Find Your Pterodactyl
Mindset, again. I’ve become interested recently in the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset. (Ben Bergeron, Pursuit of Excellence podcasts, obsessed) Basically, having a fixed mindset means that you resign yourself to the fact that you / a situation is always going to be a certain way and that you have no power to change it, so why bother. Having a growth mindset means you see things as ever changing and that just because something is this way NOW, does not mean its that way forever, and it is completely within your control to bend what initially may seem like the confines of your situation and potentially change the outcome completely.
Adversity, My New Friend
So recently I’ve been all over mindset, it’s like my latest hobby. If you know me, you’ll know that I don’t just like something, I FUCKING LIKE IT, in bold, caps lock on. Whether it’s an object (must wear my Train Manchester tank from Sam Briggs’s gym every Saturday), a food (I have eaten broccoli every day for the last 12 months) or a person (my bff and I have 3 matching tattoos), I must absolutely immerse myself in whatever that thing is, until it either becomes as much a part of me as my frequent use of the C word, or I basically fuck it to death and move on to the next thing.
Junkie
"Would you say you are addicted to exercise?"
Asks my training partner / BFF / fitspo as we glue rhinestones to t-shirts in a rare non-exercise related activity.
I think carefully about my answer as I look around my apartment, which is decorated with a whiteboard detailing my next weeks training plan, along with a collage of photos taken of me at various comps over the last 18 months of being single as fuck and CrossFitting my life away. I have a kettlebell as a doorstop, and as we speak I’m entering my macros from the meal we just ate into My Fitness Pal.
Just Move
So as it’s my first blog for the legends at Evolutio, I thought I’d start by introducing myself. I’m Sarah, 31, former chef in both career and lifestyle. I now coach at Wards Gym and I also work for the YMCA. I promote both CrossFit and Les Mills respectively which, I’ll admit, is a confusing and contradictory combination. I generally try my hardest to not put the training style that I personally love more than anything in the world (CrossFit) on a pedestal and mindlessly criticize all others. If I wasn’t trying though, I would say something like this:
Stretching our Way to Success in the Gym
For as long as I can remember, my warm ups for football, running or sport in general had always incorporated a component of static stretching. We were led to believe that by stretching before activity would prepare our muscles and help prevent injury.
Three Mobility Exercises to Improve Overhead Position
So often we see people come into the clinic with issues performing overhead moves, none more so than the Snatch or Overhead Squat.
For the most of us, we are chained to a desk the good majority of the day, most days a week. This sustained stooped forward position leads to your thoracic spine being stuck in flexion, which doesn’t allow proper scapula mechanics, in turn limit end overhead position or if left unattended can lead to painful shoulder impingement syndrome.
2 Down, 3 to Go in the 2015 CrossFit Open - Spicy Shoulders?
2 down, 3 to go!
With the introduction of the scaled division this year, CrossFit HQ have made the Open a lot more accessible for athletes of all levels and abilities to get amongst it…With that said, there’s certainly been nothing held back in the WODs so far!
What is Functional Movement?
Over the past few months, We at Evolutio have been thinking up an array of ideas that may improve individuals understanding of both basic and advanced movement principles.
We want to provide innovation in athlete education and continue to bridge the gap between therapists and athletes as we aid athletes participating in CrossFit®, Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting.
We want to do all of this, whilst exploring the underlying biomechanical reasons that certain cues are given by trainers in the gym environment whilst pitching out a few extra little idea’s that could go a long way to improve your movement deficiencies or niggles.