Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Pushing Past Discomfort v.s Being Just Plain Stupid
On Saturday , September 11th, 2010, like many other Saturdays... I trained.
Not only did I train, but I almost trained stupid.
This was the workout (I am quoting the Women's Rx weights):
The Seven
7 rounds for time of
7 Handstand Push Ups
7 Thrusters @ 95 lbs
7 Knees to Elbows
7 Dead lifts @ 170 lbs
7 Burpees
7 KB Swings @ 24 Kg
7 Pull Ups
At the beginning I was smart... I thought Hmmmmm 95 lbs thrusters are very heavy for me, I can do one , maybe two, then I need rest...I will me smart and drop 20 lbs and do 75lbs thrusters, which is still pretty challenging for me.
I looked at the other elements: KB swings? No prob. Burpees, pullups, knees to elbows? Sure no problem, I can deal.
The dead lift. I totally underestimated the dead lifts. I figured 170lbs is a good 35 lbs below my one rep max...Should be fine, right?
Oh sooooo wrong!
I did three rounds at 170lbs and felt a "Ping!" in my back.
Ok ok ok... don't panic...just a twinge, I can still do this! I will do this!
I looked at the clock ( 34 mins in...sigh this is harder/longer than I expected) took a moment to think: I'm not even half way through and i feel like my back will crack in two. Drop some weight?
I did drop the dead lift weight to 155lbs, and struggled through 2 more rounds with painfully slow handstand push ups, and increasingly heavy thrusters. I wasn't exactly hammering anything out.
After the fifth round, I had to drop more weight on the dead lift: My back was screaming, I had 2 rounds to go, class was over, I was alone I had been going at it for 45 minutes and was still not done.
This is the point where one of two things can happen:
1- You can be Stupid and push through , going from an Rx workout to B, to C, to D... pain pulsing though your body, and hoping nothing goes wrong, or hoping you don't make a mistake that you pay for in the form of an injury, which ultimately takes you out of the game completely for days (or weeks!).
2- Or you play it somewhat safe , swallow your pride, a couple of Advils, and write those dreaded three letters in your workout journal: "DNF" .
I chose the latter.
I kept thinking back at my first CrossFit coach Roch telling me to be smart: sure push hard and do your best always, but don't be dumb and injure yourself, because then you can't train!
I sat and thought about the workout and made a list of positive things as well as things I need to improve on:
- I did 5 rounds! Still nothing to sneeze at...a year ago I would not have been able to do any!
- although i used an Ab-Mat as a buffer for the handstand push ups, that was the lowest I had ever gone! An improvement!
- Knees to elbows, KB swings, burpees, and butterfly kip pull-ups : got 'em! Another good point.
- I still need to gain strength on the dead lifts and thrusters continue to be my "Waterloo", but unlike Napoleon, I will vanquish those thrusters, one day.
I rested all of Sunday, and today checked out "The Grizzly":
200 single skips
2 chest to bar pull ups
10 power cleans @ 95 lbs
2 chest to bar pull-ups
8 ground to overhead @ 115lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
6 back squats @ 135lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
4 dead lifts @180lbs
2 muscle ups
DONE! 13 min 50 sec
So the time was not stellar, but hey...I was smart about it, and knew I would be able to complete it, pushhing myself beyond my capacity (within reason), staying injury free, and ready to rumble tomorrow!
Not only did I train, but I almost trained stupid.
This was the workout (I am quoting the Women's Rx weights):
The Seven
7 rounds for time of
7 Handstand Push Ups
7 Thrusters @ 95 lbs
7 Knees to Elbows
7 Dead lifts @ 170 lbs
7 Burpees
7 KB Swings @ 24 Kg
7 Pull Ups
At the beginning I was smart... I thought Hmmmmm 95 lbs thrusters are very heavy for me, I can do one , maybe two, then I need rest...I will me smart and drop 20 lbs and do 75lbs thrusters, which is still pretty challenging for me.
I looked at the other elements: KB swings? No prob. Burpees, pullups, knees to elbows? Sure no problem, I can deal.
The dead lift. I totally underestimated the dead lifts. I figured 170lbs is a good 35 lbs below my one rep max...Should be fine, right?
Oh sooooo wrong!
I did three rounds at 170lbs and felt a "Ping!" in my back.
Ok ok ok... don't panic...just a twinge, I can still do this! I will do this!
I looked at the clock ( 34 mins in...sigh this is harder/longer than I expected) took a moment to think: I'm not even half way through and i feel like my back will crack in two. Drop some weight?
I did drop the dead lift weight to 155lbs, and struggled through 2 more rounds with painfully slow handstand push ups, and increasingly heavy thrusters. I wasn't exactly hammering anything out.
After the fifth round, I had to drop more weight on the dead lift: My back was screaming, I had 2 rounds to go, class was over, I was alone I had been going at it for 45 minutes and was still not done.
This is the point where one of two things can happen:
1- You can be Stupid and push through , going from an Rx workout to B, to C, to D... pain pulsing though your body, and hoping nothing goes wrong, or hoping you don't make a mistake that you pay for in the form of an injury, which ultimately takes you out of the game completely for days (or weeks!).
2- Or you play it somewhat safe , swallow your pride, a couple of Advils, and write those dreaded three letters in your workout journal: "DNF" .
I chose the latter.
I kept thinking back at my first CrossFit coach Roch telling me to be smart: sure push hard and do your best always, but don't be dumb and injure yourself, because then you can't train!
I sat and thought about the workout and made a list of positive things as well as things I need to improve on:
- I did 5 rounds! Still nothing to sneeze at...a year ago I would not have been able to do any!
- although i used an Ab-Mat as a buffer for the handstand push ups, that was the lowest I had ever gone! An improvement!
- Knees to elbows, KB swings, burpees, and butterfly kip pull-ups : got 'em! Another good point.
- I still need to gain strength on the dead lifts and thrusters continue to be my "Waterloo", but unlike Napoleon, I will vanquish those thrusters, one day.
I rested all of Sunday, and today checked out "The Grizzly":
200 single skips
2 chest to bar pull ups
10 power cleans @ 95 lbs
2 chest to bar pull-ups
8 ground to overhead @ 115lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
6 back squats @ 135lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
4 dead lifts @180lbs
2 muscle ups
DONE! 13 min 50 sec
So the time was not stellar, but hey...I was smart about it, and knew I would be able to complete it, pushhing myself beyond my capacity (within reason), staying injury free, and ready to rumble tomorrow!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
MELTDOWN!
If you train hard, and train hard five times a week, sometimes double workouts in one day; chances are you've had a ...GASP...a meltdown.
The pressure we put on ourselves to perform , excel, lift heavier, and be better athletes can cloud our judgement and make us forget that one of the most important parts of training is not strenuous at all: rest
Overreaching, over training, being spread too thin, it can creep up on you, here are some sure signs you're doing too much and not resting enough:
1- Weight that you used to lift consistently seems to be way heavier (Ok who snuck on an extra 20 lbs?!)
2- Mentally you break down and end up on floor in a pile of blubbering sobbing " I-can't-do-it-anymore" mess
3- You wake up sore, go through the day sore, go to bed sore and just generally ache.
4- Workouts that usually get you all fired up, give you a "meh" feeling and you just don;t feel like you can push yourself.
5- Changes in appetite: not hungry at all or not being able to snacking on everything an anything.
You need rest, your body need to recuperate and repair all the micro tears in muscle tissue in order to get stronger. Listen to your body, eat well, and rest up!
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