Back to normal?

My motivation is finally returning. I had a bum couple of weeks due to being sick and then finding out we're moving to another state (again). Never in my 2 years of being active have I struggled so much to keep my motivation. But in the end I just made myself do it, and now it seems I am falling back into my routine of consistent exercise.

First on Thursday I got to attend another Cross fit WOD plus a mobility class. The mobility class focused on the shoulders. My favorite part was using a resistance band wrapped around a pole and moving at a 90 degree angle to activate the posterior deltoids. This felt absolutely amazing. My upper back and shoulders have been bothering me lately - a combination of my stupid desk job and not working out for 2 weeks. After the mobility class my shoulders felt different. Almost like they were back in the right place. 

We worked on strict press, push press, and push jerk. The hardest part is mastering the coordination really. But we made some big improvements and I will probably work on them in the gym this week. The WOD was 1 minute of each - rowing, crunches on an ab mat, push ups, pull ups. Short and simple.

Saturday morning was the following workout done at my house

.5 mile run, 10 burpees, 5 pull ups, 15 crunches, 30 seconds plank. Repeat 6 times. Yeah, it's a good one.

Yesterday I didn't feel like going for long run. So I didn't. Instead I did 1.5 hours of yoga. 

I also took my NASM practice exam yesterday. I passed - but not by much. This is one of the more difficult certifications out there with maybe a 60% pass rate, so I guess I should be happy I passed the practice test on the first try. But I wish I had gotten a better score. At least now I know what I need to work on. I am still struggling with memorizing everything about assessments and learning all the muscles. I also didn't really review the chapter on communication because it's common sense stuff, but the questions ended up being really specific. I should be ok - I'm going to study more and take more practice tests to be better prepared for the real thing. I will only get better from here so theoretically I should pass it.

That's all for now. Hoping this week will be a bit kinder to me..

The 9/11 Hero WOD

3 weeks of Crossfit has all led up to tonight - the 9/11 Remembrance Workout!

Alot of people showed up!! Most of the RWB folks who did the last 3 workouts were there, plus a bunch of Underbox people I hadn't seen before. So we did the WOD in heats of 8. I was in the second heat. This was our heroic WOD

Scaled - easier version. RX - hard version.

I did the scaled. Even more scaled back really, I only put 20lbs on my bar so 55 total. 25 lb kettlebell. Crossfit is new to me so I stay on the conservative side. The last thing I wanna do is wipe myself out early in the game, or even hurt myself.

Getting ready to run!

#1 - Running! 911 meters. The number of reps, distances, and weights were all centered around 9/11. So I think 911 meters is a little more than half a mile? Basically run up the road to the end where it turns into Augusta Mall, then come back.

#2 - Overhead Lunges. Pretty simple, do 11 lunges with a 25 lb weight.

Me entering a lunge

#3 Wall Balls! Get 1-2 feet away from the wall, grab a medicine ball, do a squat, then throw the ball upwards at the wall and try to hit the tape marking on the wall. These weren't too hard, but catching the ball was kind of awkward at times.

#4 Pull Ups. Here I used the most difficult resistance band. I figured trying to do 11 strict pull ups would tire me out way early and I would have to take tons of breaks in order to do it. I only took 1 break here, just long enough to wave at the camera!

Oh hello. It's pull up time.

#5 - Power Clean. This movement is still tricky for me. The first day we did them I struggled with getting all the "steps" down, but today they felt a little more natural. The thing I still struggle with is not getting my elbows up enough, they are too far down at my sides. 

My not so great Power Cleans!

#6 - Hand Release Push Ups. These are easy, at the bottom of the push up simply put your chest on the floor and raise your hands up. Knocked all 11 out in a row.

#7 - Kettlebell swings. The first day we did these I got worn out quickly. Probably because we did way more of them, and they had me on the 35 lb bell. Today I used the 25 and knocked all 11 out right away. 

#8 Knees to Elbows. The thing that makes these hard is the fact that my body swings back and forth so much because of all the momentum. I wonder how all the pros can do them without swinging around so much!

#9 - Burpees. Easy for me since I do them so often. I did take 1 break because I was just tired from everything and needed to catch my breath. These guys seem to lie down on their chest at the bottom of the burpee while I do a push up. My burpee technique is so ingrained in my head at this point that there's no changing it. I do them Spartan style!

#10 - Push Press. I had never done these before. Hold the bar at chest height and push it overhead with a little squat for power. I grabbed my bar and after the 3rd rep I realized I should probably take the weights off to avoid exhausting myself. No shame here as many other chicks did the same and just pushed with the bar.

