Inspiration

After watching the Crossfit Regionals this weekend there is one Fancy lady coming back to Red Deer from Vancouver and she could definitely run the world...I know I would follow her.  This is dedicated to her. 

Don't be such a hater

Over the weekend I came across a blog post from a guy who is obviously not a fan of Crossfit.  Titled "5 reasons Crossfit is Crap" his hate filled rant basically lambastes all things CF.  It got me thinking about the fact that Crossfit is a LOVE it or HATE it type of thing.  It polarizes people.  Kinda like hot yoga.  You either thrive in the sweltering heat or you melt, literally you melt, trust me.  Maybe lately I have just taken a few too many sips of  the proverbial Kool-aid but over the last few weeks I have been slowly but surely falling in L-O-V-E with Crossfit and my blooming love affair has completely caught me off guard.  Here is why....

Top 5 Reasons I   Crossfit

1. Its messy, gritty and down right dirty.  You chalk up, leave half your palm on the bar, grunt out each rep, and wipe away the sweat dripping off every part of your body.  Then you high five everyone at the end WITHOUT washing your hands.

2. It works for me. I am not saying its for everyone but it is for me and I am so fortunate to feel stronger,  look better and most importantly feel happier and healthier.  CF claims that its all about functional movement and training and you can't argue that when I can lift my two year old over my head onto my shoulders and help unload the hundred yard stone bricks for our garden without too much worry.  
3.  It keeps me hooked.  Its like carbs but good for you.  Each day is a new challenge.  There is no time for boredom and there is always something you can strive to be better at.  Crossfit appeals to the competitor in all of us, even if the last time you competed was on the JV Girls Volleyball team in high school.  And by competed I mean I picked slivers out of my butt for an entire season. 

4. It has a strong sense of community.  One might argue Crossfiters demonstrate cult like behaviour but you would be hard pressed to find a group that has a stronger sense of camaraderie and team spirit than that of the Crossfit community.  Its international, viral and hard to not get swept in to.  What other fitness facility has everyone working towards a common goal, leaving it all out on the floor no matter the skill level and then gym goers stick around to cheer on others till they finish.  Be honest it would probably not be quite as appropriate to go to the local rec centre yell out 3-2-1 GO and then precede to scream in the ear of the guy finishing his last set of preacher curls.  "Come on....push hard....you got this....its all you...".  Members are loyal and dedicated.  They favourite the main page,other 'boxes'  pages and all things Crossfit just to keep up with how others are succeeding.   Each box is full of people who care about you, support you and want you to be your best.  Its like a family but without all the dysfunction.  

5. It inspires me to be MY best me.  I push myself past limits I didn't know existed and I surprise myself all the time and leave with a sense of accomplishment every WOD and every PR lift.   Each day I prove that if I want to, I can and I will.  I am a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend and teacher because of what I learn about myself by just simply taking part in a twenty minute Crossfit workout.

 

Change up

Plateau...that is what I have hit....We tried resetting and getting going again but it just isn't working.  It was starting to get tough mentally to have to squat or lift heavy every single time I faced the bar.  So W and I sat down and talked about options, and we settled on the programming of Jim Wendler and his 5/3/1: The Simplest and Most Effective Training System to Increase Raw Strength method.   In 5/3/1, you're expected to train three or four days a week. Each workout is centered around one core lift — the squat, bench press, deadlift, and standing shoulder press.   Each training cycle lasts four weeks, with these set-rep goals for each major lift: Week 1: 3sets  x 5 reps, Week 2: 3 x 3, Week 3: 3 x 5, 3, 1, Week 4: deloading.  Then you start the next cycle, using heavier weights on the core lifts.
Oh but don't be fooled it isn't that simple.   Based on my one rep max I will now be lifting a specific percentage of that one-rep max each set.   That's OK if you don't know what the hell I am talking about...I don't really know what the hell I even mean.   No one told me that lifting weights was going to as stressful as my Calculus course from first year and that I would have to buy one of those fancy graphing calculators from Staples just to figure out what weight I had to lift.  The part of the program that draws me in is that we can just slow down a bit but still get strong.  Its all about the journey and I don't have to be in such a mad rush all the time.   

Inspiration

Found this AWESOME video while checking out Chicago's Windy City Crossfit website.  If this doesn't make you want to get in the gym...

Don't laugh she's making a comeback...

I don’t want blood, I am not a pretender, I ain’t down with the sickness and isn’t the sandman supposed to put you to sleep.  Lately at the gym I have been asking myself “What is with these tunes?”.  Not lady friendly at all.  I love our community and I love our box but I just don’t get jacked up from the kind of music our “boys” choose to work out to.  During Mommas class I prefer to hear Gaga over Metallica and Katy instead of ACDC.  I am into the toe tapping, bar hopping top 40, not the trans am driving, iron maiden tshirt wearing hard rock it seems that the men of Ignite Fitness are drawn to.  

