Powerlifting affiliate owner Chris Moore challenges the CrossFit community to train strength way more often.
For some reason, I recently recalled a memory of watching Kickboxer, the old Jean-Claude Van Damme fight-fest. I don’t remember much about the plot, and I really don’t care to. The movie’s probably as terrible now as it was then. But I’ll tell you what was great about it: the training montage.
Some of the details escape me, but I can still see a young, shirtless (always shirtless) Jean-Claude moving slowly through a misty Thai jungle. He was eager to train. It wasn’t long before his wise old master started laying into him. First, there was kicking. Lots of kicking.
Next, I can see a grimacing J.C. being forcibly stretched by the ankles between two palms. It could be that this was the very first mobility WOD I ever witnessed—my first glimpse at a true supple leopard. But the pain didn’t stop there. No. There were high-altitude coconut drops to the abdomen. Repeated leg strikes to a tree trunk. It was all quite intense.
Slowly, you begin to see method to all of the madness: extraordinary training leads to extraordinary, fast results.