Up the rope...

Another workout that changed things up a bit today -- doing lots of different movements is good for me, I like it.

3 rounds:
5 Legless Rope Climbs
25 Sledge Strikes Right
25 Sledge Strikes Left
14 Single Arm Power Snatch Right (40/20)
14 Single Arm Power Snatch Left

Results:  30:02 -- regular rope climbs

What took me so long was the resting I did between rope climbs. I just had no confidence in that today, and honestly just didn't feel like doing it anymore after the first few trips up the rope. I was just standing at the bottom of the rope thinking to myself, "wow, I so don't want to do that at all... can I just skip this part?"

Sometimes I crack myself up with my mental dialogue. heh

In any case, even though it took me a while, I still did all my climbs. But damn if my foot didn't hurt from wrapping the rope around it and stomping down with the other one. I need to rethink my footwear choices on my next rope climb WOD -- something a bit more substantial is probably a good idea.

I am the bomb diggity with dumbbell snatches. My first CrossFit gym didn't use barbells at all, we did everything with kettlebells and dumbbells, so I first learned to snatch with one arm and a dumbbell. It was fun to just power snatch because that's sooooooo much easier. And my legs are *hurting* from back squats yesterday, so that made me happy.

Speaking of hurting, holy shit, my chest and upper back are so tight from that handstand walk thing yesterday that I can barely take a deep breath! Seriously! Seems like I should keep doing those on a regular basis, because they definitely worked me out in a new and interesting way! :)

--
Looking for your input on improving squat technique. Do you have any personal experience about fixing your own squat? Have you been able to help others? Do you know of a great online resource that you could point me to?

At our box, there are tons of people with squat issues, myself included. I have the chance to program a week of workouts, and I want to use that time to focus on the squat and help people get started on improving it. Right now no one really wants to focus on that as a goal, despite the fact that it's so important. Achieving below parallel on the squat with good form is not the "sexiest" goal, but certainly one that will reap huge benefit once achieved.

--
Pay Now Live Later: How I Ditched the Chemicals in my Bathroom Cabinet

This blog post really intrigued me, especially in light of my current Primal mindset. It was only after reading The Primal Blueprint and The Omnivore's Dilemna that I started thinking about pesticides and how it's important to know where our food comes from and how it's grown / raised. (plant & animal)

This article takes that next step and makes you think about all the health and beauty product you use, and how those might be manufactured in an unsafe way, the same way the food might be grown / raised in a manner than is less than optimal for health.

I don't think I'll give up my whitening toothpaste anytime soon, but I might try the soap and shampoo suggestions, just to give it a shot...

--
To read:

F* Off Fit: So I was watching Fight Club

"We push societies limits on what is normal for women. We dont run and do pilates and eat air salads and aim to see our bones. We eat fats, and animal proteins, we celebrate our guns and love our strong legs. WE have calloused hands in which, when we are in normal groups of peoples, make them frown or look at us oddly."

Already Pretty: An Argument for Self-love

"Happiness is important, but serenity is vital. And it can feel impossible to achieve when you’re busily judging yourself. Because even when the more immediate worries clear out, self-loathing is still there, whirring busily in the background and keeping you agitated. Make it stop, and serenity is within reach. Learn to love yourself, and happiness follows close behind."

Healthy Girl: Has the Number on the Scale Ever Ruined Your Whole Day?

"No offense to your doctor, but for anyone who’s even slightly weird about food or their body, weighing themselves daily is a prescription for Crazy! I know why he or she advised you to do it—the National Weight Loss Registry, this big survey of people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off—showed that many of them weight themselves often, even daily. But as people with disordered eating issues, we can’t just directly apply info like that to ourselves."
--> completely agree with everything in this article

Fun and different WOD

Am I getting old if I actually thought about writing about how I think our coach Paul is creative and enthusiastic due to his youth?

I think, maybe, yes. Must be time to just start saying I'm 30 even though I'm only 29. :-p

But seriously, Paul had a cool WOD on tap for us today. It made me kinda nervous looking at it, but now that I've finished it, it was pretty fun!

6 rounds:
5 back squat (185/135)
Handstand walk, 50ft

Results: 24:55, 135# and "on the shoulder" wheelbarrow walk for 100ft

Ok, so for the handstand walk I definitely had to substitute -- if I hadn't, I would've busted my freakin' head open on the rubber mats. Or broken my neck.