Push press, sans weights

#11 - Last run! This was hard. Running after doing all that stuff? Alot of people were walking it. And believe me, it was tempting to walk. Just a quick walk break. But no, I'm a runner and I can do this. I did not allow myself to walk. I ran it all the way home and was DONE!

This was awesome! I was very tired after a hard workout, but we all cheered each other on and motivated one another through it all. Post workout food was had, we all just hung around for awhile and some people even danced! (Not me)

I really enjoyed this opportunity to try Crossfit, meet new people and work out with them. I'm sad it's over.. but I'll be doing more stuff in the future with the team so there's more craziness to look forward to.

Now it's bedtime, as I am QUITE tired.

My Body Hurts

It's Saturday!

I am not working out today for I am still quite sore from this week's endeavors. Plus we're doing yard work this weekend - that counts as my workout, right?

Monday was a holiday so I didn't go to the gym. I fit in a couple workouts over the long weekend but I mostly spent it relaxing with my husband.

Tuesday I did a great 35 min yoga session from doyogawithme.com. It was a good challenge for how short it was!

Wednesday - because I missed the gym on Monday and I wasn't sure what Crossfit had in store for me, I hit every muscle group - not too intense, but it ended up being a great total body workout that left me feeling like I worked hard.

Thursday - RWB Crossfit! The warm up was enough to get me sweating.

Run 200m
10 Squats
10 Lunges
10 Inchworms - these suck!!!
10 Spidermans

x2

Then we did 5 sets of 5 pull ups. I did almost this EXACT same thing the day before!!! Why did I do that!!! So - I can do pull ups but I tire out quickly and can't get my chin up to the bar after about the 4th pull up. And as I moved on to each set I just got more and more tired. So they had me use a very stretchy resistance band so I could get a better range of motion as I started to tire out.
The WOD was 21-15-9 deadlifts and hand raise push ups (at the bottom of the push up, put your chest on the ground and raise your hands slightly off the ground and pinch your shoulder blades) Ok - I do not do enough deadlifts. I've done them maybe 3 times and that was a month ago. These literally whupped my butt. I couldn't use a very high weight but at least I had good form as I'm familiar with deadlifts.

Team RWB Crossfit - Day 3

And of course we got our post workout group picture! I'm the goofball in the middle!

Everywhere just hurts today. Maybe Wednesday's workout was a mistake because it ended up being way similar to what I did at Crossfit the next day! But you know what, I'll be stronger for it. It's preparing me for the SuperBeast. I do kind of feel like I just ran an obstacle race. Simulating that feeling in training? That's a good thing!

Busy Week

It's Friday!

Holy crap, I've been so busy lately it's ridiculous.

These days I'm always busy - between work, gym, running, 1-2 hours of studying, chores, and the ever so little amounts of me/husband time!

My week went something like this...

Monday - Gym with K. We did a killer legs/biceps/back day - well let me rephrase, SHE did legs while I watched. I was still feeling the half marathon I ran the day before so I skipped the legs. I also skipped my rope climbing practice that day, as I was dealing with a nasty blister on the palm of my hand and I didn't think it would be climb-able. But at the very end of our workout this guy attempted to scramble his way up the unknotted rope using only his arms. And he did get very close to the top this way. My brain wanted to scream at him to use his legs... but really all this made me want to do was climb it. I couldn't help it! So I climbed the rope and shared some pointers with the guy, such as how to wrap the rope and pinch it between your feet. He was just like I used to be - the wrap really confused him and he had some trouble applying the technique. I told him to just get comfortable with the wrap and just pull up once/come back down a few times. The thing about the ropes is you get better really quickly. It only took me a couple weeks to get all the way up. I kinda felt bad for showing him up in front of his friend/the entire gym, but to be quite honest I really just wanted to climb it after I watched him do it.

Tuesday - Studying and a rest day. My legs were almost completely better, which is a big deal I think. After running my first half I was pretty much limping around for like 4 days. But this time I was sore Monday, then just slightly sore in certain areas on Tuesday. This definitely says something about my improved fitness. Still I thought it was better to rest my legs another day.

Wednesday - More gym with K. Triceps, shoulders, chest. We actually used barbells to bench for the first time which was pretty cool. We felt silly because she could only bench using the bar, and I could only put 10 lb plates on it and do about 6 reps at a time. But you gotta realize- the bars weigh 45 lbs! I normally bench with 20lb dumbbells. And my chest is still sore.

Thursday - Crossfit with Team RWB at Underbox! This is the second workout of the 9/11 workout series.

9/11 workout part 2!

Today's WOD was a different style than last week's. While last week was 5 rounds as many reps as possible - very high intensity, this week's was more about learning new skills - specifically - Power Lifting!

