Dave Werner

dave@crossfitseattle.com
206-992-7330

- CrossFit Coach
- National Strength and Conditioning Association - Certified Personal Trainer
  (NSCA-CPT)
- USAW certified Olympic weightlifting coach
- Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) Certified
- Navy SEAL veteran
- Dave has over 20 years of coaching experience

Read Dave's Back Rehab story.

Interview with Dave:

Q: Dave, what's the first thing you train people on?

A: The first order of business is teaching proper use of the hips, and the way to do that is with the unweighted, or bodyweight, squat. The foundation of all safe, effective, powerful human movement is being able to control the shape of the torso, and flex and extend the hips, thereby getting your strength and power from your legs instead of from the little muscles in your back. This is a skill that almost everybody lacks, and it's useless to build strong shoulders if you don't know how to control your core and use your hips. So without a decent squat, everything else is building a building without a foundation.

Q: What if a client says they can't squat because of knee problems or some other problem?

A: Lots of people can't squat properly. Generally, the knee and hip problems people have are caused by the fact that they didn't know how to squat right. So by changing the range of motion or decreasing the load, providing whatever the advantage is that they need to begin to squat properly, we start to strengthen the proper muscles and help the client start to obtain the proper range of motion and almost without exception, this fixes the knee and hip problems. Sometimes we talk instead about sitting down and standing up. Everybody has been able sit in a chair. So we stack mats under them to limit the range of motion to that of sitting in a chair, or even less, so that we can start building the squat. It's such a fundamental movement that we absolutely have to address it. We have to get a decent movement pattern with the squat.

Q: I play sports. Why shouldn't I just practice my sport and skip these extra workouts?

A: Our primary goal is not training people in a specialized way for a sport. What we do is help you build a solid foundation of athleticism, no matter where you start or where your fitness level is. You're going to do better at your sport once you've learned how to move like an athlete, using your hips and legs, the strongest parts of your body. You can get more value out of sport-specific training with the foundation of work capacity, strength, and flexibility that we train. A sport coach might not address basic problems like tight hamstrings.

CrossFit workouts reveal weaknesses you might not have found another way, and address them. For example, one client was a surf-ski paddler, and we found he wasn't using his hips properly in rowing. He had been unable to progress beyond a certain point in his sport because he wasn't using his hips, and we were able to identify and address that basic issue. Another client is getting more serious about his swimming. That training wouldn't do him as much good without a full range of motion in his shoulders, and strength through the whole range. Before he started working on shoulder flexibility, tight shoulders prevented him from being able to do the swim stroke through its full range without pain. And that can lead to injury.

We're not training muscles and strength for their own sake. What we're doing is training movement—movement that lets people enjoy whatever it is they're doing, whether it's high-level sports, gardening, or cleaning out the garage. That kind of work is all about lifting, twisting, carrying, pushing, stacking, the full range of human movement. We train people to move their bodies effectively, powerfully, athletically, pain-free. And movement is fun.

Q: Your workouts contain push-ups and pull-ups. I can't do a single one of either. How can I work out with you?

A: Lots of people can't do a push-up or a pull-up. We decrease the load, change the angle, provide some supported analogue of a pull-up, so that even the most deconditioned person, or elderly people, or children, who start off not being able to do a pull-up eventually can do a pullup. It's about progression and starting with what the client can do, and working in reasonable steps toward what the goal is. It doesn't really matter how long it takes. It just matters that steady increments of progress are made.

Q: Can you help me lose weight?

A: A lot of people think they can get to their weight-loss goals just by working out. We make clear that working out provides a foundation for weight loss and for healthy bodies, but weight loss is primarily about eating right. We direct clients to resources that can help them eat right.