Tuesday 12-13-16

AMRAP 11 MIN 

4 Power Snatches (165#/100#)

12 Wall Balls (30#/20#)

Sitting is slowly killing you!

Every day people join CrossFit gyms around the world looking for help with many different things. Weight lose, pain management, health, or specific training for some type of upcoming event. Whatever the reason, we are all looking for a program that can give us the most bang for our buck with the least amount of time in the actual gym. This is what brings most people to CrossFit. An hour in the gym five to six days a week, and boom!! You can have whatever result you are after.

So why isn't this happening for many? Well there are 23 hours outside of the gym every day. 8-12 hours of that is spent at some type of work, 6-8 hours spent sleeping, 1-2 hours spent in the car or commuting. This means that the hour spent in the gym, for some, may be the only hour or two of their day actually spent standing.

So why does this matter? Well our bodies are amazing at adapting to whatever environment we place it in most. When we sit, our hip flexors (specifically our iliopsoas) and our hamstrings (the largest and most powerful muscle on the body) are shortened. The more we sit, the shorter these will become, causing the pelvis to tilt forward and putting pressure on the lower back. This adaptation to sitting makes it more difficult for your body to get into a standing position.  Something you are forced to do the entire hour at CrossFit (why so many desk bound athletes complain about chronic back pain).

The other problem is muscle atrophy. The primary use of our muscles is to move us from place to place while counteracting gravity. When seated we take away from this basic necessity of the muscles. Not demanding anything from our bodies for 22 hours out of the day by sitting, leads to atrophied muscles and weakness.  Something one hour in the gym will not fix. Most don't notice this happening until they throw out their backs picking up a purse or barbell in the gym. They attribute it to a "freak" accident or "CrossFit" that injured them, when it's the chair they should blame.

So what do you do?
GET A STANDING DESK!!! RIGHT NOW!!!
By placing yourself in a standing position for the majority of your day, you will counteract the shortening of the iliopsoas and hamstring and help keep the muscles from atrophying.  Setting yourself up for success for the hour spent in the gym and allowing you to maximize your bodies true potential.