Tag Archives: workouts

Reality

29 Feb

If you put in the work, you will get better. If you are willing to get our of your comfort zone, you will grow. If you can put aside fear and self doubt and give something new a chance, you will eventually succeed. It will take patience, their might be pain, and it won’t be easy.

These are things I have learned first hand in the last ten months, and they are 100% fact, not just some words you might find on an inspirational motivational poster. Fact, I said, and I know.

My friend and I were emailing about some WOD’s this week and one reminded me of a Hero WOD I’d done last summer and blogged about. I sent her the link to my blog post just for fun. I didn’t actually read it again, I just remembered writing about it. She emailed me back at how much I had progressed and gained since the end of July last summer, as we were now discussing how tonight I would be doing my first “girl” workout, Helen, at the prescribed requirements. So I went back and read the post. As I read the details of my experience with the Hero WOD, I noted that every single movement in it I am now doing consistently at a higher weight/height/intensity. And at the end of that post I was pining away about doing a single pull-up, much less an entire WOD with pull-ups, much less an RX’d WOD! I was fascinated by where I am at now, and yet realized how far I have yet to go. I mean, I still can’t do one freaking double-under!

But seriously, this journey I’ve embarked on, while I may have traveled what seems like a great distance in the last ten months, and I’ve accomplished more than I ever thought possible with this body God has given me, this journey is never ending. The farther I’ve come, the further I’ll get to go. My potential is limitless, and the opportunity on this road will never end (save for debilitating injury, which I pray never happens to me). There is no finish line, and that is inspiring to me, because it means this personal growth never has to end. And there are unlimited milestones along the way to keep my spirits revived and encouraged.

I met one of those big milestone tonight, and that was doing my first RX’d benchmark “girl” workout, Helen. My time was nothing competitive at 14:18, but it has now become my baseline time that I can work to improve from in that workout. But I dreamed of this when I first started, even thinking the poisonous thoughts that I am old, not competitive, uncoordinated, and might not ever get to that point. I had no idea what I had in me at that time, and I’m so thankful and thrilled to have made it to this point. All because I put in the work. I got out of my comfort zone. I still sinfully entertain fear and self doubt, but I’ve learned how to put it aside and then shut it the hell up. Those feelings still come back, but always quieter and smaller than the time before. I am better, I have grown, and I am succeeding. This is reality.

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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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Ignition

30 Nov

I’m struggling with motivation lately. Motivation to workout and motivation to eat healthy. Blame it on the recent vacation, blame it on the cold weather, blame it on Skyler being sick and me having to stay home with her, blame it on the holidays, blame it on whatever. There’s really no excuse, I’ve simply not made the best choices lately, and then the guilt I feel makes me feel crappier and lose motivation even more while I wallow in my own self pity. It’s weird how it works that way – making one bad choice and feeling bad about it should naturally lead to making the right choice the next time in order to not repeat the same result, but that’s not how it works, unfortunately, for me. I can get caught in a really nasty spiral.

But my excuses keep adding up, and even as I write this and want to find some spark, some fire to get my engine going again, I’m counting the obstacles in my way over the next couple weeks. And there’s no shortage of temptations around me at work with all the holiday goodies people like to so lovingly share. It makes me detest the generosity of people this time of year, and the cynic in me wants to blame them for trying to poison everyone around them with their sugar and gluten. But that is selfish, and all I have to do is say no, but it’s so hard to always be the “no-person.”

The one thing getting me through, even if it means just surviving this time of year and not making the kind of progress I have been over the past few months, is that January will be here soon. I always get inspired in January and things calm down and I take control of my life again. Why can’t I do it before then? I don’t know; maybe I will. Maybe Monday I’ll find my resolve, maybe I won’t. But I know this slump won’t last forever, it never does because I won’t let it. I’ve got it in me, I just need to find it again.

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Giving thanks

5 Nov

Today’s attempt at a new dead lift PR was unsuccessful. It’s been about three months since the last one, and dozens of others in the gym got new PR’s to be proud of. I just assumed I’d have my turn too, since I’ve put in the work.

But it didn’t happen. My warm-up round of 5 x 145 felt awful and I dropped it after only three. I did that fairly easily a few weeks ago after two previous heavy sets of five, so why were these first three such a challenge? I should’ve known at that point that this wasn’t my day. But I continued on.

We added two ten’s to get to 165, which is 5 pounds below my previous max. My first attempt failed, not even budging the bar off the ground. I told Ronnie I wasn’t even trying hard enough and giving up too soon. My second attempt got it up in questionable form, but I did it. We added just two fives to give me a small increase over my previous max. In three pathetic attempts, I couldn’t even budge the bar from the grip of gravity.

