Category: Crossfit

Crossfit

More on the puzzle of gender and the problem with pink

Sam B13 Comments

These aren’t complaints about CrossFit per se. CrossFit is, I think, the most women friendly fitness environment in which I’ve found myself. Yay! Women and weights.

But CrossFit doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Some suppliers of fitness equipment, some coaches, and some fitness programs inevitably pick up gendered assumptions that frame the world around us.

I think these assumptions hurt women, hurt men, and hurt those who don’t identify within gender binary at all.

With those disclaimers, here are three pet peeves.

1. Why, why, why on earth are the lightest kettle bells pink? It doesn’t matter where you go, the lightest weights come in the colour pink. It’s as is the colour pink is code for light weight. Though really “pink” is code for “girl” and “girl” is code for “lightweight.” (See What’s So Bad about Pink Anyway?)

(Why, why, why are the shorter skipping ropes pink too?)

Rhetorical questions. I know the answer. For once, just once, I’d like to see heavy weights in the soft pink colour.

For me, I don’t really care. I don’t even use the pink kettle bells but I wouldn’t mind if I did. But the association with smaller weights and weaker persons with femininity bugs the crap out me.

I do feel sorry for the small guys, some of whom have baggage around masculinity, and who use the pink ropes (because they’re short not because they’re girls) and maybe even pink kettle bells, again because they aren’t that strong, not because they are particularly feminine.

2.  Gender stereotypes can come up in coaching too. See Coaching 101: Your Words Speak Volumes. Rebecca Bilodeau writes about her experiences with a coach who assumed that being female meant lifting light:

“On this particular day, we were getting ready to do 10×3 of back squats to get as heavy as possible. Great, I thought. I love me some heavy squats! I’ve got that big strong butt and great legs that I never truly appreciated until I started CrossFit. I could squat all day, every day, if my legs would let me. Needless to say, I came to the box pumped.

Our box has only three squat racks. No big deal. We usually just separate and get our squat on, taking turns as necessary and adjusting the weight for each other as we go along. We work well perfectly fine and push one another as we see fit. We are really a self-sufficient sort of group, but here were the coach’s directions:
“Heavy lifters on this rack, other guys here, and all the girls over there.” Okay, so we may have ended up divided that way anyways, but all I could think was, “Wait, where do I go? What if I’m a heavy lifter and a girl… Where’s that squat rack?””

In other gyms, I’ve heard the lighter bars referred to as the “girls’ bars”  and the heavy ones as “boys’ bars.” But I should say I’ve never ever heard that at my CrossFit gym.

And again, what if there is man who lifts lighter than the women, now he’s a girl? That just isn’t right.

3.  In CrossFit box jumps the women’s workouts call for 20 inch boxes and the men get the 24 inch boxes. (Confession: I can only do box jumps on a 16′ box. On even the 20 I’m reduced to stepping up and jumping down.) But why isn’t it by height? There are some tall women who make the 20 inch box jump look easy and some short guys who really struggle. How about a height cut off rather than a different requirement for men and for women. See Why “women’s specific” anything is likely a bad idea. The current system isn’t good for men or for women.

We can do it. Look ma, no pink!

Crossfit · cycling · racing · Rowing · running

Puke worthy workouts

Sam B4 Comments

I’ve written lots about pain and physical exertion. See here, here and here.

But now it’s time to tackle that other fun aspect of tough workouts, throwing up.

It’s a feature of almost every sport that I like that people sometimes barf. (I have teenagers at home, including teen athletes, so I know all sorts of good euphemisms but I’ll stick with “barf,” “vomit,” and “throw up.”)

CrossFit has a metal puke bucket in the corner, mostly as a joke. So too does the rowing club. And of course, the velodrome. Of course.

It’s sort of a joke but also sort of not. Vomiting does happen. It’s certainly happened to me on the bike.

