Archive | January, 2012

Can’t stop, won’t stop

31 Jan

I’ve caught myself second-guessing some of my vocal enthusiasm over the last half-year regarding fitness and health. I’m sure more than eighty percent of my Facebook posts are related to one or the other. And I’m sure it’s annoying more than eighty percent of my Facebook “friends.” Most probably just ignore me, maybe they hide my posts. Some tease me jokingly to my face or on my wall, and others, who thought they knew me (or knew the “old” me) are wondering what the hell kinda cult have I got myself into and when will I ever snap out of it?

The thing is, I blab about it because it’s exciting. It has helped me grow as a whole person in so many ways over the last year, mainly in developing confidence and enthusiasm for life. God has given a thousand blessings, and I’ll be damned if I miss out on them. I now have the energy, confidence, and desire to get after life. It comes from doing realistically insignificant things like learning to climb a rope, lifting more weight than I ever have, and even consistently failing at double-unders. I’ve learned it’s okay to try new things, and then fail. And fail over and over again. Because if you keep trying different new things, as well as recognizing weaknesses and working on them, you will succeed at something. It’s inevitable, and it’s awesome.

It makes me more brave at parenting, at hobbies – I’ve taken on cooking! Not a skill I had, but I’m trying, learning, succeeding and failing. I’m better able to handle decisions and stress at work. And I’m not sweating the small stuff so much, because I know how to handle some big things, like heavy squats. When you can successfully will yourself up from the bottom of a heavy front squat that makes you want to hunch over, drop the bar, and fall on the floor, the small stuff gets much easier to shrug away.

So I’m learning all this, and I want to share it, spread the love, in hopes that others can find it. Whether it be finding fitness and strength in CrossFit or other physical activity, or learning how to fuel their bodies with wholesome foods that provide energy and not poison, or just get inspired to stop merely surviving, settling, complaining, making excuses, and to make a new positive change of whatever kind in their lives, that is why I won’t shut up. If I kept it to myself, it would be selfish. If my experiences can positively affect even one person’s life (which I know it already has!), then it’s worth it. And I don’t care how looney tunes or Polly Anna anyone thinks I am. Haters’ gonna hate, but you won’t see me hatin’.

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Giddy

23 Jan

I did it. Something I had no idea I had in me yet. I went in thinking I’d do as many pull-ups during the WOD as I could without assistance. There were three sets of 15. My unofficial goal was to hit the first five of each set before moving to the smallest assistance band. That would be the most I’d ever done in a WOD, and I could keep building from there over the next WOD’s with pull-ups. I needed to start challenging myself on those, as the small assistance band was starting to get…not difficult.

It was a short WOD, just three rounds of five kettle bell snatches on each arm, 15 pull-ups, and 75 single jump ropes (for my dumb butt who still can’t figure out double unders). After my first set of snatches I jumped up to the bar, and managed to crank out four pull-ups before I lost momentum and jumped down. Instead of going for one more to hit my goal of five, I just decided to get as many more as I could get. Three more. Well that makes seven. Can I jump up and get over half? There ya go, three more. At this point, I’m at ten, so why not just find a way to get five more. So I did, in two more attempts. Boom, one round of RX pull-ups.

I was thrilled – that was more than I’d ever done, and I hadn’t yet gone to failure. It was time to switch to a different movement. Luckily with this WOD, the jump roping and kettle bell snatches didn’t wear on my arms, so it was like a little recovery time between pull-up sets. So, I challenged myself to as many more as I could get. It went the same – three or four at a time before I’d half to break and jump down from the bar. But I kept thinking how many more can I get? And then that round was over, fifteen more, unassisted.

At that point, as I moved to my jump rope and snatches, I decided I had to go ahead and finish my pull-ups with no assistance. Even though I was already well behind most others in the class. I didn’t care how long it took to finish, even if I had to do one at a time, I was not getting any help from the assistance band tonight!

I headed to the bar for my last set, and realized one of the best things about being one of the last ones done is actually that the others that are finished start cheering you on. I don’t know if they knew I’d never done this before, but having an audience definitely helped me keep cranking them out. I hit a couple sloppy reps as I tired where my chin didn’t break above the bar, and I no-rep’d myself for good measure. If I was going to finish this, I was going to finish them right. No cheating.

