Month: August 2013

Diary of a Wimpy HIP

my-hips-dont-lie

My Hips don’t LIE. They BURN! Well just my right side.

Back in 2011 when I started my journey of better health and fitness, my lame-o right HIP started giving me issues. I thought I had injured my hip flexor but never really checked it out as it wasn’t severe pain and it was intermittent. Then CrossFit came into my life and my sad BIG HIP was just always nagging at me. It hurt sitting, it hurt standing, it was always hurting. It didn’t hurt when I was working out though at first. Then I could feel it limiting me in my squats. Coach gave me some mobility exercises but it wasn’t going away. So I went to Airrosti which was heaven on earth. They worked my whole hip/glute area. It was painful but relief at the end of my sessions. They asked if my HIP popped randomly and I said YES my whole life. Aha, they said. They asked if it just started hurting now that I’ve become super active. Of course my answer was YES. I mean the popping sometimes hurts but I wasn’t doing much by way of regular beatdowns prior to 2011 for quite some years. They told me I had an impingement. And that all of this new activity was taking it’s toll. Yay ME! I guess YOUTH is golden because I was super active all through high school and never had any problems. They said I would probably always have HIP flexiblity issues. BUT with proper stretching, foam rolling, etc I should be fine and I should be able to manage any future issues.

images

Of course after focusing on the stretches they gave me I was feeling much better and I was such a go getter in general with my mobility. Then I got to feeling better more often, got bored sticking with the mobility and just became reliant on the necessary post WOD mobility at the box. And guess what? All that HIP pain is creeping it’s way back in. Why oh why am I such a glutton for punishment? Why can’t I just roll out and stretch when I’m watching TV? The past several WODs at the BOOM box have brought my HIP issues back to life and now I need to focus on being better at mobility. I just need to stop being lazy and get back to it! I sure as hell could eat a tub of ice cream while sitting in front of the TV so why won’t I just get on the ground and get to it!!??!!

33634669

8/1/13 WOD
Skill: Double Unders
Easy breezy! I got these. I’m learning to pace myself and have them under control whether it be fast and knock them out or go slower and take my time. I’m not great at doing more than 50 UNBROKEN but that comes with lots of practice. And lots of practice is something I don’t do! It’s my one superpower in CrossFit and I don’t focus on extra work with DUs because I have so much more to figure out!

8/1/13 WOD

8/1/13 WOD

MetCon: AMRAP 7 min, Up Ladder by 5 of Jumping Lunges and DU; Rest 3 minutes; Max Effort Unbroken Pull Ups
I’m feeling good about this WOD. My knee is less inflammed due to proper CLEAN eating so I even feel good about JUMPING LUNGES which when on a poor diet hurt like hell. The goal is to do 5 of each for Round 1 and increase 5 reps for each round after. So Round 2 will be 10 reps each, Round 3 will be 15 reps each and so on. It was round 3 when I was into the lunges that my HIP started to shut down on me. It was burning no matter what I did. I had to slow my roll. I had no explosion. I kept going just at a much slower pace. Fortunately I can knock DUs out so. And as long as I didn’t stop on the Jumping Lunges I felt like I would still do well.

When the 7 minutes was up we got a 3 minute rest and then it was onto max effort Pull Ups. I got my bands up there and waited for our rest to be over. My max effort was only 10 Pull Ups. I wasn’t feeling it and it showed. Final: 7 rounds + 6 Lunges + 10 Pull Ups

8/2/13
Strength: Front Squat 5@65% 4@75% 3@85% 3@90%
With my new PR weight that puts me at 95lbs, 110lbs, 125lbs and 130lbs. And amazingly I did pretty well through all the sets. The last few do get heavy but not impossible. It really does feel good to know I am getting stronger.

