Why Rich Froning is better than you

"Rich Froning will not beat you in a workout because he is stronger than you, or faster, or can breath better than you. He will beat you because he can move more efficiently, and as a result more productively than you can." -Kyle J Smith

I challenge everyone to focus on movement quality during their conditioning workouts. Strength and aerobic ability will follow if quality of movement is the primary concern, the opposite may not be true.

Tips for 13.2

Tips for Beginners on 13.2:

1. Have fun!
2. Start with push presses, switch to push jerks when fatigue is on the horizon (never fail, never miss a rep; there is no time to waste- ten minutes will fly by!)
3. Always do your shoulder to overhead unbroken. If this means you need to rest an extra second before starting your set, do. You do not want to clean the bar to your shoulders again.
4. When you transition from STO to deadlift, immediately complete at least three reps. If possible, don't break up the deadlifts at all. You will always rest longer than you should, so minimize rest.
5. During the deadlift, lower the bar efficiently. Keep the bar close by sending your hips back and keeping your back straight. If the bar gets away from you it will break your rhythm and increase the risk of injury.
6. Find a nice, even pace where you can keep moving on the box jumps. I highly recommend that you step down from every rep and find a rhythm that allows you to link them seamlessly.
7. Set a goal for the number of rounds you would like to complete and figure out what split you need to maintain to succeed (i.e., if your goal is 10 minutes, each round should take one minute.) Have your judge or a friend keep you aware of the clock and on pace. Surprisingly, in the early rounds this usually means you need to slow down. Adrenaline will make you work too fast and will sabotage your later sets.
8. Keep it pretty. Pretty reps, aka efficient, productive reps, are always better than ugly reps. You're not working hard if your movement goes to shit, you're working stupid.

As we notice more trends in the workout we'll post thoughts here. If you have anything to share- comment! Every thought is welcome and helpful.

Good luck! And again, have fun!

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AM athletes are having a lot of success performing step ups instead of box jumps. Try it during your warm up, see what you think.

Being a designated cheerleader

Here's the most important part of this post- how to be a great designated cheerleader.

First, can the judge be the designated cheerleader? At the games, no. At CFNYC, more often than not. If you are acting as both, remember your first priorities are standards of movement and count.

One more thing before I list, if you are not the designated cheerleader, just an encouraging spectator- yell, scream and curse, while respecting the athlete's plan. You are white noise, along with the Taylor Swift playing in the background. (Note: Julie Foucher listened to Mumford and Sons while doing 13.3.)

How to be the best designated cheerleader ever:

1. Know your athlete's strategy, help them stick to it.

2. Find out how your athlete likes to be encouraged. Some like just countdowns and time reminders, others need to be cursed out and spat on.

3. Learn your athlete's pace (fresh and fatigued) and help them push themselves as hard as they need to go. There is no such thing as 110%, you are only as strong as you are prepared.

4. Stay in the moment with your athlete. If you find out mid flight your plan is shit, be ready to call an audible. Your athlete is going to want to stop and pout, you can be composed enough to finish strong.

5. Encourage your athlete to breath and move well. Looking like shit in a workout is a symptom of screwing it up, not a necessary condition.

HAVE FUN.

Tips for 13.3

We have a few camps for this workout. Decide where you fall this year, then have fun!

I want to do as many wall balls as possible in 12 minutes... Great! Have a game plan. How many wallballs do you want to complete in each minute? Your judge can holler out 1/2 and full minutes at you to stay on pace. Focus on moving as well as possible (use your legs to get the ball overhead), and don't get sloppy when you get tired- that only makes things worse. Never miss a rep, never fail- it's too demoralizing and frustrating.

I want the chance to chew away at some double unders... Ditto to everything above. 15 wallballs/minute will give you 2 minutes to jump rope. If you know consecutive double unders are going to be a problem fatigued, try a strategy like three singles then a double. A rep is counted every time the rope passes beneath you twice, so don't waste energy, just do what it takes to get some points on the board and keep your head in the game.

