When Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, was pondering what exercises to include in his program and which ones to omit, he certainly considered natural human range of motion. It is built into the very nature of movements like:
Squat
Deadlift
Press
Lets use the squat to illustrate this. In healthy humans, hips are able to drop below parallel and then extend to 180 degrees at extension. You should be capable of moving throughout the entire range of a joint with relative ease and strength. Therefore, the exercise program designed to make humans healthy should include the same movement pattern. This is a huge problem with man made machines designed for working out. Folks that have spent years training on an elliptical, although excellent at that exercise, will likely have major deficiencies at any range beyond that which they have been training. Training less than full range of motion is also responsible for bodybuilders and ex-bodybuilders being unable to touch their right shoulder with their right hand. Go ahead, try it out. Therefore, if you are coming to CrossFit from any other arena of fitness, you should first focus on achieving correct positioning. Then concern yourself with adding weight and speed. This is why we are so adamant about our Fundamentals Program.
Full Range of Motion is also important for honest self assessment. It is a consistent standard by which workouts should be done. Imagine the following scenario. You complete Cindy on day 1 and hit 15 rounds at full range of motion. Then go on a one month vacation where you eat, drink and don’t workout. Then, upon arrival home, attempt the workout again and cut corners to beat your previous score of 15. You have actually gotten worse despite the score staying the same or improving. Now, lets say you got 16 the second time around. From this day forward you will want to try to hit 16 but since you never hit full ROM it will be really hard to do without cheating again. This puts you in a bad place where you will tend to feel pressured to cheat. Have the self-confidence to be honest with yourself. You will find it much easier to look yourself in the mirror each morning knowing you have been honest.
In addition to the negative health implications with partial range of motion, you might find yourself being disliked by your peers. CrossFit is, of course, competitive by nature. Your peers tend to find it very frustrating to work hard at full ROM only to be beaten by someone who they consider to have done less work. In an effort to keep the atmosphere in the gym positive and encouraging, we want to discourage resentment from creeping in via cheating. This is in no way a callout to anyone but we hope that reading this will help you to understand the importance of Full ROM.
I’d bet the person in the second video cant reach their hands all the way over their heads.