I was done. The tears began to burn in my eyes and my throat tightened up while I began stripping the bar. There were a few guys there doing their own workout and I didn’t want anyone to see me cry. With the bar and weights put away, I made a beeline for the bathroom and let a few tears go in frustration and disappointment. I couldn’t let it all go since I’d have to reappear and face the WOD shortly.

I’m wondering what I did wrong over the last few months, or this morning. I know my form needs work, but I should at least be capable of my last attempt, especially after months of work. Maybe it was what I ate, maybe it was the stress of the week, maybe it was that I suck working out with Ronnie. He’s an amazing trainer for others but not as my husband. I get a chip on my shoulder with him and I build up unnecessary walls. I fear I’ll disappoint him, and as soon as I express my first ounce of frustration, he gives up on me. We just don’t mix for workouts, which is disappointing. I wish I could take advantage of his teaching.

The only saving grace of the workout today was that I used the new, smaller pink rubber band for my pull-ups in the WOD. I’d been on the blue band that is one step thicker, but it had been getting easy-ish. I’ve got a few kipping pull-ups but wasn’t ready yet to complete a WOD with them, so Pinkie is providing me a new challenge that’s also helping me work on my kips since it doesn’t provide enough assistance to do many strict pulls. I did 4 1/2 rounds with Pinkie and finished up back on blue to get my form back in check as my muscles had weakened.

Despite my disappointment with progress on dead lift, I am thankful with my progress on pull-ups. And taking some advice from Lisbeth, I’m trying to remember that this is a good problem to have and that my shortfall today is a blessing over so many other worse things that I could be going through. It wasn’t my day for a dead lift PR, but I did work that strengthened my pull-ups and confidence in that area. So at least in some way, I am still better than yesterday.

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Keeping my enemies closer

13 Oct

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

I got my own jump rope today. The handles are hot pink, and it’s of the fancy variety that all the people that are really good at double-unders have. It was ordered to match my height too, so I’ll never have to complain about my rope being too long or too short. No more excuses…

So now that I’ve got the right equipment, I should have double-unders.

Hrmph!

But, at least I’ve got it so I can take it home with me, take it to the work gym with me, and practice. And it will be consistent to learn with. Double-unders may be my current enemy, or at least a foreign threat, but that hot pink rope is going to become my new best friend, whether I like it or not!

In other news, had a couple “fun” workouts this week. Monday’s involved overhead squats, thrusters, and hollow body rocks, all things that I am okay at so I felt fairly confident in my performance. Thrusters hurt my shoulders like h-e-double-hockey-sticks, no matter the weight or reps. My stupid wimpy shoulders. But I still finished the workout favorably.

Last night we did “Helen,” one of the lovely lady benchmark WOD’s, who I actually kind of “like.” Running, kettle bells, and pull-ups, all three things I like individually, though you put them together at 400 meters, 21 kettle bells, and 12 pull-ups, three times around, and Helen can leave you doubled over. But I gave it a good go, finished in a respectable time, and did all my pull-ups rather quickly on the lightest blue band. Strongest/fastest pull-ups I’ve ever felt in a WOD. I’m getting closer…!

Tonight was my favorite sort of grunty, gritty, just-get-angry kind of workout: 60 seconds at each of four stations: lateral hops, 300 pound tire flips, toes to bar, and beating a tire with a sledge hammer. I dig tire work – it’s so functional and makes me feel like a total superwoman every time I get that thing up over it’s side and smashing to the floor. And by “functional,” I mean I’ve actually used those exact skills in real life when an outdoor tire workout in the parking lot hadn’t been cleaned up and there were tires blocking in our cars. My friend and I didn’t think twice as we flipped them all out of the way so we could leave!

But as much as I love to toss that tire around, it leaves it’s marks on me. The thick tread smashes my biceps every time I throw my body against it to heave it over, leaving red, sore splotches immediately, and black and blue splotches for the following week. At least the air is cooler so I can wear sleeves to cover my marks and keep people from calling the authorities on Ronnie…

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“Shake it off”

27 Sep

This is me reaching to be positive right now. This is me telling myself what to do, even though I am not listening yet. I’m still only hearing a lot of “can’t” in my head, along with “WTF is wrong with you tonight?” and “Why do you keep dropping the $#@!&%$ bar on front squats. That’s the weight you just bench pressed yesterday!”

The right thing to do is shake it off. Try again. Remember to have fun.