I wanna try to get my first ever muscle up... Watching folks PR their snatch on 13.1 was pretty cool. The chances you'll get your first muscle up in this WOD are... slim. CrossFit loves a miracle and an inspirational video though, so maybe it'll happen. But for the love of god don't get hurt. Your next month of training is much more important than this WOD. PS- unfortunately we cant teach everyone how to do muscle ups seconds before the WOD starts, so don't ask your coach to instruct them.

Let me know of anything you learn by attacking 13.3. HAVE FUN!

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A few more thoughts. Our AM scientists have learned- WALLBALLS SUCK.

If you are not yet proficient at rx wallballs (bc of ball weight or target height,) make your strategy incredibly conservative. When I say don't fail a rep (slightly different than missing a rep bc of aim,) I mean it. If that means you need to do sets of 3 to post an rx score, do it. There is no shoulda coulda woulda when it comes to testing, you do what you can do today as best you can. Be honest with yourself,

If you are proficient at wallballs your first set should be AT LEAST 10 reps. 15-20-25 would be even better, as long as you know you have fuel in the tank. Some experimented with sets of 5 with minimal rest, it looks pretty off the bat, but oh how quickly that rest gets longer and longer.

Tips for 13.4

beginner's tips for 13.4:

this one looks pretty straight forward folks-

so you can't clean and jerk 95/135... this is not the WOD for you. scaling in the open WOD classes is not allowed. stick with your regular programming, get big and strong, and look forward to 14.4 being a fucking joke. 

pace yourself... seriously. while breathing-wise you may be fine. local muscular fatigue, especially in the grip and core are going to be a huge factor. you never want to fail on a rep, so make sure you are taking adequate rest in the beginning to stay on top of it and push in the end. 

push jerk from rep one. take a look at the video of graham and speal- if you can adopt the quick shoulder to overhead technique, do- otherwise just don't waste time in that position. kip your toes to bar- remember, it's the same as the swing for the kipping pull up.

did i mention yet how much this will suck for your grip? don't let that guy fail on you.

we cannot drop weight. period. you can tell your grandchildren someday that you would have scored at least 7 reps higher on 13.4 if you could have dropped, just don't get so crazy that you can't lower the bar under control. 

95/135 may feel light on the first few sets, but it's going to get heavy. make sure you are getting down into a proper clean starting position (as opposed to a dead lift position) so you are not unnecessarily taxing your lower back. 

check in with tips and lessons learned. and HAVE FUN!

Injury and exercise

I have a question about attending class with injuries - I dislocated my shoulder a week ago and have been told by the doc no crossfit for 3-4 weeks while i do shoulder rehab, so sadly no CF open for me this year. When i'm back on deck what's the best approach to return to class, should i try to pick and choose WODs based on what i think my shoulder can handle or can you modify any workout around an injury in the same way we scale weight?

A. Get very specific directions from your doctor on what's appropriate (meaning restorative) and what is not.

B. Take it sloooooowwww. You have the rest of your life to get back into CrossFit shape, your first priority is to avoid re-injuring the sucker. Err on the side of wussy until you are ready to head back into the game 100%.

C. Attending classes that are clearly shoulder-friendly is great. That may be difficult to swing sometimes. With precise instructions from your doctor, a coach (and you) should be able to scale most things to your needs.

      1. Seeing one coach regularly and attending less crowded classes makes this easier for everyone.

D. Don't forget that you can freeze your membership when you're out with an injury.

FEEL BETTER.

When a WOD gets you down

For those of you who were in class today, this will be a repeat. For those who stayed home, let me explain today's workout. It is subtle but brilliant. This is a post I shared with the other coaches to make sure nothing was lost in translation.

