By now, everyone knows that CrossFit is all about performing functional movements at high intensity, the message is everywhere. Intensity is great. It is why people get great results with CrossFit. When you push yourself as hard as you can, you get positive adaptation (ie. you get better, faster and stronger). There are times though when we aren’t looking for intensity. When you are learning a movement the last thing you want to do is 100 reps as fast as you can.
Form has to come first. You need to understand how to perform movements properly (safely and effectively) before you try to add intensity into the mix. How long it takes varies from person to person but if you can’t perform the movement properly at low intensity, doing it at high intensity is a recipe for disaster. To put it another way: Good form + Intensity = Results where Poor form + Intensity = Injury.
When you work out at high intensity, form inevitably breaks down. Some argue that this means having good form at the start doesn’t matter. They think that you should just go as hard as you can and lift as heavy as you can right from the outset. At our gym, that way of thinking is wrong on many levels. The better your form is when you start, the better it will be when you finish. If you are doing kipping pull-ups in a workout and you are starting by massively loading the shoulder in a bad position, eventually you will end up with shoulder problems. If you start with good shoulder position and a tight kip that doesn’t hyper-extend the shoulder you are much more likely to keep your shoulders healthy even if you start to lose position towards the end of the workout.
The next time you’re in, remember, if your coach tells you to slow down and focus on your form, they are not doing that because they want to ruin your time or your work-out. They are doing it to keep you from getting injured so you can continue to train and improve. Healthy athletes get better, injured athletes get nowhere.
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