“Intense exercise has a number of effects on the body. As well as raising metabolism and burning fat, it can also cause dehydration, dizziness and nausea. Whether you do cardiovascular exercise or strength training, it is not uncommon to throw up during or after a workout.” Read How to Prevent Throwing up when Exercising

I was reminded of all this this morning doing 200 m sprints x 10 on the erg, aka rowing machine, at CrossFit.

I was busy paying attention to how I felt about pain in response to commentators who think you really can’t say truthfully you enjoy painful intervals. And I’m right. At the fifth sprint, I had that silly smile on my face that makes other people question my sanity. Yay endorphins. I also had done a great job of keeping my times constant through the first five efforts.

Times ranged quite a bit, from the high 30s to the low 50s. For my first five 200 m intervals I was around 42 seconds.

But after five, my times started to go up. I stopped smiling. And by seven I was starting to think I might throw up. I didn’t. But I didn’t manage to eat again until lunch.

So, what happens to make your body feel that way? Read Why Do We Vomit After Strenuous Exercise?

High intensity interval training, in particular, brings about a bad combo. Lactic acid on the one hand, and blood going to your limbs rather than your digestion system, on the other. There are are reasons to skirt the edge of pukiness. In part, your body learns how to cope and recover and that’s important.

I’m not sure about the gallows humour around throwing up after a workout. But like the issue of peeing during workouts, I think it helps to know you’re not alone. Going hard, whether cycling, rowing, running, or swimming can bring it on and there’s no reason to be ashamed or proud about it.

“A 1992 study in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition found that 93 percent of  endurance athletes experienced some type of GI symptom (e.g., acid reflux, nausea, and vomiting) during their races.” See Techniques to Prevent Nausea and Vomiting Before, During, and After Racing.

It’s an issue with any form of High Intensity Interval Training but your body does adjust. From Precision Nutrition’s All About High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):

“Most every high intensity physical activity is a state of “crisis” in the body. It endangers oxygen supply to tissues, increases body temperature, reduces body fluids and fuel stores, and causes tissue damage.

Intense exercise creates endocrine and defense reactions that are similar to those elicited by low blood oxygen, high blood carbon dioxide, acidosis, high body temperature, dehydration, low blood sugar, physical injury and psychological stresses.

Hormonally, your body basically freaks out. Then it brings out the big guns to deal with the problem. High intensity exercise stresses the body so much that it’s forced to adapt.

As Nietzsche gasped during a 20-rep squat set, “That which does not kill me makes my quads bodacious.” (It makes more sense in German.)”

athletes · Crossfit · cycling · Rowing · training

Are athletes masochists?

Sam B9 Comments

 

The image above comes from a rowing tumblr, Don’t Feed the Lightweight. It’s tagged “Me trying to describe a 2 km erg test.” It made me laugh but it illustrates nicely, I think, the relationship between athletes and pain, and raises the question, “Are athletes masochists?”

What’s a masochist? Most dictionaries define “masochist” as one who requires or associates the experience of pain with sexual pleasure. But a secondary definition drops sex out the picture and it’s the non-sexual aspect of “pain-as-pleasure” that interests us here.

Elite athletes have even been dubbed “benign masochists” because they appear to enjoy the pain of exertion, says Dominic Micklewright, a researcher and curriculum director at the Centre for Sports & Exercise Science at the University of Essex in the U.K. Mocklewright is interviewed in a Wall Street Journal article on what separates those who love exercise from those who don’t. (I think the use of the word “benign” here is just a little bit “judgey,” as the kids say, okay as my kids say, since it suggests that sexual masochism is not so harmless but that’s a topic for another time, another blog.)

In my masters rowing group, we meet over the winter at the boathouse for regular erg sessions, But we also do something called Strength and Mobility training, and of course, it’s known as meeting up for  “S & M.” Nervous giggles ensue.

How close to the truth is it? What’s going on with the sports masochist?