Sooooo, we did the badass version of the wheelbarrow walk -- instead of holding your partner's feet, you put them up on your shoulders, so they're more inverted. Then the person being held just has to "pike" their body and get as vertical as they can, like in a modified HSPU, to simulate a handstand walk. Crazy, yet fun! I actually "held" two of my peeps before I took my turn, so I got some extra work in. :)

Holy shit 135# was really heavy for me on back squats. And I'm left with sore quads, which tells me that I was rolling up onto my toes a lot. Boooooo. But when I tried to keep my chest high at the bottom, I lost the bar off the back. Urgh. Need to have someone video me doing this so I can assess. But in any case, I still did all the reps, I just had to break them up into 2s and 3's starting in round 3. Thank GOD will was there to clean the bar back up for me the two times I dropped it.

Oh yeah, and that handstand wheelbarrow walk is hard on your abs!

--
I've been following the Primal Blueprint Fitness stuff going on at Mark's Daily Apple, and like what I see so far. Except I'm sad about what I saw in his pushup video.

I was really hoping that after starting off with the wall pushup, he would tell people to just keep lowering their hands until they could finally do pushups on the ground. But instead he instructs you to put your knees down. Boo!



--
Robb Wolf was interviewed on T-Nation about his new book, The Paleo Solution.

He also released a video where he talks about the book. After listening to his Paleolithic Solution podcast, it's kind of weird to "see" him talk.

I've already pre-ordered the book, and I'll post my thoughts here once I read it. If it's even half as good as the podcasts, it's going to be awesome. The only problem I have wit the podcast is I listen to it in the car, and then I can't take notes on the little tidbits that interest me. :)



I hope they didn't edit out his sense of humor from the book, because he's fucking hilarious. This guy seriously needs to join The Daily Show as their health/fitness correspondent. :-D

Visiting a new affiliate

A CrossFit affiliate recently opened up in my hometown, so while I was visiting my parents I stopped in for a WOD.

21-18-15-12-9
SDHP
Pushups
Box jumps

Results:  18:31 -- 65# SDHP, 24'' box jump

I liked the combo this WOD put together, and I think I would like to try it again. I felt like the spot on the floor I chose was so uneven that my bar was bouncing all crazy at the bottom of my SDHPs. I wasn't able to do more than 5 in a row, and I know I've done more than that at 55# for Fight Gone Bad. Really made me mad to have to break them up so much! Also there weren't any floor mats where the boxes were setup, and jumping down from the 24'' box onto concrete was hurting my feet. Owie! I could probably cut 5 minutes off this time, but all in all I enjoyed it!

--
However, there were a couple things about the session that rubbed me the wrong way, and that's the reason I'm not naming or linking the gym here.

First red flag -- no movement demo at the start of the session. When I first started coaching I was drilled on the importance of this, and now that I've had more experience as a coach, I see just how important it is. Identifying movement standards and full range of motion is important to reinforce learning in your students, and it also introduces the cues that you'll use during the workout to correct their errors quickly, instead of having to stop them and go through a long explanation.

The trainer did reference the recently-completed intro session that all of them had taken, and said something like, "you all looked great on this in the INDOC". I don't know about you guys, but after going over all those different barbell movement, it took me months to learn all the names and the proper execution for each. It's something that needs to be reviewed again and again, by all athletes, no matter how long they've been CrossFitting.

Add to this there's nothing that bothers me more than horribly executed SDHPs, and there was some ugliness going on... It was literally making me nauseous watching one guy whose load was WAAAAAAY too heavy for his ability, not to mention the bad form. *URGH*

Which brings me to red flag number two -- the coach worked out with the group. This is a BIG ASS NO-NO PEOPLE! I guess coaches do this so they don't have to find time to do the WOD on their own, or they hate working out alone and want to take advantage of the group that's there, or they think it's somehow motivating or instructional for their athletes for the coach to participate. However, there is NEVER a good reason for doing this, especially considering the inexperience of the athletes in the group.

So now that I've checked out the gym, and I've seen what's going on there, I am torn.

This is the first CrossFit that's reasonably close to many friends and family members, and I so badly wanted to send them all there to experience the awesomeness of CrossFit. But now that I've seen the [lack of] coaching skills, I definitely won't be doing that, except maybe with my brother who I know is like me and will study on his own.

