It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It’s not that I have been taking time off rather life has been very busy! This fall I was introduced to Cross Fit Training. Conceptually, you are training your entire body. High intensity, at least 3 major joints in motion in each exercise, and your workouts constantly change to avoid falling into a rut. You literally do not know what you are going to be doing until you get there…or right before you begin!
Each workout is broken into four sections. First is a “warm up”. When I got started, the warm up itself would kick my butt. A typical warm up might include a 200 meter run, 15 sit ups, 10 pushups, and 5 “burpees” (think squat thrust followed with a jumping jack). This series is repeated twice.
The second section of training works on skills. This may be learning proper technique of certain exercises from running to dead lifts and clean and jerk.
The third is known as the workout of the day or "WOD". This is where things get interesting. WODS can vary dramatically. One included squatting down and exploding up tossing a 20lb Medicine ball up against the wall (at a target @ 14’ on the wall) 10x followed by jumping /stepping up onto a wooden platform 1x. You progress to 9x Wall Balls and 2x jumps. 8x/3x, 7x/4x, etc… until you do 1 Wall ball and 10 platform jumps. You go as fast as you can. Trust me. It’s a workout. Other WODS have you work in groups of 2 or 3 rotating through various exercises. Occasionally, a WOD takes a different turn. One night we all got to do 150 Wall Balls. The recommendation was to do “as many as you can before you have to take your first break”. Uh….okay…. I got through 20x when my lungs were screaming. A quick walk around in a circle and a few breaths later, I picked up the ball to continue. I figured I could get maybe 15x more done and then settle into sets of 10x. 6x Wall Balls later and my lungs felt like I sprinted a marathon… Another interesting WOD was when we were given a choice. We could do one set of 100 Burpees, 100 sets of 1 Burpee, or any combination that would get you to 100. WODs like that are timed so you can compare your results for improvement.
There are also WOD’s that are “set” that use specific movements, weights and repetitions and are timed to measure yourself against others. These often are named. One is “Fran” 135lb “Thrusters” followed by pull ups. 21x each followed by 15x and then 9x.
After the WOD, there is a cool down/stretch session. These are HIGHLY recommended. Often rolling out your muscles with a foam roller will save you a lot of tightness and pain the next day.
There were two obstacles I needed to deal with, other than the physical activity, with Cross Fit. The first was that coming from running/swimming/biking, I pretty much knew what I would be doing and could adjust my schedule to what I felt like doing that day. I can turn my brain off and just…”go”. With Cross Fit, you can’t turn your brain off. Quite the opposite, your brain is fully engaged in what you are doing. You can’t just turn it off. It sounds like a small difference, but it is really a big one. The second was that in Cross Fit, you are pushed to failure. When I swim, I can adjust the pace to how I feel. I have a series of distances I plan to swim or maybe one long one, and I just…”go”. In Cross Fit, if you don’t fail, you are not pushing yourself fast/hard enough or you need to increase weight.
Once I got used to the ambiguity of each workout and pushing myself to failure, all I needed was to learn to deal with the physical aspects of the workout. I found muscle aches I never knew through football or rugby. There are far fewer bruises however…
I wish I could say I have dropped a bunch of weight as a result. I can tell you that my body is "re-sculpting" itself. My legs have these “things” where my muscles used to be. They look like…well… “muscles”. My chest and shoulders are firming up. My clothes are fitting very differently.
In a few weeks my indoor tri season starts. I will be interested in seeing how my workouts will impact my results.
I have some issues with flexibility in my legs but I can work on that. I feel I am getting closer to getting over the hump and having a breakthrough running. Getting my legs back under me will do wonders for me.
The journey continues…one strange workout at a time.
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