30 minute AMRAP

15 second chin up hold

15 unbroken double unders

15 unbroken push ups

Think of this workout as being two strength pieces and one skill practice, packaged into a mildly aerobic endeavor. The chin up hold can be broken up as necessary (no more than 3 slices of 5 seconds, ideally.) This allows athletes to strengthen the range of motion that sucks across the board- the last two inches. The chin up hold (supinated grip) prepares them for beach season- sun's out, gun's out. The 15 unbroken double unders is skill practice. If they fail to do them unbroken, begin back at the beginning of that set of double unders. If 15 is a ridiculously easy range, bump it up by 5s to no more than 30. Do no more than 3 failed sets. (If the athlete is performing single unders, it may involve minor skill development, but is mostly aerobic work.) The push ups are again, strength work. If the rep range of 15 is excessive, suggest 5 or 10 (whatever you choose, it should sound easy for one set.) Both unbroken exercises are purposefully written that way so that you have to rest prior to completing them in order to complete them. Rest is inherent, it is just not mandated.

Today's email is wordy, here are more.

A student texted me this AM: ...when you suck at a WOD and it bugs you all day (slow clap) (Read: a workout has me sad &/or pissed off.)

I gotz thotz...

CrossFit is a huge commercial success (and labelled a cult) because they incidentally figured out how to perfectly merge exercise and emotion: the WOD. We're addicted to the Sport of Fitness not because of the tangible physical results, but because of the huge emotional connection we have to exercise now, whether we realize it or not.

This emotional connection is very important on a person by person level. To get through many of the WODs you need to care on a level deeper than skin. To beat the shit out of yourself day to day and week to week CrossFit has to be more important to your psyche than a stroll in the park or a lifting session at the local gym.

When the emotional connection takes you over, instead of you using it to your advantage, you lose. Exercise should always supplement your real life, not detract.

Is it a bad thing that a workout got you down in the dumps for a bit? NOT AT ALL. It means you're at the perfect level of obsession. The emotional connection took you over, you said fuck you and conquered it. If you cared any less, you wouldn't care enough.

What do we do when the emotion of it all is drowning out the positives? When a workout has us all up in our head? Answer these questions:

1. Did you have fun?

2. Did you learn something from the experience that you can put to good use in the future? (This can mean learning from a mistake or knowing what you need to work on.)

3. Did you meet your goal?

      A. No? Did you set the right (quality or quantity) of goal?

4. Are you going to live to see another day?

In a lot of ways, you can re-read this email, replacing "emotional connection" with "competing against other athletes" and it's still true. Use competition to your advantage, when it beats you, you lose.

Slight digression- any given day's workout does not matter. It is one brick in a huge wall. It's the commitment to consistency and excellence that matters, everything else simply paints that picture. Are you troubled by the little picture? Look at the big picture. Usually it all starts to make sense again.

This email has turned out much heavier than I intended. Here's your moment of zen.

The Switch and The Spur

"The Switch and the Spur" The Racounteurs

In the heat of the desert sun,

on the blistering trail

An appaloosa and

a wanted man sprung from jail

Slow in motion and shadow-less

The switch and the spurs

Every living thing,

with a fatal sting

Bark and rattle this curse

The rider hallucinates

The snapping hooves on the sand

Spits a venom dream, recalls a stranger scream

And a broken hand.

The saddle spotted with sweat and blood

The poison pumps through his veins

There's no stopping this,

and now he's powerless

Still holding the reins.

Any pour souls who trespass against us

Whether it be beast or man

Will suffer the bite or be stung dead on sight

By those who inhabit this land

For there's is the power and this is the kingdom

As sure as the sun does burn

So enter this path, but heed these four words:

You shall never return.

Any pour souls who trespass against us

Whether it be beast or man

Will suffer the bite or be stung dead on sight

By those who inhabit this land

Programming Intent

How come the conditioning WODs have so much rest time? Today is 1 min of work and 4min of rest?!?! Yesterday had 4min of rest and Monday had 6 minutes. Seems very excessive relative to the work time for each WOD.

