K-Star on Training Through Injury

WHAT?!?

According to super-guru Kelly Starrett, an ankle sprain takes -- without exception -- FOUR TO SIX WEEKS to heal. As K-Star says: "That four to six weeks sort of has a natural place in the healing cycle, the healing timeframe. We are superhumans. We're CrossFitters. I do superhuman shit every day. I can do anything...EXCEPT I cannot outrace my tissue healing times or my own physiology."

Also: Once tissue's been injured, it'll never be quite the same again.

Kill me now.



On the plus side, Starrett is emphatic that acutely injured individuals can't just sit on the sidelines until they're 100 percent. It's important to get back into the gym as soon as possible: “You had a surgery on Friday? Okay -- take a couple of days off. See you on Monday.”

WODs can (and should!) be modified, not shelved. Use dumbbells or scale down the weights. Do movements on one leg. But whatever you do, don't plant your ass on the couch and munch on ibuprofen. For a whole host of reasons, athletes should train through and around injuries:

Continuing to work out reinforces tissue and keeps systems intact. The metabolic and anabolic cascade and neurendocrine response lead to increased growth hormone, increased testosterone and increased insulin growth factors—all good things. And the psycho-social factors are also important. Athletes should not be isolated from their workout buddies or allowed to give up. They need to get back into action...

The recovery phase is when athletes need CrossFit most. When it comes to fitness, it’s a case of use it or lose it. Workouts should be modified, not abandoned. Do a workout on one leg, if necessary. Or consider Tabata intervals on day one of the recovery program, and let the intensity find you. Working out increases blood flow and promotes healing. It drives insulin sensitivity, restores proteins and gets the whole system looking for anabolic enzymes. 

Bottom line: "Injured athletes are still athletes. They need to avoid feeling sorry for themselves and get their butts back into the gym. And quickly."



More at the CrossFit Journal.

Get Mobilized

Before you go out and kill the latest Games Open workout, make sure your body’s ready for all those deadlifts, push-ups and box jumps. Here are a few Mobility WODs that might help boost your Week 2 performance:

For your deadlifts:







For your push-ups:





For your box jumps:



Now go forth and dominate.

Thruster Mobility

I wish I'd watched this before yesterday's Fran workout.



Then again, I'm pretty sure my thrusters would have sucked regardless.

(Source: Mobility WOD)

Stretch of Road

If traffic's bad (and when is it not?), my daily commute can take up to an hour-and-a-half each way. When I'm not on work-related calls in the car, I pass my time listening to Terry Gross, satellite radio (baseball and bababooey!), and Robb Wolf's podcasts -- but by the time I get where I'm going, my body's all stiff and achy.

What to do?

Kelly Starrett has the answer:



(Photo: 27147)

Wednesday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats

I'm getting much better at keeping my elbows up -- way up! -- in rack position, which was a huge problem for me early on.

It's weird. I haven't done yoga for ages, and my stretching is limited to warming up for my CrossFit classes, but my shoulder mobility has improved significantly. I'd like to chalk it up to doing some Mobility WODs, but frankly, I haven't been able to keep up with Kelly Starrett's daily videos. (Talk about prolific -- that guy's produced a ridiculous amount of content -- for free! -- in just a couple of months.)

Metcon:



"Helen" -- 3 rounds for time:

• 400 meter run
• 21 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg, or for us dumb Americans whose heads explode at the mere mention of the metric system, 53 pounds)
• 12 pull-ups

Result: 11:25. I'm disappointed -- I should have (and could have) run faster, but stupidly tried to conserve energy. Kettlebell swings and pull-ups, though, don't take much out of me, and I really didn't need to pace myself. I should have gone balls-out, but I didn't, and for that, I'm kicking myself.

Squat!

I can't believe it took me until now to stumble across Paul Chek's excellent three-part 2004 article on the importance and mechanics of the squat. (Check 'em out here: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3.) I'm convinced that squats -- with or without a barbell -- are among the handful of the best exercises one can do.

So if you're P90Xing: SQUAT!

