How to Gain ANY Skill

We do a lot of different exercises and movements at Equity from rowing to kettlebell swings to toes to bar. This variety is part of the secret sauce. If your goal is to lose weight but you get bored running on a treadmill every day doing a different workout everyday will help keep your workout fresh and keep you coming back for more.

However with that variety, we may not hit a particular movement every week. On average we might do toes to bar every 8 days. It can be challenging to improve on something when you are not doing it 3+ days a week (just like working out and eating right). That being said the other movements that we do will help build other movements, V-ups and sit-ups will help build your mid-line for toes to bar and bent over row will help build your lat strength for those same toes to bar.

Having the capacity to do a single rep of a movement is not the same as “having” the skill. To build competence in a skill we need three things 1) FOCUS 2) CONSISTENTCY and 3) HELP. Going to break these down with two stories.

First a story on FOCUS. When I found a local CrossFit gym I was so pumped. I would follow the programming in my garage during the week and go to their Saturday team classes (I love team workouts). Rope climbs were on the menu one day and something sparked in me, “I need to be able to do those”. So the following week at work every spare minute I had I was researching how to climb a rope. It was basically the only thing I thought about. When I went to the gym the next Saturday I knew the concept, now I just had to practice and implement it. With the help of the coaches I got up that rope. I had never done anything like that before. It was so cool and challenging and worthwhile. This type of laser focus on one specific movement helped me accelerate my progress in a movement I literally had never done in my entire life. I still did other workouts and my job and chores around the house but extra time was for research and practice.

The second story is about CONSISTENCY and double unders. Double unders are generally the arch nemesis of new members to the gym. They are a skill that take a lot of practice to refine and people make them look “so easy”. I was now a full time member at CrossFit Salisbury. I had my own jump rope and could string together 10 to 50ish double unders at a time but they were inconsistent to say the least. One weekend I decided to start focusing on improving my double unders; I was tired of them always tripping me up. So I committed to get up a bit earlier everyday before work and do 100 double unders for time. I would log my time and how many sets it took. I believe I gave myself a 5 minute time cap as well. First two days I don’t finish but everything is okay. Third day I finish in the time cap (“I am the greatest jumper of ropes ever!”). Then I have a day where I clip and clip again and again and again and finally I get so frustrated I throw my rope against the wall with rage and quit. I was frustrated and angry and now the “worst jumper of ropes ever”. The next day I get through the 100 just fine. Eventually I am finishing in 2-3 sets in under 2-3 minutes then I am finishing in 1 set and under 90 seconds. It got hard but I did it EVERY morning.

FOCUS AND CONSISTENCY are the ways to fast track a skill. The same goes for gaining strength or obtaining any goal. Focus on that thing and do it consistently over time. I did the skills above mostly alone. Getting help would have sped up this process. Personal training, skill sessions, personal designed accessory/skill work can help accelerate your progress even more. Last week Paul got his first bar muscle up. He has done a lot of work to improve his strength and skill in other gymnastic movements but on top of that he did a 30 minute skill session with me on the bar muscle up. That session along with all the other work he put in built up to that first ever BMU.

This works for any skill not just working out. Use this in your life to improve at your job, to be a better spouse, a better parent, a better friend, better with your finances, etc.

Lets get better today!

Cheers,
Berek