 

There are claims out there that if you are a true CF'er you don’t need music to motivate yourself through the toughest of WODs but it’s pretty hard to argue that the right song at just the right time can help you elevate and then dominate any AMRAP.   Hard rock, Rap, Hip Hop, Top 40, Country (OK a little questionable),  no matter what your taste, the power of music is undeniable.  The right song can ramp you up just before you squat your PR, help you dissociate from the pain of that filthy fifty, provide a beat to synchronize your kip to and even help drown out the heavy mouth breather struggling to complete the last of their five rounds. 

The tricky part is that not everyone has the same taste in music and one of the many differences between a Crossfit box and your regular ol' Golds Gym is that people are plugged into each other and not their own personal devices while they sweat it out side by side.  Loading up your iPod, packing it in your gym bag and heading to a crossfit box isn’t all that kosher.  When you are at our gym you spend time talking to each other and offering encouragment and support and be honest you can't very well do that if you are busy flipping through your own personal playlist.  Music is a personal preference and I understand that not everyone feels the same as I do when I hear the opening thump thump thump of  Adele’s Rolling in the Deep but come on boys compromise and give this gal a break, play a little Britney.

 

A collection of playlists for every kind of workout.  Check it out!

http://www.inthegym.net/

Insipration

Stay at home moms who want to live their best life have Oprah, Trekkies who speak Klingon have Spock, kids who love adventure have Dora and Diego, People who want to live primal have Grok and I, well I have Coach Rippetoe. 

Mark Rippetoe is a beefy, straight shooting Texan  who thinks abs are for  p*#$%s , in fact he uses that word to describe just about anything and everything.    An authority all on things strong, Coach Rip, as he is affectionately known by followers,  is not afraid to dole out advice on how to get big and lift heavy and makes no apology for his rough and tough get it done attitude.  He claims that he can "teach any idiot to squat properly in 10 minutes".  Although his style borders on being politically incorrect and sometimes down right rude he has numerous blogs dedicated to his "ripisms" that are actually kind of inspiring.    His attitude is simple and his no nonsense way of telling you how its going to be has helped me get passed my brain melt during the "heavy" lifting, relatively speaking, I have been doing.  I used to be a one man gal but this guy has gotten to me, he has infiltrated every aspect of my life.  His book Starting Strength has become my bible and gained a permanent spot on my bedside table, I find myself searching and watching every one of his training instructions on you tube, and just recently I started dreaming about him the night before I squat.  Coach Rip has taken up permanent residence in my psyche and now just as I am about to get under the bar the little voice in my head sneers and says...."its heavy so what? stop being a p*#$% and lift it."  Check out some of the wit and wisdom of Mark Rippetoe. 

Coach Rippetoe in action 

The dog ate my homework...

I have a headache, I am too tired, Its not a good day today...we all use excuses.  Sometimes our excuses are so that we can avoid hurting feelings or so that we don't feel guilty about saying no, but most times we use excuses to get out of something because we just simply do not want to do it.  Using an excuse to avoid getting around to something can be a slippery slope, once you use one more come so easily and before you know you even believe your rationalization.   And that guilty feeling you were hoping to avoid ends up hanging around nagging at you and it seems like someone always ends up hurt anyways.  Why do we spend so much time making excuses?  What do they really help you accomplish and why do we bother with them?

Just the other day I found myself  with an all out revolt while packing our bag to head out the door to go to Mommas class.  The kind of uprising that starts simply enough "No mom, I don't want to go to gym today!!!!" then escalating to an angry screech that only a two year old can muster "NOOOOOOOOO gym!!! I want to watch Dora" till finally I find myself stomping after a very frantic terrible two about to lose her mind. I got to thinking how much easier it would be to stay home besides  "I have a million other things that I have to get done, it is too hard to get out of the house with the kids every day they need a break and it eats up the whole morning.  You know I hate what I am wearing anyways and all my "stuff" jiggles when I workout and I feel stupid when I don't know what I am doing and to top it all off I actually really hate exercising so do I need a better reason than that not to go today." 

Count 'em there was six excuses of why I should stay home and not go to the gym.  It took me almost as much time to justify why I shouldn't get going as it would have to just chase that lil bugger down and coax her into the car with a chocolate chip cookie.  Lets be honest it is a heck of a lot easier to make excuses than it is to push yourself and your body out of their comfort zones.  Its easy to be complacent that's why so many people are....and I am no stranger to finding a plethora of reasons NOT to get active.  

They say that a person who is really wanting to do something will find a way to make it happen; and the other guy will just find an excuse.Wouldn't it be more efficient use of my time to just come up with one good reason to get my pancake butt out the door.    I want to be the girl who is making stuff happen, I want to be known as the girl who couldn't do a pull up is now finishing Fran prescribed in just one year.  I don't want to waste anymore time making excuses for what I should have or could have done.  "Excuses are the nails that build the house of faliure" and I am not going to fail. 

Before you come up with a reason....