Here are some possibilities:

1. We could think they experience less pain than the person who hates hard exercise because it’s painful. And it’s true that athletes generally have a higher threshold for pain. Have a look at Why athletes can handle more pain, Time Magazine. “Researchers didn’t crack the code, but they suggest resistance to pain can be learned over time, and an increase in exercise intensity can lead to endorphin release.”

See the article “Higher pain tolerance in athletes may hold clues for pain management,”  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/ehs-hpt051512.php..

2. We might also think that the experience itself is different, that it feels different, that the elite hard driving athlete experiences what we’d call pain as pleasure. But I don’t think that’s quite right. Read the descriptions below. They’re talking about pain and suffering in the normal, usual senses of the word.

3. What seems different though is how the experience is valenced. You might recognize it as pain but find value in the painful experience. Suffering is good in this context, it makes you stronger, and over time you come to have positive associations with the feeling. I’ve written before about my three experiences of undrugged childbirth. Those are experiences that I thought were meaningful and I wouldn’t want to not have experienced that pain as odd as it is to say that. Tracy puzzled about suffering in her recent post on the good that comes from a tough ride.

Me, I like tough painful workouts. See one of my earliest posts on this blog, Why are painful workouts so much fun? I knew from cycling that I’d like rowing, for example. Both have a reputation for pain. I wasn’t worried about that aspect of CrossFit. Given a choice between a long slow indoor row or a twenty minute session with lots of sprints, I’ll take the latter anyday. Long slow steady state workouts bore me to tears and boredom looms larger for me than pain. Outdoor rowing and cycling, even on long slow days I do okay. That’s because I like the outside and I like talking to friends but I couldn’t do a slow recovery ride inside on a trainer without distraction. Without music, I’d be doomed and even then I might find an excuse to cut it short.

Clearly liking pain isn’t sufficient to excel sports.

Obviously fitness and strength matter more. It’s only true that she who suffers the most wins among equally well trained athletes. Suffering by itself won’t get you across the finish line first.

But is liking pain necessary to succeeding in sports? I’m not so sure.

(For an explanation of necessary and sufficient conditions see here.)

I think tolerance for pain is one asset in sports performance but there are other psychological traits athletes need. Different people bring different strengths to training and competition and I think some characteristics matter more for some sports than others.

It’s a matter of knowing yourself and knowing what strengths you bring to a sport. An appreciation of pain is something I’ve got but there are other traits I lack, such as concentration and focus during longer efforts. Time trials over 20 km and I start to write philosophy papers in my head. During rowing I often heard, “Sam, eyes in the boat.”

I’ll close with more quotes about rowing and cycling and pain. There are lots of them out there and they’re so very good.

Rowing

“The hardest thing to teach an athlete is the ability to suffer. Those who know how to suffer know how to win.” US Olympic Rower Erin Cavarro

At the end of this year’s eventful Boat Race. “It’s very common for people to collapse in rowing,” explains Moore, “because they are racing to destruction.” It’s a sport, in short, for masochists. As Emery tells me: “You’ve got to enjoy the pain.” Read Rowing: the sport of masochists, Rowing is a punishing physical and mental workout. But you’ve got to enjoy the pain

“The aim is to bury yourself completely,” said Cracknell, with the kind of honesty about the event which suggests that whatever career opens up for him after he has stopped rowing, it is unlikely to be in advertising. “I like these machine because everyone else hates them. It hurts, really it hurts, but you mustn’t let it beat you. If you get psyched out by it, you’re in massive trouble. And believe me, even at the top level, people get psyched out. It’s a tough thing. It’s about commitment, not talent.” The mass masochism of indoor rowing

Cycling

“Cycling is so hard, the suffering is so intense, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain… Once, someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. ’Pleasure?’ I said. ’I don’t understand the question.’ I didn’t do it for pleasure, I did it for pain.” Lance Armstrong

“Suffering is what professional cycling is all about, and champions suffer the longest. The ability to suffer can be heightened through training, which is why racers go out on the road for up to seven hours most days during winter and early spring.” — Samuel Abt (cycling journalist)

“Cycling is suffering.” — Fausto Coppi (5-time Giro winner, 2-time TdF winner)

More quotes on pain and cycling here.