Let's simplify things and say their are three pathways we can train- instantaneous (strength work,) sprint and aerobic. This is a classic example of training the sprint pathway. If you want to sprint each time, you have to rest so that you can work at at least 90% of your total capacity. Don't feel like you're getting enough from your workout, work harder when you're working.

Maybe a better question is - why so many of the same WOD format back-to-back? We seem to be a lot less "constantly varied" than we used to be... Is this on purpose?

Yes, this is on purpose. Regular exposure to highly technical movements, heavy weights, and crafty conditioning allows you to get better at all of these things. All Lebron James does all day long is shoot basketballs and thank God for the genes he was blessed with. Remember, CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program, not a "random amalgamation of ass kickings that may accidentally result in a six pack if you don't hurt yourself first."

At home workouts

A basic structure to create your own workouts at home are:

AMRAP

Bodyweight upper body pulling movement &/or bodyweight upper body pushing movement (push up, handstands, table rows, etc)

bodyweight lower body movement (squat, lunges, jumps, step ups)

core movement (v up, sit ups, leg raises, planks, etc)

monostructural movement (jump rope, skips, jog in place, mountain climbers, burpees, etc)

Decide how long you want it to take first (think 6-13 minutes so you can keep the intensity up) and then choose the reps from there. Starting out, err on the side of easy and build up. It sucks to feel like shit and not get a good workout in. You can add more to the end of the workout if need be.

Encouraging your peers

It was heartening to watch all of you encourage and cheer on your teammates. The encouragement means so much more when it comes from your fellow athletes. As a coach, I have to pay attention to so many other variables that my encouragement is often forced and less than genuine. Whereas your cheers and hoo-rahs are coming from the heart (& the tired thighs & the "fuck this shit, I love it" mindset.) So from here on out- cheering each other on is your job, not mine. & I'm going to hold you to it.

The Suck Zone. Revised: The Power Zone.

Getting better at CrossFit is cool and fun, just like getting better at most things is awesome. But there is something that becomes more difficult, and I like to call that something the suck zone.

I could use a lot of different exercises or WODs to illustrate this point, but I think the back squat will make it easy to understand. When a beginner sees "Back Squat 5x5" on the board, they may do three warm up sets: one with an empty bar, one at 55#, and one at 75# before starting their work sets at 95#. When Coach Jason (I'll use him as my example today because he's working out 20 feet away from me as I type) sees "Back Squat 5x5" on the board, he has to warm up all the way to 275# before he starts his work sets. Of course this doesn't mean he does 8 warm up sets, he'll make much bigger jumps in weight, but the point still holds- he's gotta work harder to work hard.

We see this same theme in conditioning, skill and even recovery work. Becoming a better athlete is like climbing Mount Everest. The first 20,000 feet are easy and fun (that number is random and those adjectives are subjective,) the last 10,000 feet are strenuous and difficult as hell (when you get up there you better take a picture in a handstand or you're not a real CrossFitter.) As we enter deeper into the suck zone (I imagine a mountain turned ninety degrees, maybe it would be better to simplify my metaphors and just say "as you get higher up Mount Everest," but then this theme song wouldn't be pertinent (this is cool too)) there are a few things we must remember:

1. Lift heavier, do more, work harder is still the mantra, but you must be more conscious than ever to tear down then build up, to push hard then pull back, to kick ass then kick more ass. Not every day is a test of fitness, most of them are training for the next test.

2. The mind must be strengthened too. Focus is more important then ever: it allows you to take the next step up the mountain, but also because injury is more likely than ever before too.

3. There is a season for everything. With the multitude of variables that constitute the human experience, it is unreasonable to assume that everything is going to get better always. Track your ups and downs with diligence, and chill the fuck out when everything's not going exactly your way.

