When Olymic weightlifters are working on a snatch, for instance, they perform one rep, put the weight down, think for a minute, then do another rep, for a total of maybe 3. This is because a snatch is an extraordinarily complex motion.
Crossfitters, with no exerience at all, will do that same snatch 40 times in a row, until they fall on the floor. (They pride themselves on falling down.) It doesn’t matter how ugly the mechanics are, all they care about is getting to 40.
When you watch a group of Crossfiters doing 40 overhead squats, for instance, it’s painful. You cringe the entire time because you can’t image a single one of them getting out of the class with their shoulders intact.
Of course, this is asinine to us. It defeats the entire purpose of strength training. You can’t get stronger by moving horribly. And all of those bad habits you create follow you out of the gym, where even the smallest imbalances can create big problems.
When a certain muscle group isn't firing enough, another muscle group gets overworked. That knot in your neck/shoulder is caused by you unintentionally sending too much work to the wrong place, simply by the way you carry yourself. Same with that ache in your low back. It is caused entirely by the way you have learned to move - your body's habits. Our job is to diagnose these imbalances, and fix them in the context of complex, real world body mechanics.