 

Crossfit

Mirror, mirror not on the wall, one more thing I love about CrossFit

Sam B4 Comments

A blog reader, with a wonderful blog of her own (you should go read it) first pointed out to me that there were no mirrors at CrossFit and I confess I was shocked that I hadn’t noticed it. My excuse: I guess I’m past that. Also, I’m usually working too hard at CrossFit to notice things like the absence of mirrors.

And while I used to use mirrors while lifting weights at other gyms for attending to form and posture, that’s very much not needed at CrossFit. I’m usually working with a partner whose job it is to help me with form (and then my turn to help her) and there’s a coach on patrol making sure we’ve got it right. (Thanks Dave!)

But now I’ve noticed it, I officially love it and I’d add it to my six things about CrossFit if I hadn’t already written that awhile ago. (For the other six things posts, see here.)

So why are there no mirrors at CrossFit? Here’s some answers:

“A CrossFit gym is NOT just like any other gym for a few reasons.  In most CrossFit gyms there are no mirrors.  This is because we believe that your body, when trained properly, will know the proper form by feel, not by sight.  After having a certified CrossFit coach guide you, you will be able to perform a lift or a squat to perfection just by knowing and trusting your body; and with months of practice.  Mirrors distract you from that internal feeling that you should know you are in good form.  Mirrors can also be distracting and prevent you from doing a great lift if you are too focused on the slightest quiver in the mirror.” More here

From  Back Country CrossFit:

“There are no mirrors in our gym because we don’t care what you look like.

In fact, we don’t care how old you are, or whether you’re male or female. We don’t care what color your skin is either. Or if you’re overweight or loaded with muscle. Or if you’re tall or short. Or blond. Or brunette.

We treat everyone like an athlete, and there’s no profiling here.

Traditional fitness facilities are loaded with mirrors. They’re everywhere. If you stand right in most facilities, you can see your rear delts and your pecs at the same time, or you can line yourself up with precision to surreptitiously check out the cutie around the corner. Very clever use of light and glass.

But the mirrors don’t lift the weight, and they don’t help you fix your form.

Appearance doesn’t matter. Effort does.

Try this: go stand in front of a mirror and go into the bottom of a deep squat. Look yourself in the eye. Then realize your neck is arched into a bad position. Then come to our gym and squat in front of a brick wall while we cheer you on.

We all want to look good, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you look around the Internet, or our gym, you’ll find a lot of fit, athletic-looking CrossFitters. Fitness and a great diet indeed have fringe benefits, and we’d be ignorant to ignore them.

But our gym isn’t about appearance. We’re about fitness, and if you improve your fitness, you’ll look better. Guaranteed.

But perhaps it’s best not to focus on that. Ultimately, appearance is a subjective measure that says nothing about your fitness. Some of the most beautiful people in the world are very unhealthy, and many of them will tell you that being judged on appearance isn’t very fun or good for mental health.

So we judge you on performance. Are you improving? Are you getting stronger? Are you getting faster? We write down what we lift and how fast we lifted it because that gives us a solid number that doesn’t lie.

Two hundred pounds went up five times. Fran was under 5 minutes. You ran our loop around the block under 3 minutes. You beat a personal record. You got stronger. Or faster. Or both.

You improved.

No mirror will tell you that.

We’re actually putting mirrors in the bathrooms very soon. But they’re not there for you to evaluate your appearance.

They’re there so you can look yourself in the eye and ask one important question:

Did you give your very best effort in the workout?”

Crossfit

CrossFit goals for the year. Wish me luck!

Sam B3 Comments

I’ve written before about modifying CrossFit workouts. One of the things I love about CrossFit is the scalability of the workouts. It’s also one of the reasons why I’m not sure what all the fuss about pregnant CrossFitters is about. That’s a perfect time to scale back. Yes, keep doing CrossFit but do it in a way that makes sense for your changing body. I’ve blogged about that here.

