I was going to write a long blog article on why progressions the coaches give you are so important to follow, which they are. The coaches are here to help you, not to hold you back. So when one of us tells you to get off a band or stop doing one pull up at a time, and take a seat and do some barbell seated pull-ups instead, it comes from a good place. We want you to get better. We are giving you this advice because it is our job to know that what you are doing is not going to help you nail that movement. You will be celebrating your 5th year of CrossFit still doing one pull up at a time. The progressions work. The people who take them seriously see results, often faster than they expected.
I reached out to a few members who have followed the advice of coaches. They took the time to do extra work, they practiced patience, and they have seen results greater than expected. They took progressions seriously and they worked. Here are their wise words. Read them. Digest them. Be them.
“Working on progressions has taught me a lot about how patience and consistency always gets you the results you’re looking for. That’s a given for some, but for me, it’s hard to sometimes maintain a constant focus. Oftentimes, a progression we work on for a specific movement will translate to another one. The kip is a perfect example of that.
Among a lot of movements before coming to CFH, the kipping pull-up was something I had never done before. The ability to control myself on the bar came from working on the hollow hold, superman, and plank positions on the floor. From there, I had built up the strength to comfortably get my body to hit those positions in the kip.
Butterfly pull-ups, toes-to-bar, and even muscle-ups were soon within my physical abilities. It’s a great feeling when you can hit multiple birds with one stone like that. One of the tips from the coaches was to keep the toes together. Once that was drilled into my kipping routine, the movements got even easier. Listening to the coaches and believing that you can do what they’re telling you to do is the key! A lot of it comes down to trust, especially with oneself, and allowing yourself to just go for it.”
-Jimmy Richards
“I have took progressions pretty seriously in the almost 8 months I’ve been a member at CFH. I knew that if I wanted to be able to successfully complete some of the movements, I would have to work my way up to them. Some of the exercises were new so I needed to gain strength and muscle memory. I didn’t just go through the motions. I proactively focused and challenged myself with the progressions. From sitting on the ground, using the bar for pull-ups to doing single unders. They helped me concentrate on the end goal.
It takes time and patience. I’m super competitive-mainly with myself so I channel that energy. Now, nothing makes me more excited than seeing certain exercises in the workout that I can excel on. My advice to anyone who is looking to advance is to do progressions correctly knowing one day you will be able to get to the place you want to be! I continue to work on myself and you can too!”
-Jessica Barnes
“I’ve been forced to focus on gymnastics and body weight movements since returning to CrossFit in 2016. Before I injured my back, I put most of my energy into improving my lifts. In my first couple years of CrossFit, I saw pull-up progress but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I was more comfortable using bands than doing other progressions and as a result I had trouble building the strength needed for the initial pulling motion. Don’t get me wrong, bands were great for learning what a good kip felt like, but they didn’t help as much with building pulling strength.
About 6 months ago I asked Coach Alexa what she suggested and she told me to do pull up holds and slow negatives. She also mentioned not to do more than 15 (I think I did 9) so that my arms wouldn’t fall off the next day. That was great advice because for a few days afterwards my arms and lats were sorer than ever.
Since that time I committed to doing a few sets of pull up holds and negatives at least once a week. Only a month or two later I was able to do a few strict pull-ups and much larger sets of kipping pull-ups. Not long after that I realized (by accident, really) that I could do chest to bar pull-ups. I was truly amazed and grateful that I continued doing the “annoying” and not-very-fun accessory work. Just two weeks ago, I even surprised myself with a few bar muscle ups.
Progressions really do make a difference!”
-Sam Hilbert
Written By: Blair Bayne