CrossFit Athletic Group

Jay Junkin has never had a problem keeping his feet straight forward on any of our common movements like box jumps or burpees. Double unders are no exception. Feet are perfectly straight forward - which is why he was putting up a fuss when I told him he needed to start doing them with the Foam of Shame between his feet on Tuesday's workout.

He is not alone in his argument, we hear it a lot. But I can keep my feet straight without keeping them together.

That is absolutely true. But the problem isn't in the feet. It's what's happening upstream as seen in the following picture of Jay during his fourth round of the workout.

Even though Jay's feet are straight, you can clearly see that his knees are clicking together. And if we see this happen when he is landing for double unders, then we know it's what happens when he lands for box jumps, burpees, or the more difficult single-leg variation called...running. A landing is a landing - regardless of what movement your brain says it is, the muscles and bones of the feet, knees, and hips can't tell the difference. If your feet stay together when jumping and landing, then that means there is no place for them to go other than a safe position - even for Hannah Kimmel, who was much worse mechanics than Jay.

Jay has never had a hip, ankle, or knee injury before. So let's keep it that way. Pain is not there to guide us to change our movement. Instead, it is there to tell us that we have already done something wrong - much like the airbags in your car. Instead, we use common sense regarding position to dictate how we move. It is really not debatable that the landing position above is less stable than knees over feet or "knees out." At some point, all of the repititions of bad landing (in workouts, sports, play time, etc.) will catch up to you. It's common sense. Whether that injury happens sooner rather than later depends on things your genetics, the activity you're doing, or how much time you spend in that position. Considering Jay currently holds our record for max height box jump, it appears he is pretty fortunate to have good enough genetics to overcome these bad mechanics so far.

Come winter (LeakSeal weather) when Jay is trying out for Grand Valley's basketball team, he will be putting himself through much more challenging jumping and landing situations than a simple double under. He is bound to land in a bad position every now and then. It's pretty much unavoidable in basketball. So might as well use the time in the gym to get it as close to perfect as possible so a problem is less likely to occur on the court. Luckily, we have learned how to spot these warning signs before they get to the point of pain.

Really, you have two choices when we correct you. 1) Argue about it during the workout and waste time and oxygen. Or 2) fix it when we tell you to, then question it after the workout. Either one we're ok with. But hopefully we can get to the point sometime where we aren't telling you to fix your position, you are choosing to do it yourself - and we just remind you when you forget. That's called being a mature athlete.