[jest] Murph enters the CrossFit gym and sees 200 burpees and 100 Kettlebell Dead Clean + Jerk on the board, a piece of cake, and he can’t wait to smash it!
He quickly smashes 200 non-stop burpees out, even though he feels a bit of a tingle in his lower back, he knows his core also starts to fatigue, but he ignores it because he wants to come first. Next, he smashes out 100 Dead Clean and Jerks, but he fails to let the Kettlebell come into a good racking position, he fails to control the down phase of the Dead Clean, he does not fully lock out with the Jerk, he finishes first and gets the applause and recognition he so longed for (but somewhere deep inside Murph wonders if they’re really proud).
The next day, Murph’s back is out and pretty sore, and he’s walking like an old man. His friends ask him “What’s wrong?” he tells them with a huge smile on his face about the CrossFit session he smashed and the number of reps he did. His intelligent friends are now talking amongst themselves about the CrossFit coach who programmed that WOD “What a pencil head of a coach, how can he put together a workout with so many reps? Doesn’t he know that’s no good?” the coach and box now have a bad rap.
What Murph failed to mention was that he was being a dumb athlete and more focused on doing the reps as fast as possible, sacrificing form and technique along the way, ignoring the potential for injury, only to become numero uno. He also failed to mention that the Coach clearly said “Make sure you perform each rep with good form and technique, if you’re starting to get fatigued, rest! Whether that rest is 10, 20 seconds, or more, never risk injury for coming first. Be smart and lower your weight if you picked the wrong weight, i.e. you picked a weight you can’t complete those reps with. Don’t be scared to talk to your coach about any niggling muscles you feel playing up during your workout, don’t push through it, stop and talk.” Murph forgot to mention all that! Murph also doesn’t like to listen to the coach when the coach says “Better drop down 2 kilos with that Kettlebell”, or “Slow down, and focus”.
Even if your coach is not that caring and fails to mention every session that safety and technique come first, well, did you get a brain when you were born? I bet you did, and it has this most amazing thing called COMMON SENSE, use it. Now, attached to that brain should be a pair of ears, open them and store the information which your coach provides you with. Also in that brain is something called MEMORY, use it to store DATA and RECALL all those important things. [/jest]
It’s written with a bit of jest, but…
The moral of the story; it takes two to tango, you need a smart coach AND a smart athlete.
Join the club of smart athletes, be competitive, but never risk your health and safety for it!
Don’t be a Duthlete.!