Virtuosity - The Common Uncommonly Well

Hello Fitters.

Merriam-Webster defines virtuosity as such: great ability or skill shown by a musician, performer, etc. But to me, that makes the idea of skill or ability seem beyond the reach of us "mortal" people.  You need not be a musician, performer, artist, or athlete to be able to show great skill or ability. These can be demonstrated with the most basic of actions. Do you want to know the best definition of virtuosity that I have seen? In gymnastics, virtuosity is defined as such:

Performing the common UNCOMMONLY well.

Think about that. Have you seen a 45 year old squat? I'm sure you've seen a person that age sit down and stand up. But have you seen a 45 year old man squat with a vertical torso, knees out, weight in the heels, good lumbar arch, and butt all the way to the ground? It's not as common. But we all do squats, right? I would say it's a fairly common movement, considering probably 95% of humans do it on a daily basis. But not like that, not that well. Now imagine doing it for 100 repetitions. Even more impressive, right? Now the 45 year old does 100 perfect squats like this in 3 minutes. Now this common movement is being done so uncommonly well, wouldn't you agree?

It is pretty obvious our society is bombarded with the "industry" of health and fitness, but with that comes the inundation of people with fancy movements, equipment, exercises, straps, wraps, bars and benches, and trying to move more and more weight. I will not say these items have no place in our exercise (they do, I use them myself), but it hides us from the reason we do it, to move and perform well. So it is important that we remember to train those movements (squats, lunges, pushups, and other simple gymnastics movements). And not only should we do these movements, we should strive for virtuosity in these movements. We should train to perform these common movements uncommonly well. From there, we can advance these other movements, like clean and jerks and snatches, and full on sport. If your squat is perfect EVERY time, you can believe you will be more inclined to perform better in your jumping, stepping, running, sprinting, cleans, and on and on. So don't let the extras bog you down from remembering to Do the Common Uncommonly Well.

Stay Fit.

Chad Vaughn, 285 snatch. Not as common of a movement, but his virtuosity in other movements most certainly translate to this. And is still done uncommonly well. And I'm a geek who loves kinesology. So here you go Fitters, enjoy.