Why it took me 2.5 yrs to get muscle ups

     I started crossfit at 40 back in September 2011.  Before that I was an ultramarathoner for 12 or so years.  Before that I was a weightlifter, wanna be meat head (never quite got HUGE...).

     If you don't know what a muscle up is, here:


     I did my 1st one of these probably about .....9 months into my crossfit.  I was super excited.  Then from that point (about June 2012) until just this April (2014) I struggled to do them at all.  Every few months or so I would maybe get 1.

     Now I have them.  But why?!  I will tell you what I figured out that NO ONE had ever told me.

     I heard for years (literally) that it would come, that I was strong enough, that I was "almost" there.  I drilled every drill I could drill.  Worked with different coaches, concentrated on them, blah blah blah.

     I'm one of those athletes that has a little too much mobility in the spine.  I am super flexible in both extension and flexion.  Part of the kipping movement of the muscle up is to arch

 your back on the back swing and then forcefully contract your abs creating a "hollow"

while pulling your self up to the rings.  Once you are up to the rings, you throw yourself forward and are on top of the rings basically.

     HERE WAS MY PROBLEM......

     There is a neuromuscular reflex called 'reciprocal inhibition' that inhibits opposing muscles during movement. For example, if you contract your elbow flexors (biceps) then your elbow extenors (triceps) are inhibited.  

     I was working so hard on the arch portion of my backswing that my abs were effectively shutting down via the RI principle.  So when it came time to initiate the aggressive abdominal contraction to come out of the backswing, I had to start from zero.  I had arched so aggressively that I'd effectively shut down my abs.  When I went to turn them back on, there was a lag time and I was unable to generate the needed force to get me up to the rings.

     My buddy Alex saw this as me "losing tension".  All I could think was that I was not losing tension, I was forcefully tensing up my spinal extensors very aggressively.  But as soon as I trusted that he might be on to something, I tensed my abs DURING the arching backswing.  It immediately felt counter-intuitive because it felt like it was (and it was) limiting the amount of arch I was able to obtain in the backswing.  

     BUT....I was able to engage my abs immediately and very aggressively.  I immediately popped up over the rings.  Then I did another and another every minute or so.  

     Since then I've been able to do them without any real problem at all.  I have to remember though on every rep to maintain abdominal tension in the backswing or else they shut down and it gets hard to get up to the rings all of the sudden again.

     Hope this helps some of you!!

Coach or cheerleader? You can't be both....

     Sitting at Luke's baseball game last night, I was reminded of the idea that you can be your kids coach or cheerleader...but not both.

     In sports, the coach's job is not to tell you your great, its to teach and correct mistakes to help you get better.  The coach is there to look at you with a critical eye.  Their real value lies in fixing your mistakes and telling you where you get it wrong.  If you are losing, the coach is full of criticism.  If you are winning, the coach is still looking for ways to help you be even better.  It's nothing personal.

     The cheerleaders, however, have a vastly different role.  Their role is to encourage and motivate by being positive and upbeat.  Whether the team is winning or losing, the cheerleader's function is to keep cheering.  When the game is all but lost, the cheerleaders might be the only ones on the field acting as if you can still pull it out.

     As parents, we can get trapped into taking personally when our kids are taking their eye off the ball, not holding the glove high enough, or making an error.  In our efforts to "help" them, we may be turning ourselves into the role of coach in the eyes of our little ones without realizing it.  How many adults look back and see a critical parent from their childhood that was always pointing out their mistakes?  They had a parent who fell into the role of coach and not cheerleader.

     On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice if your kids memories of you as a parent were that you were always standing behind them, always encouraging them, always giving them the feeling that you were rooting for them?

     Do you want to be a cheerleader or a coach?

Coachability...It's more than you think

     Very few athletes achieve greatness without coaching.  Coachability is often thought of as, will an athlete listen to improve their game.  While that is certainly a part of it, I think that there is far more.
   
     Problem: We all start out in sport as learners.  We all are coached at some point.  I recall learning fast in my early crossfit training because I would constantly bug people to show me stuff.  At some point though there can be a shift in an athlete where they are proficient in things and they stop seeking to learn so vigorously.

     Solution: Constantly ask folks to look at your technique/training, etc...don't ever stop trying to master the basics.  If the coach is busy, ask someone else.

     Problem:  You start to think that you can't learn from certain folks because you are further along in your development that they are.  This is a BIG mistake.  This is the "smartest guy in the room syndrome".

     The smartest people understand that they are life long learners and that you can learn from a large variety of sources, even if the resources you are tapping are less experienced than you, behind you in their development or someone that you may even disagree with.

     Solution:  Ask for feedback and advice from a large variety of folks regardless of their level or experience.  If it doesn't make sense, disregard it.  But very often a beginner will give you a gem about the fundamentals you've long forgotten or taken for granted.

     Problem:  The "That won't work for me" or the "I already do that" athlete.  Often times we as athlete's are resistant to cues or coaching out of either pride or a lack of understanding.

     I have a buddy who is (and I'm not trying to be mean) an annoying coach.  He's ALWAYS trying to tell you how to do something even if you aren't asking.  Recently he figured something out that helped me with my Muscle ups I've struggled with for literally years.  In the process I recall being dismissive and telling him that I already did what he was saying.  Well I obviously wasn't.  And when I finally got over myself I was able to hit the movement repeatedly with minimal effort.  For the 1st time in YEARS.

     Solution: Stop with the excuses and assume that the person trying to coach you might be right or there might be a way to do what they're saying that you haven't thought of yet.  In other words, drop your ego and excuses.