But I didn’t. And like a big fat baby I fought to hold back tears during the rest of the WOD, where I couldn’t get any rhythm on anything, and every little bother seemed a thousand times bigger than it really was. I didn’t even laugh when “Back Dat A$$ Up” came on the stereo in the middle of wall balls. And when the workout was over, my body breathed with relief, but my mind wanted another shot, just to see if I could end this on a better note.

I didn’t get the endorphins tonight, or the usual feeling of accomplishment. It was a blah day at work, followed by arguing with my strong-willed 4-year-old, followed by an awful workout. Worst workout yet, actually, if measured by the amount of joy and fulfillment experienced, not to mention subpar performance.

The only good I can think that came of this workout and day is that healthy slice of humble pie (it was Paleo, by the way), and just knowing that I did something, which was better than nothing. And knowing that bad days plus bad workouts don’t often come as a package deal, so there is a good chance tomorrow will be better. Better than yesterday, as we love to say.

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Next Level

8 Sep

CrossFit works and I am addicted.

I’m going on four solid months of doing CrossFit 4 to 5 times per week, and it has not been even remotely the discipline and motivation struggle that I have always had in my past fitness life. I look forward to 75% of my workouts, and the others I go because of the addiction and fears of withdrawal. When the opportunity to miss a workout presents itself, my mind says “it wouldn’t hurt to recover an extra day. But, whatever lift or move they do in the workout, I’ll miss gaining progress on, and maybe fall behind. And I’ll miss seeing my friends. And if I don’t feel like working out now, I know how awesome I’ll feel afterward, and I’ll be sad and disappointed if I miss out. And I’ll really miss seeing my friends.” Never before was my workout a part of my social life, but man, it is a big help! Knowing you’ll suffer along with several friends is much easier than suffering alone, and then they cheer for you in the middle of the suffering, you give them five as you pass by each other in the middle of a WOD or after – that’s hard to turn down.

And the results – I’ve never ever had such consistent, frequent, and measurable results. It seems every week or two I am finding a lift or a move that I can either do more weight, more reps, or at a higher intensity/difficulty level. For instance just the last two nights of workouts, I did three things I’ve never done before: Completed an entire WOD without going to my knees on push-ups, Did an entire WOD of wall balls with the 14 pound ball when I’ve never done anything but 10 lbs, and did all my box jumps on the 24 inch box, which I’ve never even attempted before. Twenty inches was my jump height of late, which I think I had only gotten up to a month or so ago. My lifting technique is improving and I’m gaining confidence. The weight I can lift is going up slowly but steadily as well. I do have to practice patience because there are certain milestones I’ve set that I’m a long ways from, but I know they will happen if I keep going.

My size and body has steadily changed too, but my favorite thing about all this is that I don’t obsess about that part. I’m too distracted by the other improvements in my performance to care about the scale. And frankly, it hasn’t moved much. I am down two or three full sizes from a year ago, but only a scale difference of 8 pounds. So, the scale is pretty pointless as a measurement tool anyways. It’s so much more fun to focus on the pounds of weight I’m adding to my lifts!

I want to shout it to the world, and go rescue all those people still struggling to find a workout program they can stick with. It shouldn’t be that hard to get and stay healthy, but for so many people, it is. Maybe CrossFit isn’t for everyone and not everyone would get addicted, but the majority of people who drink the CrossFit Kool-Aid join the CrossFit cult. I do think part of it is the focus on real strength training, which so many other programs lack. It is so much “easier” to get results and satisfaction out of workouts that you can get measurable improvement in a relatively short time, which happens with methodical strength training. Just focusing on “toning” and “fat burning” can take weeks if not months to get any noticeable results. I’m so over that!

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Crazy game of poker

6 Jul

I was both looking forward to and dreading today’s workout. I was feeling pretty good; not too sore or tight from yesterday’s workout, but when Ronnie posted the WOD last night, it was something else. It is named “deck of cards” and actually involves turning every card in the deck to determine the workout. And because of that, every group that does the workout throughout the day has a slightly different experience, assuming the deck is shuffled between classes. So how it works: each suit represents a different move. For today, we did burpees, push-ups (ring dips for those that are skilled enough), box jumps, and hang cleans or kettle bell swings. So for example, hearts = burpees. Diamonds = box jumps. Then the number on the card represented how many of that move we had to do right then. Face cards were 10, and Ace was 11. We had to get through all 52 cards. Oh, and there was one joker, which represented a 1 minute rest.