And then it was over. Forty-five unassisted pull-ups. I couldn’t believe I did it. I had never done unassisted pull-ups in a WOD, not even a few, and tonight I did all of them! I was so excited that I forgot to do my last set of jump ropes until several seconds had gone by. Oops! I grabbed my rope and finished a sloppy 75 singles because I was so excited I wasn’t focusing anymore. Haha, oh well! The whole WOD took me probably four or five minutes longer than it would have if I’d used a band, but I don’t care one bit. I did an entire WOD of pull-ups unassisted! BOO-YAAAAAAAA!

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Paleo recipes and whatnot

11 Jan

I’ve started a new blogging adventure. Here I have my fitness ramblings, over here I have my “life” ramblings, and now, I’ve started Paleo Recipe City to document my adventures in cooking and living the Paleo dream. Haha, really, I’m just having so much fun trying new concoctions and improving my skills in the kitchen that I wanted something to show for it. Plus, people are always asking for recipes for the yummy things that I brag about making on Facebook, so hopefully this will accomplish all that!

In fitness news, I’ve had several encouraging exercises of note lately. We recently did three sets of five heavy dead lifts, which I worked to 160. That’s only ten pounds less than my last one rep max, so hopefully, since I did that many that heavy, I’ll be seeing progress on my dead lift next time around. Same goes for front squat – I hit 105 for my 3rd set of five reps, which is also only ten pounds less than my previous one rep max. I see improvement in my future there too! I did 60 pounds during a WOD that involved thrusters, which is the heaviest I’ve done on those. Goal is 65 pounds during a WOD to RX thruster weight in most cases. I’m getting there!

Finally, last night, the strength portion of the workout was weighted pull-ups on the rings. Those of us that are still working with our own body weight were to do three sets of negatives. I immediately did my first set of those, but the coach caught me and said I needed to try pulling up on the rings, even if I needed to kip. I expected it to be a bust, but sure enough, I kipped myself up there, and continued on to do my second and third sets doing kipping pull-ups on the rings. It was exciting to gain another new skill and improvement in strength/coordination, and having the people around me, cheering me through each rep, was pretty sweet too!

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Just because

3 Jan

I hit another PR today at the gym, this time on back squat, something I felt was not improving for months. Finally, twenty pounds more than last time, now a solid 175. I went for 180, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve had it, but my bar partners couldn’t help themselves but lightly touch the bar as I was slowly inching my way up. They said they barely touched it and I should count it, but I know better. Next time, I’ll have 180 easy, so no worries!

It’s that time of year when I think I should write some resolutions. Just because. Even though I know there is no end goal, it’s always to just keep improving, being better than yesterday. So, being new at strength training, I have no idea what I’m capable of in a full year of doing this. I’m only just over a half year in, so maybe I’ll try to double the progress I’ve made in that time? Who knows, but these are the next milestones I’d like to accomplish at some point this year, before I move on to my next milestones.

Back squat: 200
Dead lift: 200
*Ronnie says my dead lift should be significantly higher than my back squat, so these goals seems imbalanced. Basically I should already be doing more than 200 on dead lift, but I’ve struggled with that one the last few heavy go-rounds. Hopefully that is one I hit early in the year so I can keep it moving up faster than my back squat!

Bench press: 130
Shoulder press: 90
*Shoulder press is my absolute weakest lift, I feel. I have no idea what a reasonable goal there is, but I know right now, 75 is a struggle.

Overhead squat: 100
*Haven’t done much of these heavy. Did 80, several months ago, for 3 reps. One hundred might be a wimpy goal, but I like getting over those nice round numbers, and again, I haven’t done much heavy here, so who knows?

Front squat: 150
*That seems a huge jump from my current 115, but when I did that, it was the first time I was actually doing it right and felt good doing it. I think I’ve got potential to get stronger on this quickly. We’ll see!

I’m not going to set goals on the Olympic lifts right now. Don’t know my current max, so I don’t even know where to start. I love these lifts, but somehow always happen to miss the heavy days. Maybe that should be my resolution here, not to miss heavy Olympic lifting days!

Pull-ups: Do an entire WOD with unassisted kipping pull-ups.

Double-unders: Just be able to do them. Still no progress since I started in May 2011!

Happy New Year! May it be a productive and joyful 2012!

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