Lydia, congratulations!!
Sorry to hear about you being sick. Sounds painful! Glad you were able to still make your test, though, and I hope you're feeling better today. I'll put the Crossfit report at the bottom, so folks don't have to sift through it if they want to skip it. There were other videos showing the shoulder dislocations with the pvc, but none really explained the whole thing of starting wide and moving the hands in a little each time, or where to stop. Speaking of the overhead squat, I can't wait to get some help with that one. I'm pretty sure I'm butchering the form all to heck.
Mel, I'll have to try the one foot thing, then. People are gonna laugh when I fall over, though. What do I do with my other foot, just raise it up a few inches off the floor, cross my feet, or what?
Rabbit, I think you will like the ring rows. I'm finding them easier already, and they're fun, actually. I do the hardest version I can until I can't get my thumbs to touch my armpit (currently about 9 in a row, up from 5 in a row the first day), then move my feet back a step and finish my set.
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Okay, now for the Crossfit Report, feel free to skip:
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Class #3/Saturday
Two of us showed up for this class, myself and the other lady in class, who I'll just call "D". D missed class on Thursday, so part of this class was spent catching her up on the deadlift and push press, while I moved on.
Pre-Warmup:
I showed up early, did some walking/jogging, then some ROM (range of motion, just moving all my joints to prepare them and get them lubed up), and stretching on my own.
Warm-up:
The official warm-up was 2 rounds of the following:
10 air squats to a medicine ball (aka bodyweight squats)
10 push-ups
10 ring rows
Again, I find this lacking for my old self, so I'm glad I showed up early and got some stretching in first. I banged out the knee push-ups today in sets of 10, unbroken, so I'm getting better. Hopefully I'll be able to move to real push-ups soon.
New Skills:
1) Rowing:
Today we learned how to use the C2 Rower. Our mission was to work on perfecting the stroke, which was basically pushing with the legs first, then leaning back just a little, then pulling with the arms. We're supposed to do it smooth, and the rower display shows you a little graph of how smooth your stroke is. I kept getting something that had a spike at the top, like a triangle, and we were shooting for a nice smooth arc, more like a haystack. Our trainer, L, said the spike was from me pulling too hard with the arms. I worked at it, and got closer to the haystack graph, but I can see this will take some dedicated practice to master before upping the intensity/speed.
Humorous sidenote on the rowing: I've been playing with the rower at the Y for a while, doing 500 meters for 3 rounds during my usual warm-up, with the resistance set on 10. The trainer started us out with the resistance on 10, and after about 100 meters, asked if we were getting tired. I said no, and she looked disappointed, so next time she asked, I lied and said yes, since I could see she was gearing up for something. Then she revealed that the resistance was set on 10, and that she thought we should start with it set on 3 or 4. She adjusted it, and it was like rowing a piece of pvc pipe, lol. I didn't let on that it was too light, because I figured it couldn't hurt me to learn the stroke first, before upping the resistance again. I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the stroke smoothed out, so I will be playing with that in my own warm-up, if I can, or else go use the machines at the Y. The new stroke was definitely faster and easier on the back than what I was doing on my own. Very cool!
2) Deadlift and Push Press (review for me, new for D, who missed a class)
D had to learn these before moving on, so I played along and got to practice some more, always good. I think we fixed my deadlift form this time. L, the trainer, put me in a bit lower squat at the bottom, and that seemed to fix the rounded back issue. It's a bit painful, similar to the medicine ball deadlift experience of Thursday, but I'm sure it will get better quickly. I feel like the pre-warm-up I did before class and the stretching helped me, too. I didn't feel like I was hitting a wall with the hamstrings today.
3) Thrusters:
D wasn't ready for these, as she is weak in the squat, so I practiced these with a pvc while D learned the push press. Crossfit calls them thrusters, but this move is basically a front squat with a barbell (usually touching down to the medicine ball with your butt, to make sure you get the depth every time), you power up out of the squat (theoretically, lol) into a push press, and finish with the bar locked out overhead. Elbows were high for the squatting portion, then a little lower for the push press portion. It's supposed to be one fluid motion, exploding open with the hip, like you're trying to hurl the bar at the ceiling, brief pause locked out at the top, catch the bar in the front squat position, elbows up, front squat, explode up again, adjusting the elbows on the way up to facilitate the press overhead.
I got to use a barbell with weights for this one, one of the girly bars and bumpers to total 45 lbs. I thought I was all that! Those girly bars and bumpers make 45 lbs look a lot more impressive, IMO.
I got the form right maybe half the time. It was a lot to think about, and I kept forgetting what rep I was on during the workout later on.
The WOD (aka workout of the day):
3 Rounds for time of:
Row 200 meters
10 Thrusters w/45 lbs (for me, D did Push Press with the pvc)
My time was 9:44, and D beat me by about a minute. I was happy about that, since I didn't want to be that annoying jerk that is always first. I was having way too much fun with the rower, and every round I forgot to watch the distance, and ended up doing almost 300 meters before I realized I was supposed to switch. On the thrusters, I was so focused on form, I kept forgetting what rep I was on, but just made sure I did at least 10. I really wanted to keep going with those till it felt right.
After the WOD, we recorded our workout and times in our notebooks. We each got a notebook when we started, so we can record our progress and keep any notes we like. I'm going to start taking my own little calendar with me, since by the time I get home, it's hard to remember some of the details.
Stretching/Nutrition:
K showed up just as we were starting the stretching. He thought the class started at 10, instead of 9, poor guy. Poor L, too. She's having to do a lot of extra work, trying to catch these two up on what they missed, while still trying to give me the current class. We did a combination of the stretches from the first and second classes, and learned a new one. We talked about fish oil as a supplement, which L said is helpful for cardio performance, mainly, but has other health benefits that I've forgotten already...I think she said it's supposed to help lower cholesterol? Fuzzy on the details, sorry, but we were recommended to take one a day just to give it a try.
That's it! They had their usual Saturday group WOD for the experienced clients, right after our class. As I was getting ready to drive out of the lot, about 30 people came skipping out of the gym. Yes, grown men and women, skipping like school girls. This was hilarious to watch. They had to skip the length of the parking lot twice, or about 300 meters, total, before streaming back into the gym. This is the strangest gym I've ever seen, but you gotta love it. L was outside taking video of the spectacle, no doubt for blackmail purposes later on.
See, you too could be skipping soon. 
I forgot about the Iditarod this year. I should check online and see how it's going.
Shannon in ATL , 03-10-2009 03:02 PM
