Air Squats Are A Great Way To Warm Up For Your CrossFit Training
There is perhaps no other movement as fundamental to CrossFit as the air squat. If you want to do CrossFit, the air squat will be the first movement you learn and serve as a core component of many of the workouts of the day (WODs). The value of a good warm up is often underestimated, especially in longer endurance events. A warm up is the gradual transition from being at rest to the required exercise intensity. If we go from standing to running at race pace, our oxygen delivery will lag behind our oxygen consumption as our heart rate gradually increases, causing an oxygen debt (see image below). This oxygen debt can be disruptive to our aerobic systems and impair performance. This rate of change of oxygen delivery is called V̇O2 Kinetics. The warm up period also allows a gradual increase in muscle temperature, an increase in the oxidative enzyme activity, greater blood flow, and improved availability of fuel in a form that is usable by the muscles and improved Muscle Recruitment.
Why the air squat so important to CrossFit? The squat is a fundamental movement pattern which everybody should be able to execute. All of us squat every day. Every time you sit down in a chair, that’s a squat. Every time you get up from a chair, that’s a squat too. If you need to warm up where there is limited room, such as at the start of a crowded race, or indoors on a cold day, then air squats can be quite effective.
In fact, the squat is one of the first movements we ever employ in our development as infants. Think about it, how do babies first learn how to stand? Once the hip and leg muscles become strong enough a baby will go from a sitting to a standing position – little Jonny’s first ever squat! If you have ever observed infants playing you will notice that they squat all the time to pick things up off the ground and with perfect form. Remember to put your weight on your heels, the knees tracking over the toes, and back straight. I would suggest working with a certified Crossfit St Petersburg personal trainer.
Go to any commercial gym and watch people squatting and you will be lucky to see anything approaching perfect form. This is probably why the squat has been given a bad rep in the past as a dangerous exercise. A proper squat is one of the safest, most natural movements the human body can perform. The type of movement which passes for a squat in the local gym on the other hand (weight forwards, rounded back, thighs not past parallel) is a perfect recipe for knee, hip and back problems.
As we get older most of us lose the requisite mobility in our hips, knees and ankles to be able to squat properly. What is responsible for this? The good old chair is. Most of us, especially the office monkeys, spend the day sitting down. This leaves our gluts and hamstrings in a permanently short position which affects our flexibility.
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