To Kip or not to Kip

Today was a shoulder day which kind of surprised me because of the snatch work we did yesterday, but when I did the workout I realized that we were working different parts of the shoulder today. Even so, my shoulders were feeling a little burny and a lot weak when I left. (To be honest, everything was sore and shaky when I left, lol).

As an older Crossfitter, I am very aware of how the movements, lifts and excercises we do affect my body. I am particularly aware of how my shoulders feel. I know several people who have either torn their rotator cuff or their labrum and I absolutely do not want it to happen to me. The whole reason I work out is to stay fit and healthy and shoulder surgery doesn't really align with that, lol. Having been at a box that didn't seem to care about preventing injury, I did a lot of reading up on the shoulder and how it relates to the exercises we do in CrossFit. Today, for the first time at my new box, we worked on kipping pull-ups. I have always been afraid to kip because I've read it is very hard on the shoulders. I have also read from many sources that you should not try a kipping pull-up until you can do at least one strict pull-up.

I am a tall thin person with very long skinny extremities, and I'm not even close to getting a strict pull-up--pull-ups are hard for women to master, but one of my goals is to be able to do at least one. I was happy that we practiced the kipping movement,but my coach and I both agreed that my goal should be to build the strength to get a strict pull-up and then we'll worry about kipping. It's nice to have a coach that is attuned to the older or inexperienced Crossfitter--he has been injured and is almost militant about preventing injury, and I really appreciate that.