8/2/13 WOD

8/2/13 WOD

MetCon: 10 Rounds Team WOD 5 DL (275/185) 10 HR Burpees
Deadlifts YAY, Burpees BOOOO. This was a team WOD, so 1 person does a round, then your partner does a round. We had 3 folks on our team which had two of working at once. I opted for 155lbs because well my Hamstring is achy and my Hip is achy and there’s not a need for injury. I felt like the first 3 rounds of Deadlifts were smooth and quick, but my last two sets were pretty slow. As far as Burpees went, I only did OK on the first two rounds. The last three rounds I would get 5 reps easily then struggle with the last 5. Burpees are not my friend. Time: 9:50

8/5/13
Strength: Squats 6@70% 6@80% 3@90% 2@90%
I grouped up with some stronger ladies today which helps get me through all the reps mentally. As the saying goes “Iron sharpens Iron”, it helps to watch others move heavier weight. It helps me focus on my goals and that I too am capable. With time and work, I’ll get there.

8/5/13 WOD

8/5/13 WOD

MetCon: For time – Lunge 300ft, 400m Run and 50 Jumping Air Squats
Sigh! Lunging is not my strength. I can manage to get through them but I never enjoy them. This however, was going to kick my ass and that my friends, it did! So we go outside and Coach says we’re going to lunge around the parking lot and showed us the route we should take. THAT IS NOT 300ft Coach! And he responds, no probably more but that’s the route you’re taking. It may be 450ft. Who knows. GREAT! So lunge distance is UNDEFINED and all I know is that it’s a long ass distance. Talk about HIP being on FIRE. I wasn’t even halfway around and I was not happy. How could this suck sooo much?!? I don’t have an answer except that I need to work on that HIP mobility ASAP so lunges aren’t so brutal. Add a 400m CRAWL to that and I was just ready to call it quits. But wait, there’s more! 50 JUMPING Air Squats. Just that extra evil that I needed added to the workout. I busted out 10 and 10, then 5’s. I only took short rests in between but my overall time was so slow. Time: 14:18

62645_644294012264015_2078932019_n

That’s all for now ladies and gents. Eating clean is becoming more, eating junk is becoming LESS. Consistency at the BOOM Box is paying off! I just need to add MOBILITY back into the equation. Have a super duper TUESDAY and don’t forget to be Awesome!

66fb6595dde0232a0cccf337e79f7b75

Pushing My Limits

270244_217687938268482_80416_n

These past couple of days, CrossFit Boom has really been pushing me. We have been doing workouts that are destroying me (in a good way). In general I don’t feel like I’m just being more intense so it must be the WODs are just set up to kill us!

In regards to food, I’m eating way better overall, so I know it’s not JUNK bringing me down. But I still have some extra fluff to shed so maybe it’s just making it harder on the ol’ body to re-cooperate. OR maybe the WODs are just killer and I’m on the path to getting that much better!

7/30/13
Strength: 1RM axle snatch
I’ve said this in the past and I’ll say it again. I LOVE THE AXLE. It has a bigger diameter than a barbell and it’s awkward but I like it. What’s really AWKWARD though is doing SNATCH with this Axle. My Barbell Snatch is weaksauce as it is with my 1RM being 75lbs. I was just hoping to get close with the Axle. Turns out I could only go to 60lbs without that FEAR creeping in. I could pull 65lbs easy breezy but dropping under the bar was not happening. It’s so frustrating that I know the problem but mentally can’t bust through it!

7/30/13 WOD

7/30/13 WOD

MetCon: 5 Rounds 10 Clean & Jerks (135,95) 10 Burpee Pull Ups
When I initially saw the post the morning of I thought it was 10 Power Cleans. When I walked into the box and saw the 6pm class doing Clean & Jerks I was all “OH NO”. I can Clean and Jerk 105 maybe 110 for a 1RM. So 95lbs for 50 reps seemed insane. I opted to go for 85lbs, just so I wouldn’t be there for 3 days trying to finish the WOD. So pretty much this was GRACE on STEROIDS. And I haven’t even begun to think what the Burpee Pull Ups are gonna do to me!