4. Victory can no longer be your only fuel. The first few months we spend CrossFitting are fun and exciting. You come into the gym every day just to see how much stronger and faster you've gotten (Matthew Chin calls this the honeymoon stage.) Suddenly one week the PRs aren't flying in and "damn, that WOD felt like shit." The good news is you've become an intermediate athlete, the bad news is you have to find a new reason to come to the gym everyday. I workout because I like challenging myself to become a better version of myself every day, why do you? (You can actually reply with an answer if you like. Warning: it may be shared.)

I think I'll add more to this post someday, but I'm going to cut it short because you all have to get back to work and I need to pee.

The Olympic Lifts

Pumped about getting 3 big plates on the back squat (315) and 235 on front squats for my 1RM!

Relative to my bodyweight, im very close to back squatting 2x my bodyweight (with good form! Not like i did in high school)

Curious though, what is a good benchmark for strength on the big olympic lifts? (Relative to bodyweight)

SWEET MAN! For the every day CrossFitter, I would say challenging goals for the olympic lifts are bodyweight snatch and 1.25-1.5x bodyweight clean and jerk.

Also, I'd like to see the gap between your back and front squat shrink. Ideally, the front squat is riding at 80-90% of your back squat. Over the course of a couple weeks of classes, if you have repeat exposures to the back squat and no exposures to the front, switch to front squat when back is prescribed (always make sure to ask your coach before making the switch.) The front squat is very important, as it translates into so many of the movements we do.

Exercise and cold weather

This makes me feel like a very old person, but can you talk about cold weather muscle tightness / joint issues / etc? I have had trouble getting out of bed. Because I am old and decaying.

Great question, Mr Rogers. Tips on making it through this tundra:

1. Don't half ass winter wear. This is a message to me more than anyone else. If dressed appropriately, you don't have to be miserable every time you step outside. Gloves, scarves, under garments, etc- this is especially important if you're going to be exercising in the cold (don't look like a little kid who rifled through his mother's closet.)

2. Sleep. When the weather is trying at every turn to make you sick, it's more important than ever that we bolster our immune system by getting sleep. Close your eyes, for as many hours a night as possible.

3. Maintain homoeostasis. If you're -1,000,000 degrees outside, that doesn't mean you need to be 1,000,000 degrees inside. Get to a comfortable body temperature, dress like a normal human being, and be cozy.

4.  Eat well and take your vitamins. Kinda like #2, when the cards are stacked against you, use what you have to your advantage.

5. Don't workout outside all the time. It is my personal opinion that exercising in extreme conditions (think hot yoga) is not necessary to the everyday athlete. It is an added stressor on the body, every stressor on the body depletes important resources. When you break down, you must build back up- why make this process unnecessarily harder?

Pull Ups

Here's a question for you; aside from just doing pull ups what can I do to improve my pull ups when a bar is not available? Mine are terrible, and I want to do everything I can to change that!

Steven told me today that he bought an at home pull up bar (that fits in a door frame.) His plan is to perform a few body weight pull ups everytime he walks through the door. Great idea! What Steven has organically planned is a technique called "grease the groove." Pick a rep range that is easily do-able, and knock out a few sets randomly throughout the day. After you've regularly performed that rep range for a couple weeks, up the reps a bit.

Now his original question regards practicing pull ups without a bar. This is a little more difficult.

Big picture idea: when constructing a workout (this includes home workouts,) especially a workout that exists outside of your regular programming, it's a good idea to create balance. Balance in the parts of the body working (lower body upper body, core,) and directions you're moving (push, pull and twist.)

Push movements are much easier to do without equipment, (squats, push ups, handstand walks, etc.) Without some sort of bar, you can't even pull your own bodyweight. To pull you may have to get creative and do bent over rows with a laundry basket or loaded bucket. Or, is there any surface in your apartment that you can use to do bodyweight rows on? A strong table or counter?

