Essentials, Day 5

I've been excited to write this post because today's lessons covered what is ostensibly one of the most controversial and polarizing elements of CrossFit.

Today, we learned kipping pull-ups.  What the hell is "kipping"?  Actually, it's much easier to watch than to read about, so I encourage you to follow the link (press '4' to skip to the most relevant footage).

For those not able to open YouTube, "kipping" is a momentum-generating movement that assists the execution of the pull-up.  The athlete swings such that her upper body and lower body act as counterweights to each other, which sort of generates centrifugal momentum about the bar that helps her clear her chin over the bar.  This makes the pull-up easier for two reasons:

1. The body's swinging generates a little bit of upward momentum, reducing the load on the back muscles.
2. As the upper body swings upward, the arms become relatively more horizontal.  This position puts the back's muscles at much higher mechanical advantage than it would be otherwise when hanging beneath the bar.

CrossFit endorses this style of pull-up because its goal is to maximize power.  That is to say, applying maximum force over a given distance in the least amount of time possible.  Kipping allows a person to do more work (moving your head from beneath the bar to above the bar) in less time.  Indeed, kipping certainly helps achieve that goal compared against it's older brother, the dead-hang pull-up.

At this point, traditionalists and critics write off CrossFit immediately here.  A pull-up, evidently, is a pretty sacred movement in the world of fitness and many feel that CrossFit shits all over it.  And to be perfectly honest, the traditionalists have a point:

1. The purpose of the traditional pull-up has always been to build upper-body strength.  The movement primarily works the latissimus dorsi, along with 12 other muscles acting as synergists.  It's been a staple of upper-body strength training for a very, very long time.
2. If  you were hanging such that your body were against a flat surface, such as a rock or a building, kipping would serve no purpose.  The only way to pull yourself up would be to have sufficient upper body strength.

So who's right?  Well, neither.  And both.

Kipping pull-ups meet their training objectives in that they do hoist your body up very quickly and efficiently.  It's an exercise to develop power and endurance.  That said, I do not believe that this is an optimal technique to develop raw back strength.

Traditional pull-ups meet their training objectives in that they develop the back muscles.  It's an exercise to build raw strength.  That said, I do not believe that this is an effective technique for delivering power.

So all told, the two exercises are separate techniques that serve different purposes.  Much the way that a deadlift and a clean hit many of the same muscle groups but train them in very different ways, so are kipping pull-ups and dead-hang pull-ups.  I'm not sure why this causes such a commotion among fitness communities, as both exercises have their proper place.

At any rate, here was my WOD today:

3 RFT

5 pull-ups
10 HR push-ups (lift hands from the floor at bottom of the push-up)
15 box jumps
20 push presses (55 lbs)
15 kettle bell swings
10 GHD (glute-ham-developer) sit-ups
5 ring dips

15:43

The push presses were easily the most taxing part of the workout.  In the third heat, I needed 5 or 6 rests.  This workout certainly panders to my strengths more than the ones involving endurance, so I'm happy to have finally beaten my classmate on something.  Not by much, but I'll take it.