F This! (Foundation)

Would you start fixing a 30 story building on the 15th floor? Or would you first want to make sure the basement, ground floor and the rest of the support structures are well in place?

In relation to the human body we see medical practitioners often trying to attack the location of pain, but often times they miss the cause of the pain. My buddy, Dr. Perry Nickeltson, has a great brand called "Stop Chasing Pain" and a huge portion of that has to do with making sure the feet (the truest foundation of our bodies) are working properly. KStarr in his latest book, Ready to Run, discusses ensuring those same feet are prepared and built up to handle the load that running is on the body.

When CrossFit comes up with some folks, I hear "I want to get in shape first before I try it." I theorize this has to do with the mildly intimidating factor of seeing the fittest on earth on ESPN and thinking they will be doing the same thing. In reality, they are doing the same thing - only modified. CrossFit is universally scalable so that 5 year old children, 85 year old grandmas and the fittest man on earth are all doing the same workout, with some minor modifications. A classic CF workout by the name of "Cindy" is 20 minutes of work to get as many rounds and reps as possible of 5 pushups, 10 pull-ups and 15 air squats. For the 5 year old child those pushups may have to be on the knees, the pull-ups would likely turn to ring rows or another version of pulling. While for babushka (grandma in Russian) the pushups may be against a wall, pull-ups would be more in a horizontal lane to minimize the effects of gravity and air squats may be sit to stand from a chair (we also may cut it down from 20 minutes to 5 depending on her level of conditioning).

We are always working to build a foundation or strengthen it further. The trouble becomes when we ignore the feet or attempt advanced skills that the foundation has not been built for. We also see this a lot in CrossFit when people try muscle ups but don't have enough pulling and pushing strength (strict pull-ups and ring dips) thus putting a decent amount of strain on the shoulders. Furthermore, if the entirety of the shoulder complex is not firing and engaged or the same for the "core" muscles, compensations happen.

My goal as a physio+fitness trainer is to make sure you don't rush, to make sure you learn to fire all the right muscles at the right times. I love the template of teaching moves that follows this progression:
Position
Motion
Speed
Resistance

Make sure you have enough mobility to get in the full range of motion of that move.
Understand the path your body is taking in the entirety of the move.
Add some speed to see if we can coordinate everything and start to train the beginning of power.
Finally, add and build resistance to it to get #gainzz

Without a strong foundation, your building will collapse. And without a centered foundation, you can stay upright for a long time, but you probably won't be functioning very properly...