3-2-1 GO. Uh this sucks and I’m only 2 reps in. And on top of that my crybaby self is using the 45lb bar. I started out using this bar on all lifts but as 35lb bars came in and they felt so much better on my small hands I’ve become accustomed to the 35lb bar. Now the 45lb bar seems ginormous and I have a head game going on and I’m only 30 seconds into the workout! I’m in trouble! I finally got through the 10 reps and moved onto the Burpee Pull Ups. We all know I can’t do Pull Ups so I had to stack some plates up and do Jumping Pull Ups. So drop to the ground, hop up and onto plates and get chin over bar X 10. NO FUN! Rinse and repeat the round 4 more times. It was a struggle and I was spent. I didn’t know how others had finished in such good times because the whole workout was TAXING on all body parts. Finally got to the last round and had to pick up that damn bar. I did two in a row, dropped bar, 1, 1, 2. We had a fill in Coach, Nick, and he said I could do the last 4 Unbroken. I was sure I could not but I held onto the bar and finished those reps STRONG. Thanks for pushing me on! Because I would have for sure dropped the bar otherwise. The last round of Burpees weren’t fast but I just kept going. Time: 22:46. I typically feel OK anywhere from 5-15 minutes later. This WOD had me feeling shakey a whole hour later! BRUTAL! Just BRUTAL!

7/31/13
Strength: Strict Press 5rm you have 12 minutes take 85% and do Max reps take 70% and do max reps take 50% and do max reps rest as little a possible between setsAfter Push Ups on Monday and Clean & Jerks and Burpees on Tuesday my shoulders are dead. They are sore, in pain, dead! I knew my Strict Press would be weak, I just wasn’t sure how weak! I almost had 65lbs for 5 reps but failed on the last rep. I was pushing the pain factor too much so I settled with that. The next step was to drop to 55lbs and do Max Reps. I managed 8 reps. Then dropped to 45lbs and managed 10 reps. I surprised myself and I feel like I should have got more reps but the pain in my right shoulder was kicking in. Dropped to 35lbs and managed 7 reps. Too much pain! So I ended on that.

7/31/13 WOD

7/31/13 WOD

MetCon: Test Row 5K
I’m not a rower. Let’s just get that out of the way. But I want to be! I feel being short is such a disadvantage but I know that’s just an excuse to hang my hat on, so I’m wanting to be somewhat good at this just to prove myself wrong. I wish I wanted to prove myself wrong in running as well but that’s not going to happen! So ROWING has been showing up in more of our programming. That’s a good thing. But it’s been short stuff. The longest being a 1K row. So now we’re testing for a 5K! Holy CRAP! This is all post Strict Press for me and my shoulders are weak!

I'm rowing my butt off! Far left in gray shirt.

I’m rowing my butt off! Far left in gray shirt.

I got on that rower and immediately felt everything fatigued. I was already thinking I can’t finish this row at all. I wasn’t even 1K in and I was ready to call it a day. I knew I couldn’t do that but my mind was telling me to quit. Half way in, I saw the pace I was holding, and it was putting me at a 26 minute finish. Everyone throughout the day was averaging 20-23 minutes. Not that I can judge myself compared to others but those were the numbers I was seeing. I had a hard time keeping up with a faster 500 split. It fluctuated for the the first 3K. And it wasn’t until I had 1500 to go that I got a decent and consistent pace. By then it was too late to beat my 26 minute guesstimate but I was going to try. I just wish I had felt this “comfort” zone prior to the last 1500. Time: 25:47; beat 26 minutes by seconds! Unstrapped my feet and rolled onto the ground. I was exhausted. At least I have a time to compete against for the future. Never having rowed like this I feel alright about it. Let’s hope the next test comes with a nice improvement!

be_better2

So this week has proven to be a beating so far. Not sure what the BOOM Box will bring tonight but I’m ready to tackle it. My shoulders are feeling much better which is GREAT. I started taking Nighttime Recovery from Advocare. Two nights in a row now. It’s hard to tell if it’s HELPING or if it’s mental. But I figure extra Amino Acids can’t hurt me so if it’s really working or just there for my brain to believe it’s working, then it’s good either way!

Also, the Get Fit, Stay Fit Challenges are up and they look like a butt whoopin too so I’m gonna try and do them but I am not making any promises! It’s day 1 of this Challenge and there’s a lot to start off with! Let me know if you are participating. It may make it easier for me to commit!

As always don’t forget there is a COMMUNITY WOD at the BOOM Box this Saturday at 9am. It’s FREE. So get your butt out there! You know the drill, Eat Clean, Do Work and BE AWESOME! Happy Thursday!

tobeawesome