04/18/2023
It was a great time at DRiV FiTNESS - St. Augustine's CrossFit Community shooting these shots for CrossFit ❤️
Olympic Weightlifting is a Cornerstone of CrossFit Training.
The sn**ch and clean and jerk are unparalleled at developing many of the adaptations essential for peak fitness: speed, strength, power, flexibility, coordination, agility, accuracy, and balance. Performing high-rep sets of these movements boosts strength endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, and stamina in spades. CrossFit programs the Olympic lifts through a wide range of rep schemes specifically to develop all these skills.
However, CrossFit trainers continue to be bombarded with attacks that require them to defend this safe, effective, and necessary component of CrossFit’s methodology. Here are four common claims/myths:
1. Olympic lifts are dangerous at higher rep ranges because of the inevitable technical breakdown.
2. High-rep Olympic lifting is a poor method of conditioning.
3. High-rep Olympic lifting doesn’t build strength in the lifts.
4. High-rep Olympic lifts erode an athlete’s technique in the classic lifts.
"In Defense of High-Rep Olympic Lifts," Stephane Rochet, CF-L3, delves into a deeper discussion of the counterpoints to each of these four arguments → https://www.crossfit.com/pro-coach/in-defense-of-high-rep-olympic-lifts
There is no disagreement that any movement done with poor form is less than ideal and exposes the athlete to a greater risk of injury. This concept is not specific to the Olympic lifts and is present in the ex*****on of any skill or capacity, whether it is fast or slow, light or heavy, small or large.
CrossFit has never condoned poor technique on the path to fitness. In fact, technique is everything in CrossFit; it is at the heart of the program precisely because technique dramatically increases results while supporting safety in training. CrossFit involves incessantly drilling technique to develop great mechanics and consistency before intensity (in terms of weight or reps or speed) is added to the mix. This is non-negotiable. If you are coaching CrossFit and you are not adhering to the mechanics-consistency-intensity charter, then you are coaching CrossFit wrong. If you are an athlete and you are skipping over mechanics and consistency to wallow in intensity, you are doing CrossFit wrong.
