I got called some very bad words tonight during this WOD.
YOU'RE WELCOME. And I do love a tidy whiteboard. Yes I do. Helen.
Simple. Elegant. Brutal. "You don't need harder workouts. You just need to workout harder." - Tommy Hackenbruck Year Two You did it. You made it through your first year of CrossFit. Twelve months of WODs, of bruises and DOMS, of blood, sweat and probably some tears. Your non-CrossFit friends and family have now accepted that this isn't a phase, isn't another diet plan or exercise fad that you're going to get bored of and sack off. Skills and lifts are starting to happen. Double unders are finally, FINALLY starting to be consistent. You've gone from jumping pullups, to banded pullups, to ALMOST being able to do one Rx. You can do a ring dip, and you're coming for that muscle up. You can handstand. Time to handstand walk. Your power clean weight is your deadlift from a year ago. Suddenly, the list of things you never thought you would be able to do is now your list of goals. You do your 2nd Open. And now it means something. Now you understand why your Coach and everyone in the box talks of nothing else in the beginning of February. You stay up late for five Thursdays in a row, praying for your strengths to come up. They do. But so do your weaknesses. You curse the CrossFit gods and Dave Castro, but you turn up just the same, give it absolutely everything, and marvel at how many places up the leaderboard you climbed since last year. The atmosphere for those 5 weeks is like nothing you've experienced before, as you watch your friends and boxmates get 1sts, PBs and maybe pay a visit to the pain cave during the inevitable thruster WOD. In fact, if you are a competitor, Year Two is when it all starts kicking off. Maybe you get your name chosen for Rainhill, or you put your name in for bigger comps. You start having to video qualifiers. ("So, how are we going to get the clock AND the rig AND the rower AND the wallballs in the same shot?") You become an obsessive checker of WODcast. Maybe you hope to get picked for Tribal Clash. Maybe you do. All you want is to represent your box, to make them proud, and to be proud yourself. By the time you get to the end of Year 2, the odds are on that you will have experienced an interruption to your training. You are revising for exams. You get a chest infection. You get married. Work sends you away for a month on a project. Life gets in the way, sometimes. Nothing is more frustrating than being kept from the box. You're tearing your hair out, snapping at your partner, and panicking about all the gains that you are losing. When you do get back, your first WOD puts you on the floor. I'M BACK TO SQUARE ONE, you think in a moment of insanity. I MIGHT AS WELL JUST QUIT AND EAT MY BODYWEIGHT IN KRISPY KREMES. But you're not. And you don't. Your Coach is always saying "Trust the Process". You do. A few weeks of regular WODing later, you're back up to your pre-break level, and making progress again. The new members will ask you stuff, because you are friendly and you seem to know what you're doing (Ha! If only they knew, you think). Maybe your Coach will ask you to look after someone who is nervous on their first Pairs WOD. Maybe you stay back to help with a big group Induction/Fundamentals Course. You like helping the newbies and showing them the ropes. And then one day you see an Level 1 course is being offered next month near your box and in a moment of madness, you book it. You are terrified that you are going to turn up and be the unfittest person there, when in truth the room is full of people of all shapes and sizes and backgrounds. You learn about cueing the fundamental movements, about The Zone, and about programming. But mostly you learn that you already knew more than you thought you did. You write the test. You are convinced that you've failed. And then... You come to the box the next day in your L1 shirt. Two years down, maybe a few comps or certs under your belt. Year Three is going to be even better, right? Right? Part 5, coming soon. ----------------------------------------------
Sound familiar? Did I miss something? Add it in the comments! :) 'Sitting is the new smoking' - Many of us will have heard this over the last year or so and many of us CrossFitters will have said 'This isn't me, I'm a CrossFitter..'
Sadly, for those of us who don't have the pleasure of being a full time athlete and have to juggle regular, mundane, full time jobs; this is not a reality. We turn up at the gym, half-arse some mobility and push as hard as we can for the hour of our day we get to spend pretending to be Kara Webb or Rich Froning. The rest of the time we spend in the car, at our desks and in front of our TVs. Its even worse for our kids. As soon as they can walk, we take them to Clark's, stick them in some ultra cushioned shoes and send them off to school to sit at a desk for hours before coming home, sitting at the table (or couch) for dinner and then playing on a games console. It quickly becomes evident that the hour of our day we spend doing thrusters, KB swings, running and rowing; pales in comparison to the 8-15 hours we spend sat in poor positions, hunched over our computers or slowly dying in the car. But what can we do? If we want to be able to walk in our old age, if we want to be able to sit down on the toilet at 80, if we want our kids to not have to see a chiropractor for the majority of their adult lives then we need to do something drastic, an it starts with moving like we mean it.... 1. Be barefoot - Be barefoot as much as possible, have your kids be barefoot as much as possible (cleaning feet is cheaper than a chiropractor). The muscles in your foot are designed to work, and by taking them out of our ultra cushioned trainers, high-heels or work shoes we allow them to work in the way they were designed. Do you under-pronate? Over-pronate? Guess what... Be barefoot. Your feet (and soul) will thank you for it! 2. Wear flat shoes - If you can't be barefoot, wear flat shoes. Give your toes some space. Ladies (and gents) those high heels you wear, they hurt your feet for a reason, your feet are talking to you, listen! 3. Stand - If you have the choice between sitting and standing, stand! On the train, eating at a Café, having a meeting. These are all places you can chose to stand. You can even convert your desk into a standing desk... http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/diy-ways-to-convert-any-desk-into-a-standing-desk/ 4. Mobilise Everywhere - In front of the TV (its called couch stretch for a reason), Squat in your office, mobilise your shoulders on a doorframe, half-lotus at your computer, lunge in the lift, get your kids to sit cross-legged on the floor instead of slouching on the sofa, roll your foot on the dog's ball. There are unlimited ways to keep yourself moving. 5. CrossFit - Make sure you (and your kids) do all of this. Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports. Your wellbeing is our priority, make sure it's yours as well. Coach Stevie |
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