CrossFit Snohomish Blog

Intervertebral Relationships

This is a picture of a neutral or natural spinal position. We are designed in such a way that the discs in between each vertebrae fit nicely in between each vertebrae without any pinching or squeezing. Notice the lordadic curve in the lumbar spine and the kyphotic curve in the thoracic spine. One of our goals as CFers is to become as strong as possible at maintaining these relationships between the vertebrae. This is called core strength. We hear about core strength a lot these days and it doesn’t mean, contrary to popular belief, that you have poppin’ six pack abs. That just means you don’t eat much in the way of starchy carbs, sugar and alcohol, but I digress. The only way to become stronger at maintaining these relationships is to do things that naturally make us want to lose these relationships forcing us to use our muscles to maintain them. The result is muscles that are better at maintaining these relationships when we walk out the door. Dead lifting and back squatting naturally make you lose your lordosis. Engage your spinal erectors, tighten your abs and you can fight against this, making you better at keeping this curve. GHD Situps and overhead pressing can make you over exaggerate your lordadic curve and lose some of your kyphotic curve messing up those intervertebral relationships. You must really contract your abs and think of keeping the front of your rib cage down to fight against this stimulus. This will cause you to be more effective at fighting against these types forces in real life. Side note…if you can’t even put your spine in a neutral position when you are just standing, due to inflexibility you probably have back problems. We can improve this problem, usually through focused flexibility training and CFing. Side note finished. So whether you are snatching, deadlifting, pressing, jerking, GHDing sitting upping, running, rowing or sitting in a chair, this is the position your spine should be in. So stay neutral people! Your back will thank you.

Tooty on the ’09 Games Site

Great video. Write up, pic and comments here. By the way, the only reason she keeps flipping the KB over is because that is the only way her judge would call her reps good. The KB had to be vertical overhead and he was quite a stickler! Side note again. I prefer that you keep the KB slightly in front of your hands rather than crashing down on your head. Just a preference of mine and my insurance company. Side note finished.

AM Class

“Elizabeth“

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

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PM Classes

Run 1600m
Rest 4 minutes
Run 800m
Rest 3 minutes
Run 400m
Rest 2 minutes
Run 200m

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