Monday, July 12, 2010

The Fuzz



Look. You've got to take care of your tissues. This is probably second in importance only to the universal "protect your crotch" law. Stretching or mobilizing your tight business is always a good idea, but in reality as about as sexy as laundry and taxes.
But, really, who cares if your performance suffers, or you get pulled into terribly technique poor positioning, or are really weak at the end ranges of your range of motion, or you are wearing out your joint surfaces?
Enter the Fuzz Concept.
Maybe, you will start stretching because you just don't like the concept of "fuzz" accumulating in your tissues. Fuzz you ask? I have a fuzz problem? What the fuzz? Gil Hedley, rockstar anatomist, makes an excellent case and presents a compelling hypothesis for internal muscular resistance. You can think of muscular "stiffness" as a measure of how well the muscle tissue (and other connective tissues) slide past one another. The more stiffness, the greater the internal resistance of the system. Increased internal resistance means decreased efficiency and lost power output. (We actually talk about this at the Movement and Mobility Seminar.) Dr. Hedley describes the formation of fuzz as secondary to immobility (like sleeping). As an aside, Leopards do stretch by the way, and you aren't a leopard--so quit using the "leopard defense" to rationalize your stiff/tight self. Know what makes even more fuzz accumulate in your body? Muscle damage. That's right. Working out.
Go ahead, say something witty you fuzz collector.
Now watch the man himself describe the fuzz epidemic.


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WOD

as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:
5 toes-to-bar
10 pistols, alternating
15 box jumps

What do you find as the most difficult element, if any?

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We think there's a better way to warm-up when it comes to exercise. After doing some sort of met-con (aka "cardio") we attack mobility using dynamic movements. This means moving the entire time vs. static stretching.


This allows us a greater range of motion, better mobility and we can use it to "shake it out" in the middle of a WOD. DROM can be used for cool downs too!

1 comment:

Paleo Queen said...

OHHHHhhhh very funny.