But I’m not pregnant (been there, done that, three beautiful young adults to show for it) and I’m working at scaling up, not scaling down. So I’ve picked a few exercises for which I currently do a scaled version and I’ve chatted with our coach about moving up to the non-scaled versions. In some cases, like push ups and double under, I can do the regular version but I can’t do enough of them to complete a CrossFit workout. There I’ll be working on increasing reps. In other cases, I can’t do them at all without assistance, pull ups, for example.

So here are the 4 exercises I’m going to work on this year, learning to do the Rx version.

1. Push ups

2. Pull ups

3. Box Jumps

But I don’t ever hope to do this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl8VG5brpRA

4. Double Unders

I’ll report back and let you know how I’m progressing. I’m going to tackle these in our warm ups and see what I can manage.

Aikido · athletes · Crossfit · cycling · martial arts · racing · Rowing · running

On being a Jill of all sports

Sam B11 Comments

Or here’s another way to put it, I’m a polyamorous athlete. There are lots of different sports and physical activities I love.

I spent a lot of time with people who really only love one sport–Aikido, rowing, CrossFit, or cycling, for example. Sure they may do other sports but those activities are in service of their one true love. They lift weights to build strength for cycling off season or they run so they don’t get winded on the mat in Aikido but if they could just cycle or do Aikido, they would. I find the worst mono-exercisers to be runners and I’ve written a bit about that in the post Is there life after running?.

My son is like me. He plays rugby, basketball, and football. He loves all three but he’s at an age where he’s being pressured to make choices. He’s a good size for rugby but a bit small for football. He runs well for his size but getting faster might mean getting smaller. And tackling styles vary between rugby and football. Specialization lurks.

But me? I’ve got no serious future in sports. I play for fun. My primary passion is cycling but I’ve come to love rowing too.  I’m a green belt in Aikido (middling rank) and I dabble in soccer and CrossFit. In theory, it ought to be okay for me to play the field, so to speak, but in practice there are challenges. Here are some of them:

1. Coaches design training schedules assuming you’re doing one thing, their thing. Sure, they say you can substitute one workout each week with a crosstraining activity of your choice but often they don’t have much idea of what you’re up to with your other things for which their thing counts as crosstraining. It can get messy.

2. This get worse when training gets more purposeful. You might be in the “build an aerobic base from which to add power” stage of one activity while the other is focused on “developing explosive power.” Yeah, right.

3. Then there’s race schedules versus training schedules, building and tapering and recovery all thrown into one big mess. This year I considered doing a rowing regatta the day after a mini duathlon and while I think it would have been okay (both events weren’t that long) I can see why others were skeptical. That’s one nice thing about triathlon. You get to do multisport but with a training plan where the sports fit together.

4. You are often arriving at one activity tired from the other. I felt bad for teammates in soccer when I showed up for a game the day after a century bike ride. On the one hand, I was there. But on the other, I couldn’t exactly run my hardest.

5. Sometimes it feels too much like an excuse. The rowers think I’m really a cyclist. The cyclists say, well you haven’t been out much this year, you’re too busy rowing. The CrossFitters know I dabble and running, it’s always third string. I make no great claims in that department.

6, And it can be frustrating. I watch the people who do CrossFit everyday or who row everyday or who are at Aikido each night and see them make terrific progress. They advance much faster than me and I’m jealous.

6. But on good weeks? It’s amazing. I’m doing lots of different things I love. I’ve got a waiting list of new things to try. And the world of physical activity looks rich and full of choices. I’ll never be a star but I will have an awful lot of fun. I promise!

advertising · athletes · body image · Crossfit

CrossFit, crotch shots, and respect

Sam B9 Comments

An issue has exploded this week which brings together themes from two of our most popular blog posts. I first noticed traffic spiking from two search terms “CrossFit women” and “crotch shots” before I even knew the source.

The searches were leading people to the following older posts: Crotch shots, upskirts, sports reporting, and the objectification of female athletes’ bodies and Women of CrossFit.

