5 Good Questions: Answered

The Soap Box with Austin Malleolo

I got some great questions the other day, so I decided to answer them on here!

1) How important is a rotational aspect in functional fitness? I feel like there are tons of back injuries in the general population and many of them come from twisting motions. For example, shoveling snow. It’s somewhat of a deadlift/clean variation but there’s also a big rotational phase in most cases. In my eyes, Crossfit does not really address that motion
2) We do a ton of bilateral motions. Deadlift, push press, cleans, thrusters etc. but unilateral work does not seem to be addressed all that much. I could be missing something but how important do you think unilateral work is in a general fitness program?
3) In a similar vein, we seem to do a ton of linear work. We lunge in a straight line, we run in a straight line, we jump (most of the time) basically straight up and down. Do you think we should be moving laterally or backwards more?
4) In daily life, I might consider throwing a functional movement. Playing frisbee, throwing a football, throwing a baseball, tossing a bag for corn hole, etc. They’re all forms of throwing that seem to appear pretty often in everyday life. I think there is a phrase associated with Crossfit like “regularly try and learn new sports” but do you think it’s enough? Should we incorporate forms of throwing into a warm up to reduce shoulder related injury for the general population?
5) The goal of Crossfit is to keep workouts short and move people from the sick end of the continuum to the fit end of the continuum while forging and fostering health. Health being what you said, work capacity across broad time and modal domains across the length of life. Again, maybe I’m wrong but I feel like a more appropriate form of training to extend quality and quantity of life would be a mix of bodybuilding and low impact cardio. While boring, it still promotes the building and retention of muscle mass which is a good predictor of length and quality of life. It also addresses cardiovascular health without beating up your joints. Crossfit is way more fun and addresses many other aspects of fitness but if the goal is really to keep people out of the nursing home, I might take another approach.