Thoughts on Crossfit, Off-Season Phase 5, and Pilates Bench Assisted 1-Leg Squat

Hey everyone, I hope all is well.  I am going to blog about the content that was added this past week at HockeySc.com.  Before I do, I just want to mention something about the link I posted to Charles Poliquin’s blog titled, Getting the Most Out of Crossfit .

I am asked quite frequently “What do you think of Crossfit?” by friends and others who have heard about it.  I was actually going to blog about answering that question, but then I read Charles’ blog the other day.  He did a really good job of saying what I was thinking.  It disgusts me to see exercises that should be performed with proficient technique done poorly.  There are tons of videos that are being shared on the internet showing this stuff that would be considered Crossfit.  People can get hurt pretty easily in the weight room and showing freak accidents doesn’t help promote the positive aspects of Crossfit.   However, you can’t disregard the fact that more people are actually going to these crossfit gyms.  I think it’s great that there are more people joining these gyms versus joining big box fitness gyms and not having a plan in place to help them achieve their goals.  People getting off of their asses, being competitive, strength training, and eating better are good things for our society. The most important concept to me is as long as it’s done properly.  I would imagine that there are some really good Crossfit trainers and gyms while there are also some bad ones.  It wouldn’t be fair to mention that there are some really good strength and conditioning coaches and programs and also some really bad strength and conditioning coaches and programs.

As far as what is going on at HockeySC goes:

I posted a program, Summer 2011 Strength Training Phase 5.  Phase 5 has always been the transition period from 4-day per week off-season training into our pre-season mode.  I would classify this as our circuit training phase.  We have been doing these types of phases for about 8 years now.

Next up was Mike Potenza’s Pilates Bench Assisted 1-leg Squat video of the week.  I’ve never seen this device/chair before.  What Mike is doing with it in the video is a really good 1-leg squatting regression.  I can definitely see this being used in a re-hab setting to help restore a player’s one-leg strength.  This is a great video from Mike.

Please enjoy the weekend and more importantly- Go Pats!

Sean