Later things clicked into place when the wonderful blogger behind Fit and Feminist shared on Facebook the following story about CrossFit, Dear CrossFit: Talayna Deserves Better.

The story begins with a photo of Talayna Fortunato climbing a rope at the CrossFit Games.

About the photo, writes: “That’s Talayna Fortunato climbing a rope at the 2013 CrossFit Games, posted on both Instagram and the CrossFit Facebook page by CrossFit’s media team. Now, you may notice that she is highly ripped, and has fantastic arms. But that’s not why the picture was posted. The picture was posted because her legs are splayed directly into the lens of the camera. “

I like the photo. I like strong women. And my first thought looking at the photo isn’t anything to do with Talayna’s crotch. I think she looks like an amazing athlete. I’m wow-ed.

But my reaction changes when I read the comments under it which are crude and disrespectful. “I’d like to give her a post work out protein shake.” Ugh. People. Mostly, ugh, men.

McCarty says CrossFit ought to know better posting photos like that. He writes, “CrossFit Media – stop it. You guys should be better than this. You can’t feign ignorance and claim you had no idea that what you were posting was potentially embarrassing, inflammatory, or disrespectful. You know what you’re doing. It’s certainly good marketing, but it shits on the very athletes who make your sport grow more popular every day. Grow up. You no longer need your edgy, guerilla marketing. CrossFit is a snowball rolling down a hill now. Take the high road and I am willing to bet you won’t lose one single dollar of revenue.”

But did CrossFit listen? Um. No.

There’s another crotch shot photo on their Facebook page. It’s a photo of a woman swimmer advertising Women’s The Pool (Re-run) on ESPN tonight. This time I didn’t have any of the “Wow, what an amazing athlete” thoughts. I immediately thought “Dear God. Another crotch shot.”

This time comments under the photo range from the usual, immature nonsense such as  “I didn’t know camels could swim?! Well, it is hump day…lol” to people criticizing the decision to put this photo on their page. In the middle are people criticizing the immature reactions, “What is wrong with you people making these horrible comments?!?”

There is a discussion of strength and athleticism versus the focus on the way female athletes look. I chimed in and posted links to my earlier posts. We’ve got some new followers. Welcome!

I know the controversy gets CrossFit publicity. But it does so at the expense of treating women athletes with the respect they deserve. Now, I’m with McCarty. CrossFit, grow up!

And once again I feel obliged to say that I haven’t seen or heard any of this sort of discomfort with women’s bodies at either of the CrossFit locations I’ve trained at. CrossFit deserves better media representations of its female athletes.

Crossfit · family

CrossFit, pregnancy, and working out

Sam B8 Comments

The internet went wild this week over photos of a CrossFitting mother to be lifting weights.

Shock, horror, but what about the babies! That’s a bad thing to do while pregnant.

Yes, but what about the obese pregnant women who sit around all day eating chocolates and doing nothing? Surely that’s worse.

Judgments about other people’s bodies and their lifestyle choices were flying fast and furious from both sides.

If you live under a rock and missed the whole thing either count yourself lucky or have a look here: Pregnant CrossFit Mom Posts Weightlifting Pics to Facebook, Gets Totally Hated On and Pregnant weightlifter training just two weeks before due date provokes controversy.

My reaction to the pics? They made me smile. I thought she looked strong and terrific. In a longer, more thoughtful post, I’d have lots to say but here I just want to share a few thoughts.

I’m working out with a pregnant woman at CrossFit these days. I’m getting to know her better because she’s lifting less weight and so we’re closer to each other at the gym.  Relevant point: You can still be lifting a lot of weight and have that be a lot less than you usually lift. You just don’t know.

It’s also worth noting about media frenzy CrossFit mum that it’s her third child. Probably by now she’s got a pretty good idea how pregnancy feels to her and what she can and can’t do. Probably she’s the best expert on her own body.