Now, while you might not be able to create the perfect push-pull upper-lower workout at home, something is better than nothing. General upper body strength is going to translate into better pull ups. As will coming to class regularly and losing some weight (or at least swapping fat for productive muscle.)

Sleep and exercise

Is it wise to do Crossfit on a few hours of sleep? There is no clear answer to this one. To decide, I think we need to look at the big picture. Are you regularly sacrificing sleep to get into the gym? Have you not been to the gym in awhile because you're getting 30 extra minutes of snooze? Our goal is to have some sort of balance at the end of a couple weeks. Ideally, you're able to prioritize sleep and exercise enough that neither suffers often, but this just ain't the case all the time with our busy, passionate lives. When you balance your life book next, make sure you're getting enough sleep and exercise (and Channing Tatum movies.)

Quick note: you will almost never perform at your optimum capacity with poor sleep. If you need to kick a workout's ass, get some rest before hand.

GHD Sit up

This evening at CrossFit Queens we did 30 GHD sit-ups as apart of our WOD. I posted on facebook that it was the scariest exercise I encountered bc I thought my feet would lose grip and I'd fall on my face. :/ But I got alot of comments on how dangerous they are and how you could really hurt yourself. I  guess I could google and do my own research but I also thought I would ask a CrossFit coach his personal feelings on doing them?

The foot issue (staying in the machine) is only partially fixable. First you want to make sure the rear back stop is set in the right position (for a back extension your torso lies perpendicular with the ground. for a sit up your hips are just past the pad (this can vary a lil person to person.) My feet are big enough that when i stick them between the rollers, they're not going anywhere. Since you can't make your feet bigger, you probably just have to very actively flex your foot. And get used to it.

The other issue that you may encounter as a result of high rep ghd sit ups is a condition called rhabdomyolysis.  Rhabdo occurs when the muscles are broken down too much, causing protein to flush out of your system in very unsavory and uncomfortable ways. Signs of rhabdo include coca cola urine and incredible, unrelenting soreness and fatigue. If you're feeling rhabdo-y, go to the hospital (& I certainly hope you aren't.)

Rhabdo and crossfit have a sordid past, as it can be the result of poorly structured intense exercise.

The quicker I press send on this email the less I will have to deal with the temptation to talk more about urine color for no clear reason.

More paleo?

A hungry person asked: If you get one of those vegetable/fruit juiced for lunch is it still paleo..or does it have to be eaten to count?

Similarly: Here's a question for you, what's more paleo, beers, or gin?

Quick answers: yes, a veggie or fruit juice is paleo (though we have to be careful if you're goal is fat loss, liquid nutrition is not very satisfying and is a really quick way to deliver sugar to your system.) And gin is more paleo.

Long answer: in the follow up to the first question, the hungry person went on to say, wait, i think i know this one, we're only supposed to eat it if a caveman ate it, and they probably didn't have blenders, so the answer is no. This logic is incorrect (fortunately, because blenders are so fun.) While the paleo diet did begin under the premise that we should eat how the caveman ate, more recent research has shown that we may be completely wrong about "how the caveman ate." So while it was a good way to get us started down the right path, and the diet isn't going to lose the name "paleo," we need to pick a different context to make our nutrition decisions.

Everyone is going to have a unique context. My current context is this: eat meats and fats, most carbs should come from whole vegetables (with the exception of a few meals a week), some supplementation around workouts. What are some other contexts you can adopt?

1. No gluten.

2. No processed foods.

3. Strict paleo with two cheat meals a week.

4. Eat whatever the fuck you want.

I'm serious about number four. At the end of the day, Ithink it's most important that we balance this equation:

Food + Exercise = Look + Feel + Perform

Can you "eat whatever the fuck you want" and be happy with how you look, feel and perform? Yes? Good for you! If not, figure out what needs to change, what's sustainable, and do it.