It took our group something like 35 minutes to complete, which is much much longer than the WOD’s we’re used to. At one point we had to do some 30 burpee’s in a row based on the way the cards fell. But I guess that isn’t so bad, b/c when Ronnie completed the workout earlier today, he had fifty something burpee’s in a row and almost puked. He said that was the closest he’s come to puking in a workout for a long time. When it makes the boss pukey, you know it’s rough! It was pretty hellish but awesome all at the same time. I felt slightly pukey toward the last few cards but at that point knew it was almost over. After resting on the pavement outside for several minutes after the workout, I got up to go refill my water bottle and had to focus and breathe very deeply to keep from passing out. I haven’t been that light-headed and nearly faint after a workout either.

There were a ton of people who showed up for the WOD today, for all the class times, despite it’s intimidating description and even more intimidating reality. But that’s where the fun is – the shared sweat and pain, but also the creativity in the workout format. We don’t just go in, do 3 sets of 10 of bicep curls, tricep extensions, and squats. We never know what we’re gonna get or how the cards will fall when it comes to CrossFit.

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Hope

19 May

This CrossFit thing…I hope it continues to be everything I think it might be at this point.

I am jazzed and motivated and enjoying all this learning and growing. I’ve entered this new world where fitness is not just about looking good and doing miserable things to get that way. In fact, that’s far from it. Looking good has become this secondary, maybe even tertiary aspect of the CrossFit that I’m discovering. It’s about trying, testing, and reaching for my best. And doing it alongside other people that are doing the same thing.

And “best” isn’t about appearance. It’s about performance and function. The misery part? There are some rough workouts that really challenge physically and mentally, and could be categorized as “miserable” at least for a few seconds or minutes in the midst of it. But then it’s over so fast. You grit your teach, grunt, yell, heave, and breathe on through it till it’s done. And then the misery is forgotten and the triumph and often euphoria is what is remembered. You hi-five your fellow teammates as they’ve just endured the same test.

That wasn’t some vain, boring, do this miserable move over and over this many times per week for 60 or 90 days to get results. The results are immediate. Maybe not a change in appearance, but that feeling of accomplishment, that you really did something today, growing both mentally and physically. And it doesn’t take long till you’re increasing your reps, decreasing your time, or adding more weight. Those are results. Actually getting stronger, faster, better.

And the part about doing this with others – that used to freak me out. I didn’t want to be critiqued or judged. I didn’t want to be laughed at for not being able to do something right, or just not being able to something at all. I didn’t want to be the last one done. Or the first? What if I just happened to get in a class or group where I was actually one of the more fit? I didn’t want other class members to feel any intimidation or bitterness toward me.

But none of it matters. We’re all in this together. We’re competing against ourselves, and doing it side by side with the support of [new] friends that are in the exact same boat.

I hope this is how it really is and not some sort of honeymoon stage with CrossFit. Maybe I will get bored with it like I have so many other workouts I’ve done. I hope not, since we don’t really ever do the same thing. And the shift in focus from “I’m doing this annoying move to look better” to “I’m learning this functional strength move to make me stronger and help me live life better, alongside some other great people” is a much more motivating way to go about fitness. It’s a lot more fun and a lot more effective.

I hope.

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Hi Fran, Nice to finally meet you.

16 May

I met Fran the other night. She is one of the most dreaded CrossFit workouts. They name the really hard workouts after women. Ronnie has cussed about Fran many a time, and I’ve heard pretty much the same from any other CrossFitter. Fran is a workout that doesn’t really look like much:

3 rounds for time, descending reps 21, 15, 9

Thrusters
Pull-ups

So, that’s 21 thrusters (I used a barbell setup for 50 lbs), and then 21 pull-ups for the first round (I used a giant rubber band on the pull-up bar to set my foot in to assist me). Followed by 15 of each, then 9 of each.

I finished in a little under 7 minutes, and throughout the second and third rounds, thought for sure several times I couldn’t do another rep. It was shaky and painful, but I guess it was over pretty quickly!

The workout itself was rough, but what I experienced for the first time was a different kind of motivation than I’d ever experienced. My husband, along with two other friends that had completed Fran earlier in the day, were standing around me, cheering me on. Counting for me, correcting my form to make me stronger and more effective, helping me in and out of the pull-up band, encouraging me to finish strong. In most of my workouts, I’m by myself, and have to find every bit of motivation from inside myself. Sometimes, it works great, but others, especially the real challenging stuff, it’s easy to let myself take too long of a break, lighten the weight, or stop a few reps short. There was no way to get away with that this time, and I’m really looking forward to getting into these CrossFit classes as a regular part of my schedule!

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