Ever heard the phrase that “practice makes perfect”? This could be the case assuming that your practice is perfect or pretty darn close. I prefer to say that “perfect practice makes perfect” to emphasize the importance of every training session, every set, and every rep we perform. We are continuously drilling movement patterns into our cerebellums (part of the brain responsible for muscle memory). Over the past couple of days I’ve been asked some questions about different movements like Nick was curious about why I was doing a full squat clean with a weight that I could easily power clean or Dustin’s question about why we stand tall at the top of a box jump. In both circumstances the answer had to do with building good movement patterns.

Keep your focus on quality. Please don’t be so quick to sacrifice form and technique in order to shave seconds off your time, add reps to your Tabata score, or finish 1 sec faster than your closest competition. Each rep we perform is a data point that gets integrated into our muscle memory that over time shape our movement patterns. Sometimes we have to swallow that bitter pill, also known as our pride, and not finish with that sub 4 minute Fran we were shooting for that day or finish with a faster time than we did previously. And why you ask…is it worth the extra effort? Well that’s the question you must ask yourself, but in my experience the feeling you get from knowing you gave your best effort without compromising quality for selfish ends is far greater than that gained from shorting ROM in order to finish more quickly. In the long run you’re less likely to plateau or injure yourself if you force yourself to perform the movement correctly every session, every set, every rep.

WOD 02.17.10

Bench Press 3×5

5 Rounds
21 Double Unders
15 KBS

(WOD courtesy of Practice CrossFit)