I did the most exercise with my third pregnancy too. Yes, by the end of the thing I’d moved to water aerobics for my cardio but for the first six months I kept riding my bike. I asked my doctor about bike riding and she said to stick with it until balance became an issue. As it turned out my belly getting in the way was the bigger issue. But I recall the very judgmental looks I got from people for riding my bike and that hurt.

The judgment should just end. Now.

Oh, and I got none of that from health care professionals. The doctors and nurses all said nice things to me about staying active. After all, I felt good during my pregnancies. I had none of the many complaints that are associated with pregnancy.

But not all pregnancies are fine for physical activity. Sometimes things get in the way of our very best plans.

Alice MacLachlan blogged here about finding herself, a very active, fit person, not able to exercise much in pregnancy. That was incredibly stressful. She wrote, “All the advice I’d found so liberating, in theory (Be active! Keep running!) now felt like just another norm governing women’s bodies, telling me I couldn’t measure up.”

Individual circumstances vary and you don’t know what’s going on with someone else’s body. There’s a fun flow chart circulating about the ethics and etiquette of advice giving that’s relevant. I can’t find it but if you’ve seen it please let me know where to find it. “Should I give someone advice about what they’re about to eat, or what exercise they’re about to do or not do?” “Has that person asked for advice or are you that person’s parent?” “If yes, yes. If no, then no.”

Advice on exercise in pregnancy changes often. Not too many generations ago women were told not to lift anything and to take it easy. My generation got different advice. We were told not to start a new program of exercise but that anything you already did you could keep doing. Now, the Exercise and Pregnancy Lab at my university says you can even start a program of exercise while pregnant. Further they even say that we don’t know how much is too much. At about 3 minutes in the researcher says pregnancy isn’t a time to train for athletic competition and that that’s because they aren’t sure at what point in pregnancy how much exercise is too much.

I think it’s up to you. Find out what facts there are to find out, do your research, do what feels right for you, and everybody else, keep quiet. Please. You’re annoying me.

Crossfit

One year anniversary at CrossFit London

Sam B2 Comments

Yesterday was my one year anniversary at CrossFit London and I decided to renew my vows. In plain terms, I renewed my membership. My plan is two classes a week over the summer, three in the fall and winter. I’d do more but I like the outside too much.

CrossFit in New Zealand was a bit more outdoorsy. Hill running, stair repeats, and flipping giant tires.

I’ve written before about some things I love about CrossFit and other things about which I’m less certain. See Six Things I Love about Crossfit and Six Things I’m Not So Sure About. On balance, it’s definitely positive.

This post is a bit different though. I want to evaluate the “me” side of the relationship, looking at where I might improve.

Here’s some things I pledge to do differently in year two:

1. I need to a better job figuring out where I can push myself harder, which modifications make sense and where I can level up. I’ve written a bit about this here, Leveling up at CrossFit: Rx versus modified workouts, and now it’s time to think it through and act.

2. I need to make more of a community for me. It matters to me. See Crossfit and what does it mean to say, “I would never do that by myself?” and Things you learn from working out with others for some of the reasons why. True most of the people are lots younger than me but we’re all there to get fitter, faster, stronger.

3. I need to not be intimidated by CrossFit competitions. I like competitions! There’s no age categories in the cross fit open. Maybe that’s what scares me off. But I can do it. It’ll be good for me and I’ll enjoy it.

So bring it on.

This is the year I’ll manage double unders and pull ups!

Crossfit · fitness · training

Halfway there! Happy 50 burpees day!

Sam B2 Comments

Not much new to say except I’m getting faster, and enjoying working with a timer. (See Measurements, counting, and motivation.) Not sure yet if I’ll make it to 100 but I’m not ready to quit yet!

If you want to find out more you can read past posts about burpees and our summer challenge:

Burpee summer challenge! We’re in. Are you?
My Scaled Back “Burpee Challenge” and Why Scaling Back Can Work
Loving and hating burpees: A midseason report on the 100 day challenge