#Toes to bar crossfit how to#

You should also work more pulling exercises and static holds into your routine. But if youвЂ™re struggling to maintain the hollow position in this test, keep doing the test every day until itвЂ™s easy. If you find that you are strong enough to do this test then great вЂ“ you just needed to remind your lats of their role in all of this.

#Toes to bar crossfit how to#

HereвЂ™s a test you can do with a partner to determine if you need to work on strengthening your lats (or just learn how to activate them). The stronger this portion of the swing, the higher the body travels and the shorter the distance your toes have to travel to touch the bar. The backswing and the toe-distance lessening are mostly controlled by strong lat muscles which allow you to push down on the bar to create a bigger, stronger kip. That first bit of shoulder activation when we hang from the bar is called a scapular pull-up and you should be able to hold that position for 30 seconds and you should also be able to do at least 10 unbroken reps of the movement. The shoulders arenвЂ™t just responsible for connecting our arms to our bodies, they are the first thing to activate in the toes-to-bar (and pull-up) and should continue to be active and strong throughout the entire movement not only to protect our shoulder joints but to also provide assistance in the kipping movement on the backswing and to lessen the distance our toes have to travel to touch the bar. These are the other common culprits when it comes to strength deficiency for completing toes-to-bar. If you cannot, you might consider putting in some extra time on your abs with any or all of these exercises to strengthen your midline.

You should be able to get at least 15 reps in 30 seconds. Bring your knees to waist height without touching the floor between reps. Test to see if this is you by hanging from a bar and performing mini-crunches. If you have trouble with most or all abdominal/midline exercises, this is where you should first focus some attention. This is usually the first place we look for the problem and while they can be a culprit, especially in the untrained population, chances are this is actually only a small piece of the puzzle for most folks. So if youвЂ™re struggling with your toes-to-bar even though it seems like you should be able to do them based on your strength and athletic prowess, then read on for some tests and solutions to help you improve upon yours. Most look to lack of midline strength as the primary cause, and although it might be, I suggest there are at least three other places to look before determining that is your (only) issue. However it is typically one of the last movements CrossFitters are able to achieve.

It seems like such a straightforward movement that any strong and fit human should be able to accomplish without much thought.