So what can I do to ensure that one day (hopefully soon) I will feel comfortable referring people to this gym? Should I give the coach some unsolicited feedback? No worries, I would be polite and deliver my thoughts in a more constructive fashion that what I've written here. But isn't unsolicited advice really annoying? Or should I not care if it's annoying, since I have the best interests of his athletes' safety and the growth of this business? I just get the impression he's a martial arts guy who started doing CrossFit on his own, really liked it, and wanted to make some money with it. I have no problem with that. I just think he needs some advice...

In my position, what would you do?

PS - I will say this -- I feel much more confident in my ability to start my own gym after visiting his. A big part of me wishes I was living closer and could try to get him to let me team up with him! :)

MetroDash Philly

This was so freaking fun! If you have one in your city, definitely consider signing up!

MetroDash website

The only thing that I didn't like about this event was the language they chose for the website and email communications with the competitors. Honestly, I thought they really exaggerated the difficulty and intensity of the event. I understand wanting to bill this as an "ultimate test of athleticism" -- and if you did the course for time, that's probably what it would be. But how about leaving the door open for just finishing? That was mentioned, but not highlighted. Which is contradictory, because the website made it clear there would be no "winner", just finishers. So why not focus more on just finishing the challenge?

OK, end rant, back to the fun stuff!

My biggest source of excitement for this event was just seeing more of my CrossFit KoP friends, and spending time with them. Especially Steph and Cindy. As a bonus my husband also signed up, as well as a friend I used to work with and haven't seen in forever, plus I got to meet a bunch more of the CF KoP group. Yay!

Running with Steph through the city was an absolute blast. The way my husband feels about the mountains, that's how I feel about the city. It's just so different that is amazingly energizing. And only in the city would you almost collide with a parked Vespa while dodging slow pedestrians! Love it! :-D

The challenge points include tabata squats, tabata pushups, tabata situps, tabata star jumps, bear crawls, walking lunges and as part of "The Gauntlet", tire flips, rope whipping (what the heck is that called??), sled drags, box jumps, slam balls, kettlebell swings (we made fun of the 15 and 20 pound bells :-p) and an 8 foot wall to climb over.

My only regret from this event was not attempting the 8' wall unassisted. I stood on husband's knee, from which I could just grab the top of the wall, and used my own strength to pull up and over from there. But I wish I had tried to run and jump, or stand and jump, at least once... I wanted to attempt a do-over once we had finished, but the wall had been disassembled by then. Boo! :( Looks like I'll be signing up again next year -- they better still have the wall in the course!

Just because I love when other people include pictures, here's a couple. If you want to pick me out, I'm wearing the pink tank. None of husbeetle's face, though -- he doesn't like that on the good old blog, and I gotta respect that. But you can see the back of his head in the pic of Steph flipping the tire. :)

At the start

Steph flips the tire, husbeetle to her right

Sled drag

Sled drag

Box jump

Finish line!

PS - I toyed with the idea of adding labels for all the exercises we did at the challenges, but eh, I think I'll pass and just label it "vacation WOD". :-D

Primal exercise in the Poconos

We originally planned to hit up some fun outdoors activities in the State College / Penn State area for our vacation, but I made the mistake of not checking the academic calendar. Since we had inadvertently overlapped ourselves with move-in week (for a school with 40,000 students, this is a major problem), we decided on a change of plans, and headed due north instead, to the Poconos.
Since it was August, we had a nice warm day on the first day of vacation, so we drove to our hotel and then immediately headed for a nearby waterpark -- Camelbeach Waterpark. This is an ingenious use of a ski area -- Camelback Mountain. Some of the slides are disassembled and reassembled each fall and spring. And apparently they fill the lazy river with barrels, then cover it all with plywood, and push snow right over top! The ski lodge and lazy river are at the bottom of the picture below.

We are lovers of water, so this was a great way to start our vacation. I spent a lot of the afternoon thinking about how I wished I was wearing some Vibrams, and realizing how much I heel strike when walking. It's funny how primal living starts to push it's way into every facet of your life once you start studying it and becoming aware of it. :)

The next day, Wednesday, we headed to Bushkill Falls, billed as "the Niagara of Pennsylvania".

I personally would not make that comparison, but it was still beautiful, and a very neat type of trail. There is a whole series of wooden walkways and stairs attached to the gully that the falls drop into -- without that, it would be a lot harder for most people to be able to see it. You can see a railing at the very top of the picture above. There were also a couple miles worth of "normal" trails -- though as usually for Pennsylvania, they were still pretty rocky.

