The Wanderer

In the immortal words of the bard (Dion), they might as well call me the wanderer. Over the last few years of WoDs--most Crossfit, some not--I've developed and nurtured the bad, bad habit of walking away from the weight during breaks between reps. Now, that brief mental sortie is (very) occasionally a necessary evil during a longer-duration WoD, say around rep 40 of the 50 rep wallball during the Filthy Fifty.

But as a general practice, here's the problem with the stepaway--it's inefficient by design. Walk with me here for a minute. You're in the middle of a set of 10 heavy cleans and make it to rep 5 before you need to take a breather, so you drop the weight and take a few steps away.

And this begs the question: what is it that's supposed to be happening while you're breaking from the exercise? Quite simply, recovery. Resting as needed to Recover so that you're Ready to hit the next Rep. Lots of R's, and last I checked, there are no R's in stepaway. Pithy, isn't it? But the point stands--you're not adding necessary additional recovery by stepping away from the weight; instead, what you are doing is introducing an artificial, extrafunctional bridge back to the movement.

Here's what I can tell you confidently about your brain under duress, acquaintance unmade: it won't let you make any movement back to the exercise before it's good and ready, whether that movement be a step towards the bar or the actual reach downwards to retrieve the bar and begin your next rep. So why step away and remove that first post-Recovery movement ten paces from its target?

So...Resolution: to drop the stepaway once and for all (except for the aforementioned Filthy Fifty). P.S., I stepped away two times during the WoD today, hence the entry.

WoD
12 noon CFB
warmup: dynamic warmup (bear crawls, squat jumps, high knees, leg kicks)
skill work: PVC snatches and front squats
WoD:
3 rounds for time: 10 front squats, 60% max weight, 10 broad jumps--time 4:27, 145 lb on front squats
rest 5 min
3 rounds for time: 7 barbell snatches, 60% max weight, 7 burpee pullups--time 6:59, 45 lb on snatches
rest 5 min
8 intervals 20 sec work/10 sec rest rowing maching