If you were at the gym today you would have noticed a mobility March madness (MMM) poster up on the WOD board.

What is this all about you ask?

It seems to be a common theme these days to involve mobility work into CrossFit club workouts which I think is a big step forward for any club.  Mobility work is important to all athletes for recovering muscle tone, flexibility, injury prevention and even increasing power development.  All members of our club have some form of movement impairment whether it be in the front rack position, the squat, or the snatch pull.  The main goal of MMM is to explore a multitude of different modalities and movements that can help improve movement and mobility with in all of our members.  Every day for the month of March we will be incorporating different foam roll and ball release movements as well as stretches and traction exercise to improve mobility.  Over the month you will all be exposed to potential tightness’s and weaknesses you never even knew you had, which is really the main goal of this months work - to educate and create awareness for all members around weaknesses and inflexibility that need to be improved on to help maintain and increase movement quality and injury prevention.

By doing this everyone will have a much better understanding of how to self treat “issues” and improve performance within the gym - which is a very big deal!

Does this replace your manual therapist or ART specialist - no not at all.  It simply can allow you to assist their work between sessions.

What? You don’t have a massage therapist or ART specialist on your personal mobility and movement improvement team.  Well you can find one here;

Michelle Kohle (RMT) - 664-2584

Stonebrdige Chiropractic (Kurt Lanigan - ART) - http://stonebridgechiropractic.com/index.php?p=Home

For all mobility geeks - read the following excerpt from the Synergy Trainer Development Manual;

First we need to understand what the tightness’ and adhesions we feel are and how we can release them. When muscles work at extreme loads for extreme periods of time (CrossFit), the small functional parts of the muscle called sarcomeres can tighten up and create what is called an ischemic condition (oxygen deprivation). When this occurs the muscles tend to tighten up even more as less blood supply and oxygen get to the area, which can cause a muscle to go completely anaerobic and use up all existing sugars and start to fail. As one strand of sarcomeres tighten they pull on neighboring strands causing them to tighten and eventually movement patterns are inhibited as well as muscle function. Stretching can help, but since sarcomeres have the ability to lengthen 1.6 times their resting length you may not actually get enough tension on the specific portions of the muscle needed, hence the benefits of a massage therapist of self myo-fascial release.

To better understand how to answer this question one must understand a bit about anatomy. Self myo-fascial release is possible thanks to the principle named “autogenic inhibition”;

Autogenic Inhibition - Reflex inhibition of a motor unit in response to excessive tension in the muscle fibres it supplies. Muscle tension is monitored by the Golgi tendon organs. Autogenic inhibition is a protective mechanism, preventing muscles from exerting more force than the bones and tendons can tolerate. Deinhibition training is designed to reduce or counteract the inhibitory impulses, allowing muscles to exert greater forces.

The golgi tendon organ (GTO) is a mechanoreceptor found at the muscle-tendon junction that responds to muscle tension. When tension in the muscle increases to the point of a high risk of injury the GTO stimulates the muscle spindles to relax the muscle at work, this relaxation process is the autogenic inhibition response. With foam rolling or using other implements one can simulate muscle tension, which will cause the GTO to relax the muscle (the same response from stretching). While stretching will change the muscle length, myo-fascial release modalities will change the tone of the muscle and potentially decrease soft-tissue adhesion’s and scar tissue build-up, which allows the muscle to be strong and pliable.

Hey gang,

We will haev more info to come soon, but we are planning a competition readiness seminar next Saturday for all athletes who wish to learn more about;

Pre/post workout nutrition

Recovery and rest from workouts

Proper warm-up protocols

The talk will revolve around competition, but also include a lot of info for everyday CrossFitters.  Since the talk will apply to everyone it will be open for everyone to attend.

More info to come, but just keep the afternoon open if this sounds like something you would be interested in.

Blaire with a tennis ball in hand and foam roller at work - love it.  Why use a foam roller you ask.  Here are just a few reasons;

1. Improved ROM and mobility due to inhibitory responses of certain mechanoreceptors in the muscle.

2. Potential of reduced scar tissue and muscular adhesion’s

3. Improved quality of movement due to better muscle tone and mobility

4. Decrease tone of overactive muscles (not to be read as decrease in ‘toning’ of muscles…whole other topic)

5. Help to maintain time between ARt and massage therapy sessions (Dr. Lanigan)

a1. seated DB Press 4 x 8 @ 3010 - rest 60 sec
a2. unbroken toes to bar 4 x reps - rest 2 min

b1. 95/135# OH BB carry (2 gym widths) - rest 20 sec
b2. 20 unbroken KBS - rest 2 min
5 rounds

- seated press - use a semi neutral grip and ensure full ROM and active shoulders at the top.

- unbroken TTB - no pausing - true unbroken set

- OH BB carry - BB will be set in racks on the platforms and carried across the gym towards Carm and placed back into the rack for the next athlete.  Scale properly as this is a tough exercise, especially after the DB Press work.  Shoulders must remain active throughout - if any athlete is seen to break perfect position they will be asked to drop the load on the next set or cease the current set.  A set core and neutral spine/torso will be required.

- KBS - choose a load that will allow for a unbroken set of 20 on all 5 sets. 

Level 1 WOD Deadlfit - work up to max 3 - rest 3 min rest as needed L-Sit Progressions on Parallettes * McRae on the bar

Level 2 WOD Active Recovery Day

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Level 1 WOD Surprise Outdoor WOD - the outdoor portion of the surprise WOD will be for the lunch hour crowd only as we are meeting in Riverside Park (22nd Street & Spadina Ave), just North of the Bessborough hotel. The WOD will be the same for the rest of the classes as well. *Could this pic be a hint of the type of WOD tomorrow - who knows?

Level 2 WOD As many DU’s in 5 min as possible rest 4-5 min 20-32kg KBS KTE 21-15-9 for time: * Danny Lavertu with his first kipping pull-up, with a little practice I believe he will get 4-5 in a row in next 2 weeks.  Danny is being a little hesitant on the pull-up and not allowing the horizontal momentum to propel himself vertically which is exactly what the kip does.  Once he gets a little more comfortable - look out!

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