CrossFit Athletic Group

Our reason behind doing a push-up one day might be different than the reason we do it another day. One time could be to emphasize midline stability, another could be to reinforce the correct movement pattern of upper body pushing. But the reason we do a push-up is rarely because we want you to get better at hitting your chest on the ground then locking your arms out all the way.

For more coordinated movements, like the clean and jerk today, there are a ton of things we can emphasize. But it usually comes down to strength (position) or skill (timing) or both. It can be different from day-to-day or from athlete-to-athlete. So if you are ever confused with how you are being taught the same movement differently on a certain day, this is why.

Today's clean and jerks were mostly done to practice the skill. We have been working on this with rope climbs and kettlebell swings in the warmups recently, and it was time to see how it looked with a weightlifting movement we haven't done since Summer. Here's how Mrs. Kroll looked at the 8:30 am session on her last set before the 20 minutes was up.

Her position was not great; knees buckling on the unweight and soft post 2 on split jerk. Her range of motion was not either seeing as she never stood up all the way after the split jerk. But in my eyes, these were perfect for today's workout because she met this day's movement standard of core-to-extremity on both the clean and the split jerk. The click of the bar you hear and the bouncing of her arms is a sure sign of that. Her form was probably the best we saw today.

Next time, we might focus on the position - where she would definitely have her work cut out for her. Or not. Who knows? Just remember that we don't look at a movement as a concrete thing. The effect we want to get from that movement is different from day-to-day.