Excited about rowing!

Warming up included the row machine! I use this thing all the time so it was perfect. Then we worked on the Power Clean and the Thruster. These are a little intimidating and complex to someone like me who has never done Crossfit, but I practiced these alot because being able to do them would be really awesome! I have trouble keeping the bar close to my body and keeping my elbows up while holding the bar, so I know what I need to work on at least. We practiced this for awhile before moving onto the WOD itself - Power Clean/Thruster, then Knees to Elbows or Feet to Shoulders on the pullup bar. It was 21 reps, then 15, then 9. I did not put any weights on my bar because I am just learning. The Knees to Elbows is tough to control because your body swings back and forth from the momentum. But the coach said I could probably get my feet up to my shoulders, and I was able to a few times. But I just couldn't stop myself from rocking back and forth! You have to engage your back and butt to stop yourself from swinging. The pros were good at it - me, not so much.

It was definitely a different style WOD than last week but it was awesome. Once I get more comfortable with this stuff I wanna add some weights!

Today - Errands and much studying.

Tomorrow .... Total body workout!

Crossfit for the First Time Ever

My friends, it has finally happened.

I have completed my first ever Crossfit workout.

Crossfit is something I've been curious about for some time, I just can't afford it. Team RWB of Augusta is holding a special 9/11 Rememberance series of workouts. During the next 4 Thursdays we will be training, leading up to a final workout on 9/11 followed by a BBQ. And it's FREE! So I get to try new workouts, meet some of the local team members, and it's free. Heck yeah!

I didn't really know what to expect today. I knew it was at a Crossfit box, but the description said "functional fitness" so I wasn't exactly sure what all we'd be doing. Yeah. it was definitely a Crossfit workout.

Team RWB - 9/11 Rememberance workout, The Underbox

Wall sitting for the picture. I'm right there in the middle. I didn't know anyone except Jasmine, unfortunately she couldn't do today's workout as she is also struggling with a hamstring injury. Hers seems pretty bad so she just watched and took pictures.

So we did a quick warm up, part of which consisted of "Musical Bear Crawls". That's the best way I can describe these. We put medicine balls in a circle and removed one ball after each round, bear crawled around the circle, then when the music stopped we had to scramble to sit on a ball. I actually came in second place for this.. amazingly enough. So it was me and this other girl bear crawling in circles around this one lonely medicine ball. But she was too quick for me in the end and claimed bear crawl victory.

The crawling gave me a blister on my right palm. So now I had to do the entire workout with a raw blister. It was a nuisance but I'm so used to blisters, cuts, scrapes, and bruises at this point that I just didn't even let it phase me.

So the workout was a typical Crossfit style WOD. I don't know enough about Crossfit to understand how all the numbers work. They told us to just write down how many reps we did for each thing, but I have no idea what this Crossfit math means. I assume it's the total reps for each exercise, for each round?

I am ignorant in the ways of Crossfit math.

The WOD - 1 minute of each exercise - Burpees, Box Jumps, Kettlebell Swings, Squats. Then 1 minute of rest. Repeat this sequence 5 times. I lost count after the first round, my brain just wasn't even in that mode where you know, it knows what numbers are. Next time I'll make an effort to actually count.

We did this in stations and I ended up being with another girl starting at the squat station, the easiest one by far. For the box jumps I modified because of my hamstring injury, I did step ups instead. The KB swings were the worst for me. They use heavier kettlebells than I normally use, plus their version is more of a hip thrust and less of a squat. I squat pretty low and use the momentum from when I come out of the squat to do my swing. Here the power was all in the hips - my crappy, small hips. By the third round I was losing steam. I was starting to have to take breaks. Rounds 4 and 5 were absolutely brutal. My legs felt like lead, sweat pouring, heart pounding, sucking in air. I was taking more mini-breaks. My limits were reaching their end. But then it was time for the last round of KB swings and I was done. It was far from perfect but I did the best I could. And for it being my first ever Crossfit session, of course it's not gonna be perfect.

Did I mention we were in a garage with no air conditioning, on a 100 degree Georgia day? Yes it was 100 degrees here today. We were sweating before the workout even started.

I had a great time. Crossfit definitely kicks your ass. I can already see how it will make me stronger and improve my athletic performance in anything I do. The movements are explosive and use your whole body - a little more leg heavy than upper body today, but you're using multiple muscles to execute powerful movements. It's hard work and it's good for you! It's one of those things where it's like, you might THINK you're in good shape, and then it just completely humbles you. And that's good. I like to know what I need to work on.

Now I know what I'm in for on the next 3 Thursdays. I know for the next 2 days I probably won't be able to walk!