I got one of the "Trail Map Adventure" kits -- which I think is a program intended for children -- and it totally made my day! For a few dollars you got a more detailed topographical map (to scale w/ elevations and other stuff not included in the free one) as well as a little card with 20 points listed, and 20 squares to mark each off. When you reached each of the 20 points along the trail, there was a little hole punch thing hanging from a post. Each punch made a certain pattern of tiny holes on the little card. So of course we had to hike to all 20 points, which meant covering every bit of the trail, and a few parts twice when I missed a punch. :) A perfect day in the mountains -- only having our dog along would've made it better. Though I'm not sure what her thoughts would have been on all the stairs and bridges. :)

Oh yeah, and how could I forget to mention my joy at only sweating a little in the "normal" places - a little on the face, neck, armpits and feet. It was amazing to exert myself without having my arms and legs beaded all over with sweat like when I do anything down here in the Georgia swamp. As a native of the north, I still just find that much sweating weird!

Thursday was our last day, and it rocked!

First up on our plan -- a high ropes course! We saw this when we bought our tickets for the waterpark, and knew we *had* to try it. And it was just as amazing as we had hoped! The only thing that would make it better would be to not have to wait so much for other people ahead of you. So I definitely want to go back another day and go out in the first group at 9:30am and climb into those trees first!

Here's a picture I got from the website of one of the awesome obstacles -- those log things swing and twist, it's so much fun! If you follow the link above, you can actually look through the "games" on each of the 5 courses. As the finale, you get to do one final, long zip line, which was awesome. :-D

If I had tried to do this course 1 year ago, before I started getting back into CrossFit, I don't think it would've been as fun of an experience. Doing it now, when I know I'm strong and can support my own weight, I was excited to fool around and see what I could do. I think last year I would've been out of breath, glad for all the rests we had waiting for the slower people ahead of us, and sore and exhausted the next day. As it was, I felt awesome, not sore at all. Such a great example of why CrossFit isn't just about being good at CrossFit -- it's about being good at life.

Sadly I did not take my iPod or camera with me, so I don't have any videos of us on the course. :( But that's just another reason to go back again, right? :-D

After our ropes course, we wanted to spend a little more time on the trails, so we headed over to Big Pocono State Park. We hikes a few miles around the Indian Trail, which takes you out to the scenic overlook of the valley below. There is just nothing like being in the mountains, taking a walk through the forest...

This trip made so glad to have grown up where I did, in such a beautiful environment. My husband loves and is energized by a trip to the mountains because it's exotic to him, it's new and different. But for me, it's a homecoming, it's a feeling of peace and a sense of belonging. I hope one day we will move to a big mountain home with a 3 mile driveway. :)

So, that's our trip -- no WODs, persay, but plenty of great primal exercise, don't you think? I thought it was just perfect. :)

Worst WOD in a looooooooong time

Doing some catch-up posting, and back dating the next couple posts. Apologizes for the feed reader overload!

--
Sooooo, remember that Monday morning session with Aimee that I blogged about? I was pretty beat down from that, but had a date with Dorothy to head back to KoP for the 4:30 workout. As a bonus, my husband even wanted to go, and finally got to meet Aimee and Jason, who had been on vacation when he came in over Christmas.

OK, so here's the WOD.

4 rounds:
500m Row
15 Pull-ups
15 Sandbag Burpees (lateral jump over sandbag)

Results: 32:27

Shit. You. Not. That was my finish time. Over 30 minutes.  Holy fucking hell.

At CF KoP, the pullup bar are next to a wall. And I swear if there had been a couple more pullups in this workout, I would've punched the wall. Seriously. I thought about doing a million times during the WOD. I was doing pullups 1 at a time, I was doing them with 2/3 kip and 1/3 deadhang in many cases, and it was awful.

As for the row, after round 1 I just started shutting my eyes so I couldn't even see how slow I was rowing. Boo.

But really it was the pullups that killed my spirit on this one. I guess I didn't enter the WOD with a confident spirit, so I beat myself before I even started. Yeah it was hot and I couldn't get a good grip on the bar even with tape and chalk, but so what? Everybody else was operating under those same conditions, and Aimee was even 5 months or so pregnant!

This was one WOD I really didn't want to finish. With all the fibers of my being, I did NOT want to finish. But I did.

I just hope it taught me something? Sometimes I feel like other people have these great experiences with just finishing horrible WODs, but when I do awful, I never get that sense of pride just for finishing. I did feel very proud for finishing Murph, despite it taking 90 minutes... I dunno. I guess this is just another area of the mental game where I need to keep observing myself and my reactions and hopefully learn something I can apply to future WODs...