Snatch

Perhaps some of you are wondering what is so darned important about the snatch that we would take an entire day to just worry about it. Well, I wrote an article on just that that was published in the Performance Menu a few months back. Because I care about you so much, here's a link to the article (it would usually cost you $2.75!) A few key points in case you don't have time to read the entire thing:

1. No exercises translate better into all the other exercises we do in CrossFit than the Olympic lifts (snatch and clean and jerk.)

2. Practicing more complicated skills correctly (like the snatch,) improves our coordination and proprioception (ability to sense muscular actions) across the board.

3. It's fun. The snatch not only improves strength, it's also a very specific skill. Getting to hone a skill is a good change of pace and an excellent way to improve our brains.

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Remember, in the snatch, I don't teach any movements arbitrarily or because it's the right way to do it. Every position is task oriented, and I am suggesting the most efficient and productive way to move the bar from ground to overhead in one continuous movement. This movement will not be identical in every athlete. So learn from experimenting, hone your technique when the weights light, learn what it really takes when the weight's heavy.

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In order to be comfortable in a snatch, you must be comfortable in a overhead squat. Here are a few videos from Mobility WOD on improving your flexibility in troublesome areas. Expect to see many of these stretches in class soon, and add them to your pre- and post- class repertoire.

Hips, upper back and shoulder

Shoulders

Ankles (this is a big one for many of us)

More ankles

No safety nets

Let me issue an official (and cheesy) challenge: live 2013 without any safety nets. Go for what you want with all you got, don't carry unnecessary baggage or play it safe. As an example, I spent a lot of 2012 underemployed doing whatever it took to get a coaching job at CFNYC. And now I have a coaching job at CFNYC and could not be more happy. It is an honor to coach each of you, every day (I hope I never take it for granted.) I love being in an environment where we are constantly challenged to become better people, with a community to laugh and cry with us along the way. Thank you.

Warning: if you live without safety nets, some times you fall (fail) and there is nothing there to catch you. Having to stand back up makes you stronger, I promise. I did that in 2012 as well.  

Warning: if you come to Jason's party tonight, I will give this speech again, drunk.

Core Work

I must have been really angry one day because this gem was waiting for me in my draft folder this AM: people and their fucking abs. It seemed appropriate to tackle after our "ab cashout" this AM.

A. You don't get a six pack from doing sit ups. Six packs are the result of tight nutrition and genetics. It's probably more true that doing sit ups is just building a bigger platform for your beer belly.

B. Every workout does not need to end with core work. If it feels like you need to do abs to finish off a good workout, that just means you're addicted to them- lose the habit.

C. Don't do "abs," focus on midline stabilization. When push ups become tiresome, your straight plank becomes a smiley face because of droopy hips. Develop a stronger plank because it's universal- you're a plank when pressing overhead, when squatting, when upside down- use your abs to stay neutral and natural, then someday you can use it to pick up chicks (or dudes.)

D. Make sure you're doing the right core work, at the right time. This is a quote from one of my previous emails:

One very important part of endurance training that is often overlooked is the strength aspect. If you're not strong enough, not well built enough, to sustain midline stabilization, for instance, over the course of a 5K run, it's going to be the form breakdown and not the cardio aspect that will tear you down.

If this breakdown is often your downfall, do you need to do more sit ups or more planks? (See C.) Or even better, can you strengthen your midline by doing overhead squats, deadlifts or handstands? (The answer is yes.)

Similarly, a friend of mine told me that during his back squat his chest fell forward and his lower back flexed (everything came forward,) so he needed to do sit ups because those muscles pull you forward. WRONG. He needs to do back extensions, because the muscles of the lower back act as antagonists against the abdominals, keeping you upright. In brief, back extensions are usually more helpful than sit ups, as pulling movements are usually more necessary than pushing movements.

E. Move heavy weights. High weight, low rep- we follow this rule for every muscle group but abs? Why? Because high volume (how bodybuilders get bulky, fyi) makes us sore and sore means we're doing something to get rid of our guts, right?