I have come to the conclusion that all of my weaknesses are due to a stability and endurance weakness. Mainly stability. Most noticeably with this is running. I can maintain good pose for less than 1/4 mile. Some other noteable weak movements for me are push ups, over head squats, snatch, clean, jerk, burpees. I am usaully ok with maintaining good stabilization if the wod involves these movements and is withing the 10 min mark but anything over that turns into a slog really quickly. I am looking to find the best way to improve this very broad weakness. My gut tells me crossfit but when I dont run or do these lifts consistently I dont feel like I make enough improvement with them. Should I begin supplementing and if so what?
If I remeber correctly GD and others were doing a strength bias and wrote in the journal about it. Maybe that’s something you could look at. Just a shot in the dark here but could your height have anything to do with this? I’m tall and there are somethings that I just suck at in general and notice other tall guys have problems with as well.
Just a shot in the dark here but could your height have anything to do with this? I’m tall and there are somethings that I just suck at in general and notice other tall guys have problems with as well.
Absolutely.
I know some of the moderators and other experts will disagree and basically say your weakness is not necessarily due to your height and to “Suck it up” and “Don’t make excuses”, but I’ve been tall (and skinny) for a long time. I’ve made this observation over and over. I am 6’ 4” + and have extremely long arms and narrow shoulders. This is an extreme disadvantage doing push-ups and bench bress. It’s a leverage problem. That weight has to move a long distance. I know a guy that is 6’ 4” and about 280. His bench is great, over 400#. But, his reach is over six inches shorter than mine and he is about six inches wider across the shoulders. When he benches it looks like the bar barely moves. I am not saying he is not strong. He is very strong, but we deadlift the same weight.
Crossfit has helped me improve at almost everything, but there are things I still suck at. I still can’t do OHSs with any weight to speak of.
Sorry, I guess this doesn’t help answer Mastroj’s original question.
I think shorter people have a natural mechanical advantage when it comes to weight lifting. Shorter distance to move the weight on almost every lift, longer limbs can make some movements awkward and difficult; a perfect example being OHS . Most good runners arent really tall either, not counting Bolt of course. Maybe tall people were created to reach high objects for the short people lol.
I definitely think limited shoulder range of motion is one of my biggest limiting factors when it comes to OHS. the best thing to do (IMO) is SLOW DOWN when doing movements you aren’t good at. I really have to leave my ego at home on some days…. If the WOD calls for OHS (for example), I need to tell myself not to be concerned if I’m not using as much weight as everyone else, and take it slow… concentrate on form. In time, the more you do these movements (correctly), then better you will become at them.
One other thing about height is that it implies additional weight. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it can take more work to get pound-for-pound comparable strength, and in my case hinders bodyweight stuff like pullups. Of course, some of that is my own fault for carrying around ~30 pounds of excess fat and not a height thing.
Balance, though, seems to be loosely connected to height as well. The trajectory paths for exercise movements are longer, and more things can go wrong in that space. In one-on-one action (such as grappling), smaller people also have the advantage of lower centers of mass.
I’ve also noticed a 10-minute threshold for good form, and really just about anything. I hope I can just keep attacking with metcons to increase that endurance time, but I suspect I will just have to augment the WODs with a structured strength/endurance routine. But mostly I need to stop drinking beers and being fat, so I can perform better.
I have thought about cfsb a number of times as I would love to get stronger but I dont think it is the right thing for me to focus on due to my abilities. I am thinking more of a gymnastic bias or running bias. And I dont really think that completely changing my programming around is necessary just adding in some skill work on a regular basis. I have tried this alot in the past but over use injuries seem to start to creep up on my fairly quickly. Nothing has actually happened but my muscle soreness will start to turn into tearing sensations or joint pain so I back off. Finding something more sustainable is what I have to do. And I think better documentation may be the key to finding something sustainable. I ahve been playing around with this a bit and here is what I am thinking I will do.
Monday, wensday and friday I will do a gymnastics session including
3 sets of elbow levers, 3 sets of planche progression, 10 hspu negatives, 10 fist push ups chest to deck, 10 planche style push ups, and 20 pistol progressions each leg.
Tuesday, thursday and saturday I will do a 4x400m
This will all be as far away from the wod as I can and I will monitor over training closely. I think it is all pretty diverse so I wont have to worry about much. I think the running worries me the most as I tend to get knee pain.
Are you sure it is a stability issue??? Considering you and I are of similar builds, I’m 6’3 240…a lot of my issues were b/c of mobility and alignment issues…been working a lot with Jon Hinds of Monkey Bar Gym, following his Eischens Yoga routine (great for alignment) and some of his other bodyweight movements…Also have been doing a lot more glute/posterior chain work in my “buy in/cash out” and seeing a tremendous improvement in mobility and stability…it is impossible to keep your “core” stabilized without firing glutes…so lots of swings, sled drags, reverse hypers, pull throughs, etc…don’t know if that helps you in any way…as far as your burpee problems…those just suck for us tall guys..
As a tall man i totally get it. im 6’9 and 255 pounds. There are certain things that I am still not very good at(mostly from being lazy, im sure), and certain things being tall gives me an advantage with. Pull ups are my biggest issue. There are many other things that you guys have mentioned that I used to have issues with as well, but most of them cease to be a problem for me. The best thing for me was just consistency. making myself do it over and over is how I got better.
Important also to note is that I do have wide shoulders which may also give me an advantage.
Also, and please correct me if I am wrong, I beleive in Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe he states that being tall actually gives an advantage in olympic lifting/powerlifting. I don’t have my copy with me at the moment to cite it specifically. As for my experience with OHS, I have tended to put up much higher numbers than the shorter guys at the affiliate I go to who appear to be significantly stronger than i myself. Again, I think consistency is the key.
This isn’t really a question of what being freakishly tall makes me suck at unless its how do I correct these limitations. I know us Giants are at a certain disadvantage but I want to know the best way to get past it.
Mobility is a minor issue but I am doing the mobility wods so its getting better.
Well I personally don’t know if there is a very solid answer for this. If there is I wish someone would share. That one shoulder mobility workout from kstarr helped me immensely.
Good luck with it man, if you come across anything that helps please let me know.
...Some other noteable weak movements for me are push ups, over head squats, snatch, clean, jerk, burpees.
These seem to fall into the endurance category:
-push ups and burpees
By that I mean to say that your muscles will continue to adapt to them. No worries, just keep at it.
These seem to fall into what you are calling stability (and mobility): over head squats, snatch, clean, jerk
Here’s my thought (bear in mind that I’m not as tall as you (I’m “only 6’1”, so perhaps my experience is not applicable to you, but here goes)...
These movements all include an absolute requirement of good thoracic extension, a ton of shoulder flexibility, a ton of hamstring flexibility, a ton of abdominal support and a ton of focus to execute them. Remove one of these, and it falls apart. I haven’t seen your Oly lift videos, but I have seen your squat vids, which show tight hamstrings.
I absolutely do not have the requisite flexibility to maintain proper positioning through an overhead squat. I am forced into an unhealthy position with knees over my toes and my lumber over-extended to make up the difference. My solution is to work heavily on what I can do well in WODS and auxiliary strength work, while at the same time working on attaining flexibility so I can try to perform the other movements later on. I don’t load up (weight or volume) on movements I do poorly.
I look at it this way - I try to balance health, longevity and performance.