Cleans with Coach Aimee

Hello from vacation! :) We're relaxing in our hotel after a fun afternoon at the water park. We had dinner at a DINER, which we were both super-stoked about, because good diners do not exist in the south. Yes, we're going back again in the morning for breakfast. :-D

--
Soooooooo, let's talk about Monday, shall we? (Saturday and Sunday were essentially rest days)

In the morning I had an hour-long, 1-on-1 coaching session with Aimee Lyons at CF KoP. I had emailed her a long list of stuff to review, but we spent the entire hour on the clean.

Feel free to skip the following section, I need to write about what we did so I won't forget...

We started with the first pull, because as Aimee said, "there's a lot you can fuck up when you pull the bar off the ground."

First, she totally revamped my setup. Feet were moved farther apart -- they were too narrow. Toes and knees were pointed slightly out. Ass was lowered. A LOT.

Then, I tried a hook grip on the ladies bar. I think that was the first time I actually did hook grip properly, with my thumb wrapped around the bar, and my fingers wrapped around my thumb. I so need one of those bars now... Not likely to happen any time soon.

Then, my ass was lowered MORE. Aimee proved to me that my shoulders were still in front of the bar, even with my ass practically on the grass. Craziness -- no wonder I couldn't figure this shit out on my own.

Learning to start the pull slowly took me a minute. Pulling the bar against my shins was more learn-able, since I've been practicing that with deadlifts. Took me another minute to figure out how to move my knees out of the way -- unbend, but don't completely straighten.

Cue: "Pull slowly to your pockets, then explode."

With all the work we did at the start, I was overthinking, and having a hard time with my "explosion". I even forgot to move my feet on a few attempts, WTF? *sigh* I am always such a trainwreck during 1-on-1 sessions. I trainwrecked a good bit at my L1 cert anytime the instructor was focused directly on me. Especially during push jerk, ugh.

Anyway, also related to L1, my squat is still busted. Fuck fuckity fuck. Boo.

I first learned I had a butt wink at my L1, and started trying to fix it after that. But apparently I haven't gone far enough, because it's still there. And it's keeping me from coming up out of the bottom of the squat clean.

Scenario: clean bar, land in squat, lose lumbar at bottom of squat, fight up to regain lumbar, ass jumps up, then (if you're lucky and the load is light) you come up out of the squat. Not a pretty picture.

So, I am to practice deep front squats with good form. "Good form" == no loss of lumbar, no shooting butt up first out of bottom (think about elbows/chest up first). I am going to need to do a lot of video of myself...

I have to learn to release the hook grip. That could be a problem once I get to heavier loads.

I squat cleaned 113, but failed 3-4 attempts at 125. One attempt I cleaned and caught at the bottom, but my lumbar was lost so I couldn't get back out of the bottom.

Game plan:
 - Practice squat cleans @ 95# with low ass starting position, hook grip, slow first pull and then explosion, release of hook grip, strong front squat with high elbows out of the bottom; use video to determine if arms are bending early
 - Practice slow first pull and POP @ 55# or 65# (also with new setup)
 - Squat therapy (need to Google for more advice on fixing butt wink...)

--
While I learned SO MUCH at this session, which was exciting, I have to admit that by the end I felt very frustrated and defeated. Not being able to do 125 for a "finale" was very disheartening, and I could feel some tears coming up. Not being able to get out of the bottom of the squat a few times even at 113# was incredibly frustrating, and surprising. That's not where I expected to fail, because I thought front squats were one of my strengths. Hell, Jason complimented me on my front squat form during my last visit! I guess maybe it doesn't exactly translate to the front squat the end of a clean... 

Driving home I admit that I was thinking, "if I'm this fucked up on a lift like the clean, what makes me capable of helping others learn this stuff?"


I know the best I can do for my athletes is continue to learn and better myself, and I *am* doing that... But I guess that perfectionist side of me demands that I be better, know more, before I put myself in front of others and ask them to trust my advice.

At some point you have to be GOOD to be a coach, good intentions just won't make the cut...

So yeah, I think I'll be back in Philly sooner rather than later for more coaching, and I'll be doing a lot more clean videos of myself and really applying what I have learned. That's the only area I will focus on as far as barbell movements, while I continue to focus on improving my gymnastics.

Speaking of which, I forgot my kip again, or something, but the story of Monday afternoon's 30 minute WOD will have to wait til another day, no more computer for me tonight. Back to vacation. :)