure about your ability to handle the load, you should be working with a PVC pipe. And just so we’re clear, an empty bar is everything under 25 lb. plates.
Dropping KB’s and DB’s
At the CrossFit Games, three-time champion Rich Froning Jr. will drop his last kettlebell swing from overhead, then he’ll sprint across the finish line and we’ll love him for it.
At home, however, you don’t get a quarter-of-a-mil for a tenth-of-a-second, and that kettlebell isn’t a right-off. It’s a 53 lb. toe-breaker that can crush the hopes and dreams of you and everyone around you.
Set the bell down gently. It’s respectful to the bell that can break like a bone, it’s respectful to the CrossFitter next to you who does’t want to pay for your mistake, and it’s respectful to the guy waiting to do the workout after you.
Oly’s on the rope
Climbing a rope with a Reebok lifter is like getting your beard caught in a pencil sharpener.
How do I know? I vacuumed manila snow cone shavings until our perfectly contoured climbing ropes were threads hanging from the ceiling.
Olympic lifting shoes are for platforms, nano’s are from climbing ropes.
Not forcing your kids to do CrossFit Kids
There isn’t one CrossFitting human that says, “I wish I found CrossFit later.”
It doesn’t even type right. You, me, everyone who ever lived, wishes they started CrossFit when they were in diapers. If our infinite old people wisdom gets anything right, it’s the younger you start fitness the better.
If our parents would have forced CrossFit on us when we were that age, we would love them for it today. Do your kid a favor, make CrossFit as mandatory as school and breathing.
What rookie mistakes have you made?
Warm-up:
Coaches choice
Skill:
2-Power Snatch (Floor/stall at knee)
OTM for 10 Minutes
*Flawless. Expect full snatches tomorrow.
Strength:
Banded back squats
5×3
For score:
80′ Walking lunge
12-Burpees
12-Hollow rocks
AMRAP 20 Minutes
Auxiliary:
10-L-pull-ups
100-DU
10-Strict pull-ups
40′Handstand walk
10-Strict dips
5-Strict muscle-ups
10-Strict HSPU
Tabata l-Sit
5-Bar-ups
3-Rope climbs
Practice 10 Minutes for quality.
*Enter the skill ladder wherever you need the most work and go in the order of weakness to strength. This particular ladder will come up several times so if you miss something today, start there tomorrow.
Extended:
Chinese rows
5×8
Glute ham raise
3×8
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