Or if CrossFit's more your thing: SQUAT!



Want to hang out on a street corner in Asia like the locals? SQUAT!



Stiff and sore? SQUAT!



A disciple of the Primal Blueprint? SQUAT (to poop and stretch and exercise)!

The best thing about squatting? It's easy -- all it takes is a little practice.

Rest Day

Yesterday's workout wiped me out. Other than doing a half-hour's worth of some of the Mobility WODs from Kelly Starrett's site, I pretty much spent the day moving as little as possible.

Rest Day

If you're working out like a madman every day of the week, you may want to build in some more rest time. I was super-reluctant to do it, but once I did, I haven't regretted it.

I've previously mentioned the importance of recovery, but I've only recently put it into practice in a consistent way. I've now reduced the frequency of my balls-out exercise sessions to three or four times a week, and taking just about every other day "off."

By "off," however, I don't mean that I'm just sitting on my ass, eating Triscuits and watching HBO. (For starters, I don't eat grains anymore. Also, we dropped our HBO subscription a few months ago -- right around the time I came to grips with the fact that "The Wire" ain't never coming back.)

Instead, on my so-called "off" days, my focus is on stretching and mobility. I'm still making my way through Kelly Starrett's Mobility WODs, and I'm staying pretty active in a low-intensity, Primal Blueprint "move frequently at a slow pace" kind of way. And when I'm feeling up to it, I'll do some sub-max effort, low-rep Power to the People moves to improve my form on deadlifts and side presses.

Back when I was P90Xing like crazy, the very thought of taking more than one day off per week was anathema. I was certain that if given the opportunity, I'd backslide into my couch-potato ways. But with my current routine, I've learned that: (1) my body absolutely needs some time off between CrossFit workouts to adequately recover and attack my next WOD with the appropriate level of intensity; and (2) the workouts at my CrossFit affiliate are actually two-a-days, in that they include both a max-effort strength session and a metabolic conditioning WOD. According to my trainer, even though I'm only visiting the gym three times a week, I'm squeezing in six workouts.

So far, so good. Since adding more rest days to my weekly routine, my strength and form have noticeably improved, and I've also boosted my metcon WOD results. Plus, I'm getting more shut-eye (when it's not Monday, Wednesday or Friday), I have a lot more energy, I'm able to bring maximum intensity to my workouts, I'm not (as) grumpy from constant fatigue, and because I'm still doing my best to eat clean, my body composition hasn't suffered.

Then again, maybe I'm just finding excuses to be lazy.

Check It Out: Mobility WOD

Mobility WOD is only four days old, but if Kelly Starrett keeps posting videos every day, it's going to quickly become one of the most popular blogs among CrossFit enthusiasts.

Starrett -- a.k.a. K-Star -- is the founder of San Francisco CrossFit, and one of CrossFit's most popular coaches and sought-after speakers. He has a doctorate in physical therapy, and teaches CrossFit's Mobility Certification program. And according to his web bio, Starrett's clients include "Olympic gold medalists, world-class extreme skiers and X-Games medalists, dancers with Smuin, San Francisco and Sacramento Ballet Companies, military personnel, and competitive age-division athletes." As a whitewater rafter, Starrett also led his team to "to two national titles and competition in two world Championships."

More importantly (to me, anyway), he's able to be entertaining while imparting a wealth of good information, which is what keeps me coming back to the short videos he's been posting on his new blog. Mobility WOD's daily mission is to prescribe a different sub-10 minute routine that helps you stretch and treat your aching body parts. Or, as Starrett puts it: "This blog is intended as a jump off point for athletes to systematically begin to address their nasty tissues and grody joint mobility."

Here's an example of one of Starrett's casually breezy but oh-so-awesomely educational videos:



I, for one, woke up this morning with  soreness in my hammies, shoulders and hip flexors. Instead of diving into yet another workout (smell you later, deadlifts), I opted to spend some quality time with Mobility WOD on my iPad, working my way through this week's videos.

Surf on over to Starrett's site and check out the videos. There's a good chance you'll get hooked on a new daily stretching routine.